Beit Furik, Huwwara, Za’tara (Tapuah), Sun 11.5.08, Afternoon
Translation: Tal H.
Shaar Shomron-Qassem (Entry to West Bank) Checkpoint 14:55
4 detainees sitting on the ground with their backs to the traffic. A policewoman holding their IDs, probably heading to check their numbers on the police computer inside the police car nearby.
Tapuach/Zatara Junction Checkpoint 15:35
No waiting lines, no detainees.
Huwwara Checkpoint 15:35
DCO representative – Tommer; checkpoint commander – second lieutenant Paz
X-ray truck active
Sniffer-dog and trainer too, in fully salivating action especially over car seat covers.
Three checking posts active
A demographic novelty at the checkpoint: female infantry soldiers. NI addition to the MP women. Especially in the vehicle checks. They do not secure the pedestrian waiting lines, at least not during our shift.
A short while after we arrived, a detainee – from Beita – was bypassing the checkpoint, got caught and sent to the concrete cubicle. He would be released later, at 17:45.
A very old and ailing Palestinian woman is carried-swung on a plastic chair for lack of other permitted means of transport through the checkpoint by two young men.
An empty truck is detained, arriving from Awarta. Its story, as Galit later found out, is as follows:
There is a water pipe laying project being carrie out in Beit Furik, financed by the European Union.
One of the companies involved is "Shaham", a subsidiary of Mekorot, the Israeli National Water Co., based in Holon.
The truck in question arrived from Holon with a Jerusalem blue ID-holding driver, collected the Palestinian engineer in Ramallah, (employee of the Palestinian office cooperating with Israeli organizations and the International Red Cross Committee).
Obviously this is a wide-range humanitarian project. The truck had transferred good worth about 170,000 NIS at the Awarta back-to-back goods checkpoint/terminal.
On their way back the driver (apparently not aware of the national status of the road) suggested to go have a cup of coffee at Huwwara, for which they had to drive some 100 meters from Awarta to Huwwara CP on the road forbidden to Palestinians (not only Palestinian vehicle, any Palestinian – be it passenger, pedestrian, even to just cross it from one side to the other on foot. We have yet to see a winged case.)
Let us not forget – the truck is Israeli, the driver holding an Israeli resident ID, and the engineer – alas – Palestinian.
Arriving at the roundabout by the Checkpoint, they were caught. Officer P.: "The Palestinian stays. The truck can proceed."
It did not. The commander detained the Palestinian in the concrete cubicle, and at 17:00 also took the driver's ID – for parking his truck by the concrete ledges outside the checkpoint.
The whole story with its international ramifications did not impress him one bit.
The Palestinian was detained at 16:40.
Galit called the army hotline and received the usual answers: he has no special permit for the enclosure period, and naturally no contact of a Palestinian body may be tolerated with this particular – unmarked as forbidden – road, even through an Israeli truck.
Later, wheels did seem to turn eventually for the deputy company commander arrive on the spot and even came to hear what we had to say about the situation.
At 18:15 the driver, the engineer and the truck were released. The shed emptied. We left.
Beit Furik Checkpoint 17:00
Observers: Noa P. and Tal H.
Very few vehicles, a trickle of pedestrians.
But – there must be a shortage of MPwomen – for if there are pedestrians coming out of Nablus. those who wish to enter must wait for a very long while in the entry turnstile. The Mpwoman's voice resonates shrilly: "One by one, what is this??!!! "
Stop, stop, where do you think you're going??!!"
The vehicle checks are relatively swift. Again and again the soldiers ignore the entry turnstile. The commander watches the people indifferently and ignores them. After standing there like scarecrows for half an hour, we felt it was time to get back to Huwwara.
But –
we noticed two soldiers marching over to the taxi park. So we followed suit. Fortunately, for we had the privilege of witnessing an amazing moment: a Palestinian taxi driver with a tiny Palestinian flag hanging inside his cab was ordered to remove it! We watched, gaping, the driver removed nothing, drove on, and the soldiers thought twice, turned back and went back to the checkpoint.
Passing the Shaar Shomron/Qassem Checkpoint we saw it was empty of detainees.
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 AkfaMay-11-2008Huwara: 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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