Beit Furik, Huwwara, Za'tara (Tapuah), Tue 29.4.08, Afternoon - machsomwatch
Back to reports search page

Beit Furik, Huwwara, Za’tara (Tapuah), Tue 29.4.08, Afternoon

Observers: Fatchia A., Yifat D., Simona (a guest) C. (driver)
Apr-29-2008
| Afternoon

Natanya translating.

13.48 Some hundred metres behind the checkpoint which enters the occupied territories, Shomron CP, and on the left side of the road is a black tent and inside it soldiers with rifles and binoculars whose object is to catch people trying to enter Israel without permits and to punish them. Most of these people are looking for work. 
The entrance and exit of Marda are still closed to vehicles

14.05  At Za'tara
Posters of the settlers recommending that people spend Passover in Hebron  so as to strengthen the settlement there. 10 cars in both directions waiting to be checked.
 
14:45 Huwwara
Pedestrians leaving Nablus are checked and cars entering and exiting also. Those checking are soldiers and also military police and also a dog trainer. Those being checked strip and put their belonging in the x-ray device. They are sent to the other side of the checkpoint so as to put their parcels into the x-ray machine. Most of the soldiers do not speak Arabic. Women soldiers order elderly men to show their stomachs and the young soldiers check the bags of old women. The man guarding them chases away the young people waiting for friends who are still in line and does so rudely.  Most of the guards point their weapons straight at those being checked. A young man is detained in the isolation. Later a soldier brings another young man, handcuffed and blindfolded, pulling at his shirt and who does not resist. And later another man in the same situation and now there are three in this small cell.

H., the brother of the first young man says that they are mechanics and work at Funduk. His brother was going on foot to his work and when he went past Yitzhar he was stopped by soldiers. The second man as we are told later by a friend is from the refugee camps of Balata. Last night the soldiers came to look for him and he was not at home. Today he had come to the checkpoint to give himself up.  The third is a man who accompanied him and the soldiers decided to detain him too.

About half an hour later the person responsible for the checkpoint said to H. that his brother would be freed in half an hour. We understand that the young man's details were checked and there is no reason to delay him and that he is simply being punished. The soldiers are police and judge.
 An army jeep 703818 arrives and takes the blinded prisoner and 10 minutes later comes back and takes his friend and we understand that they have been taken to the neighbouring army camp. The mechanic is freed. We left at 16:00.
 
At the hitching spot a soldier guards settlers.
 

At Beit Furik we could not see the end of the line but there were more than 10 cars. The soldiers do not allow us to approach and close the checkpoint when we insist. There is a detainee who shouted to us that he had been there two hours.

At 16.20 we left.

In the black tent a soldier watches the hills.

.  

  • Beit Furik checkpoint

    See all reports for this place
    • 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)
  • Huwwara

    See all reports for this place
    • 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)

      .
      Huwara: traffic jam on the main road
      Fathiya Akfa
      Apr-29-2008
      Huwara: traffic jam on the main road
  • Za'tara (Tapuah)

    See all reports for this place
    • 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.  
      זעתרא (צומת תפוח). שלטים
      Shoshi Anbar
      Sep-27-2023
      Za'atra (Tapuah Intersection). Signs
Donate