Beit Furik, Huwwara, Za’tara (Tapuah), Mon 30.6.08, Afternoon
Natanya translating.
11.30 Shaar Shomron. We entered Palestine.
At Za'tara (Tapuach)
11 cars in both directions and a bus which went on its way after the checking
12.00 Beit Furik.
4 cars in both directions and few pedestrians whose IDs were checked and the passage was swift. The commander says that the checkpoint belongs to him and we are forbidden to stand here. He asked to see the letter of the army advocate which we showed him.
12.35 Huwwara, I
n the isolation was a young man, a policeman who had been there an hour already. His eye was bandaged as he had been returning after an operation in the clinic in Nablus. He said that he had been in the Israeli jail for 6 months and had been freed lately. He said that he was always detained and that the soldiers said he was "bingo". The details are not complete as while we were speaking to him the soldiers stopped us saying that it was forbidden that we should speak to a detained Palestinian. They had not given him water and when we did so absolutely fell on the bottle which we offered him. We phoned G. at the army centre and after a few moments she got back to us and said she had sent a representative of the DCO. The DCO arrived and soon the young man was on his way home. We phoned the centre and asked them to inform the checkpoint at Za'tara not to stop him again. When we spoke to him later he said that the checking there had been random and he had not been stopped and would get home today.
When we arrived the commander, I. fell on us and said that we were not allowed to stand at the turnstiles which are opposite the shed which was once the "jorra". We refused to go and said he should check with the brigade. He did not come back and we stood where we wanted.
The checkpoint has three checking areas for men. There were only a few young men today and most of the traffic was that of women, children and older men. Some were sent to have their bags checked by the x-ray device at the other side of the checkpoint. The young men show IDs and go through the x-ray device but this is an unstable device and sometimes they have to take off belts and sometimes shoes. IN any case if there are metal detectors why do they have to do this. One of the women soldiers shouts to a young man to lift his shirt higher than the stomach and the chest and he does so again. But this does not satisfy her and he has to do it again. He passes us cursing. The checking is carried out with loud shouts. The ID numbers are called in loud voice and of course "Backwards all. All. All. Backwards, backwards. By my penis go back." Men wait half an hour to an hour depending on the queue they are in and their luck.
Car lane. Few cars entering Nablus and IDs and licenses are checked and the passage is swift. Not as many cars as usual at the exit. Passengers alight, the driver goes to the checkpoint and the passengers go by foot. The car is checked and bags sent to the x-ray machine and after their IDs are checked and they are checked physically they are allowed on their way. Here also the taxi driver has to take off his shoes. The check takes 2-3 minutes but this does not take into consideration the traffic jam before the checking area which we have no way of estimating.
4 Israeli Palestinians are stopped on their way out of Nablus and the civilian police are summoned. They said they did not know that they were not allowed in. One is freed almost immediately, one taken in the police car and two others are allowed on their way after 40 minutes.
14.10 An old woman comes out of the side line and has great difficulty walking. The long wait in the crowded line and on such a hot day has practically broken her. Her daughter has brought a chair from the home. It is not every day she goes to Nablus. But today she has to go to the doctor. A man whom they met at the checkpoint is helping them. We offered cold water which was accepted gratefully. She says to me "Photograph me and show it to all. That all should know what they are doing to us. We did so.
14,30 Za'tara 7 cars in both directions.
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Beit Furik checkpoint
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One of the three internal checkpoints that closed on the city of Nablus - Beit Furik to the east, Hawara to the south, Beit Iba to the west. The checkpoint is located at the junction of Roads 557 (an apartheid road that was forbidden for Palestinians), leading to the Itamar and Alon Morea settlements and Road 5487. The checkpoint was established in 2001 for pedestrians and vehicles; The opening hours were short and the transition was slow and very problematic.Allegedly, the checkpoint is intended to monitor the movement to and from Nablus of the residents of Beit Furik and Beit Dajan, being the only opening outside their villages. Since May 2009 the checkpoint is open 24 hours a day, the military presence is limited, vehicles can pass through it without inspections, except for random inspections. (Updated April 2010)
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Huwwara
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The Huwwara checkpoint is an internal checkpoint south of the city of Nablus, at the intersection of Roads 60 and 5077 (between the settlements of Bracha and Itamar). This checkpoint was one of the four permanent checkpoints that closed on Nablus (Beit Furik and Awarta checkpoints to the east and the Beit Iba checkpoint to the west). It was a pedestrian-only barrier. As MachsomWatch volunteers, we watched therre since 2001 two shifts a day - morning and noon, the thousands of Palestinians leaving Nablus and waiting for hours in queues to reach anywhere else in the West Bank, from the other side of the checkpoint the destination could only be reached by public transport. In early June 2009, as part of the easing of Palestinian traffic in the West Bank, the checkpoint was opened to vehicular traffic. The passage was free, with occasional military presence in the guard tower. Also, there were vehicle inspections from time to time. Since the massacre on 7.10.2023, the checkpoint has been closed to Palestinians.
On February 26, 2023, about 400 settlers attacked the town's residents for 5 hours and set fire to property, such as houses and cars. Disturbances occurred in response to a shooting of two Jewish residents of Har Bracha by a Palestinian Terrorist. The soldiers stationed in the town did not prevent the arson and rescued Palestinian families from their homes only after they were set on fire. No one was punished and Finance Minister Smotrich stated that "the State of Israel should wipe out Hawara." Left and center organizations organized solidarity demonstrations and support actions for the residents of Hawara.Hawara continued to be in the headlines in all the months that followed: more pogroms by the settlers, attacks by Palestinians and a massive presence of the army in the town. It amounted to a de facto curfew of commerce and life in the center of the city. On October 5, 2023, MK Zvi established a Sukkah in the center of Hawara and hundreds of settlers backed the army blocked the main road and held prayers in the heart of the town all night and the next day. On Saturday, October 7, 23 The "Swords of Iron" war began with an attack by Hamas on settlements surrounding Gaza in the face of a poor presence of the IDF. Much criticism has been made of the withdrawal of military forces from the area surrounding Gaza and their placement in the West Bank, and in the Hawara and Samaria region in particular, as a shield for the settlers who were taking over and rioting.
On November 12, 2023, the first section of the Hawara bypass road intended for Israeli traffic only was opened. In this way, the settlers can bypass the road that goes through the center of Hawara, which is the main artery for traffic from the Nablus area to Ramallah and the south of the West Bank. For the construction of the road, the Civil Administration expropriated 406 dunams of private land belonging to Palestinians from the nearby villages. The settlers are not satisfied with this at the moment, and demand to also travel through Hawara itself in order to demonstrate presence and control.(updated November 2023)
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Fathiya AkfaJun-30-2008Huwara: traffic jam on the main road
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Za'tara (Tapuah)
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Za'tara (Tapuah) Za'tara is an internal checkpoint in the heart of the West Bank, at the intersection of Road 60 and Road 505 (Trans-Samaria), east of the Tapuah settlement. This checkpoint is the "border" marked by the IDF between the north and south of the West Bank, in accordance with the policy of separation between the two parts of the West Bank that has been in place since December 2005. At the Za'tara checkpoint, there are separate routes for Israelis and Palestinians. In the route for Israelis, there are no inspections and the route for Palestinians inspects. The queue lengthens and shortens suits. The checkpoint is open 24 hours a day. The checkpoint is partially staffed and the people who pass through it are checked at random.Shoshi AnbarSep-27-2023Za'atra (Tapuah Intersection). Signs
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