Beit Furik, Huwwara, Za’tara (Tapuah), Sun 24.5.09, Afternoon
Translation: Tal H.
Tapuach Za'tara Checkpoint 14:55
About 30 cars waiting for inspection coming from Nablus.
A dog and trainer inspecting a Palestinian passenger van, the passengers stand aside as usual, a soldier holds his rifle pointing at them, securing the State of Israel.
Huwwara Checkpoint 15:30
Active X-ray truck, standing adjacent to the pedestrian lines, finally.
A sniffer-dog and its trainer inspecting vehicles, which are rather sparse today.
At the pedestrian lines (all active) movement is rapid, hardly any people.
One of the taxi drivers tells us that about an hour before we arrived he had a scuffle with one of the pedestrians and then a soldier 'threw tear gas'. Sounds strange against the quiet background today. But then, nothing really sounds strange when it comes to the security of the State of Israel.
Two young women stand out in our vigil today. At the detainees cell stands a young woman in traditional dress, a student at Al Najah University in Nablus. Every day she crosses this checkpoint for her family lives in Huwwara town. (This we hear from a young Palestinian journalist who knows her and brings her detention to our attention). Suddenly today, for the first time, she is detained. Her sin simple: In her ID she is registered as a Gaza resident. She has resided here in the West Bank with her parents for years, but there is no possibility to legally change her place of residence in her official papers. Israel will not permit it. We hear this confirmed by the DCO representative. Indeed – she may not move around the West Bank as a Gaza Strip resident, and she may not change the registration in her ID. And that's that.
[At the entrance to the checkpoint we talked with an old acquaintance from one of the villages in the area, who told us of his tragic plight, along the same lines: he wedded a young woman, resident of East Jerusalem and they had a baby daughter. Now the family is fragmented. He is prevented from entering the Holy City, she is afraid to budge from her parents home there, for fear of a surprise control visit by the authorities, lest they not find the mother and babe at home and their residency will be denied. I asked, naively, what would happen if the mother and babe move and register officially as residents of the father's village in the West Bank. Apparently there is no such possibility, as in the above case. The State of Israel will not allow it. And that's that.]
At the entrance to the checkpoint compound, in the roundabout, the firing position is wo-manned today. The woman combatant stands upright in the middle of the concrete post, a blue baseball cap on her head, her rifle held pointed at the vehicles approaching the checkpoint. Not especially arrogant looking, nice face, her age not much more nor less than that Palestinian student detained inside the checkpoint and prevented from going home at the end of her school day. Because her ID registration is wrong and she may not right it.
After an hour-and-a-half detention, she was allowed to proceed, after the Shabak (Security Services) gave its okay and the security of the State of Israel survived another targeted risk.
Beit Furiq Checkpoint 17:00
We stood, watched, enjoyed the beauty of the changing colors in the fields, and saw several vehicles entering and exiting Nablus here without delay.
**For those wondering where and how long it takes commercial vehicles and goods to travel from Huwwara town through Awarta to the Awarta checkpoint (formerly back-to-back) in order to reach and leave Nablus – on our way back from Beit Furiq we took this road, following complaints we received about incidents of Border Patrolmen harassing girls in Awarta.
Well, it's a long and winding road and extremely dangerous – narrow and snaking through the alleys of Awarta village. The numerous heavy trucks using it probably very noisily pollute the air and jeopardize all the residents, constantly.**
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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Shoshi AnbarMay-18-2025Huwara: The old houses in Area C
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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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