Beit Furik, Huwwara, Za’tara (Tapuah), Tue 10.2.09, Afternoon
Translation: Hanna K.
Because of the elections in Israel there is a curfew in the whole West Bank. From yesterday at midnight, till today midnight.
13:00 Samaria Gate, We enter Palestine
13:25 Za'tara (Tapuah)
On the station which greets the drivers coming from the west there are posters of the National Union (since when can the IDF property serve as a bulletin board for political messages?). At the parking lot there is a taxi in which, apart from the driver, there are four passengers, three of which are elderly, over seventy years old. They sit cramped in the rear seat. The ID card of the driver was taken for checking. Ten minutes later they are allowed to pass. A truck driver who was asked to wait in the same manner, was released after twenty minutes.
We got a letter from the soldiers, dated 30 July 2008, signed by Itizik Bar, coloner, brigadier commander of Samaria. In the letter the dear citizens are requested not to cross the "security coordination line", for their own security and in order not to disturb the soldiers and the smooth functioning of the CP.
We kept a copy of the letter.
13:50 Beit Furik
It is quite amazing to see the Beit Furik CP open for traffic.
We saw here Palestinians detained for hours in the enclosure, stoppage of life, soldiers abusing pedestrians, thorough checking of vehicles. Soldiers once checked here the books of students, to ascertain that there was no propaganda material in them.
Even the Koran was checked. And now – it is open.
Could it be that is wasn't necessary in the first place?
14:10 Huwwara
At the new CP, built in such a way that in one moment it can be closed and confine the people standing in it, there are three checking stations active, and another station which the soldiers call "humanitarian".
The pedestrians' queue is long. They pass under metal detectors, the men put on their belts and watches on the other side of the CP. The soldiers sit in a secure station, and receive the ID cards for checking.
Today there is a heavy rain, and the CP is full of puddles. The pedestrians jump over them, trying to get wet as little as possible.
At the entrance to Nablus the vehicle traffic is without checking. At the exit from town the flow of vehicles is incessant. ID cards and papers are handed to the soldiers at the station.
From the DCO representative S., we heard that in two months the Huwwara CP will be removed. (???)
The passage of vehicles will be without checking,!!! while pedestrian traffic will not be allowed (probably as we saw earlier today at Beit Furik). One of the soldiers (refused to give us his name. He reads our site, finds there names of soldiers and isn't prepared to see his name there) swears that Condolissa Reiss funded the building of the new CP which will be closed after three months of activity.!!!
"this wasn't built from my parents' taxes" he says with deep conviction.
The soldiers insist that we move away from the area of the CP defined today as "sterile". They showed us the decree of colonel Itzik Bar, hanging on one of the stations, limiting the entrance of Israelis to the CP.
Did we act contrary to the law of the Knesset? We asked but colonel Bar is the authority here. They call the civil police. Policeman Benjamin Alamo takes our IDs, check whatever he checks at the patrol vehice (criminal record probably). He insists that we have to leave. It seems the policeman does not know the low very well. From words exchanged with him it transpires that he does not understand terms like Brigadier Decree and Closed Military Area. We left the CP a bit after 15:00, disagreeing between ourselves about the best action to take in this case.
14:38 A young detainee "bingo", he is on the list.
16:05 Za'tara (Tapuah) –
Eight vehicles in the queue in the direction of Ramallah, one vehicle in the checking post for those coming from the west.
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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