Beit Furik, Huwwara, Za’tara (Tapuah), Wed 12.12.07, Afternoon
Natanya translating.
The entrances to Kifel Haret and Zeita are still blocked and goods are taken over back to back.
14.30 Checkpoint Za'tara/Tapuach
18 cars in both directions which pass swiftly.
Burin…
Is a new checkpoint being built here? A huge army tractor is levelling the area and it seems that the road is going to be widened. This will be the third checkpoint over 7 kilometres…checkpoint of Huwwara to the crossroads of Za'tara. Maybe the whole of road 60 should be converted into a stretch of checkpoints.
14.40 Huwwara The sign forbidding Israelis to enter area A is covered by posters calling on the settlers to put up new colonies. So if in the future an Israeli citizen will be detained for having gone into the area he will be able to ask…but where is it written?
Many people stand at the back of the turnstiles but there is a strange silence. The humanitarian line moves along steadily during our entire shift. The Palestinians say that today the checkpoint is a good one. It is sad to see how people have to get used to a bad situation and then to say that this bad situation is "good". No lines of cars and now and again the dogtrainer comes but does not check.
3 times men were detained and after 5-30 minutes are freed.
A man comes with a woman who went through the checkpoint an hour ago and forgot her ID. The commander looks at him not knowing what they want. The man begins to stutter and then the commander asks what her name is and when he tells him hands him the orange ID which was in his hand all the time and says, "She must not forget it again. THEY lose too many IDs." He only wanted to enjoy himself a bit and to make them worry. To show his power.
15.55 A man comes and says that the soldier in the humanitarian line is shouting at the women and older men and humiliating them. The soldier has a big 10 written on his jacket. We had not noticed him doing this but as soon as he saw us looking at him he left. He should be watched,
16.00 An ambulance with sirens screaming arrives and as the one lane is blocked takes the second. But the soldier ignores him. The ambulance had put off the siren when it came to the checkpoint as is ordered. The soldier takes his time going to the private car in the first lane. I call him and ask him to go to the ambulance where the crew are waving their hands and obviously in distress. But he just comes on slowly and says "What do you think I am doing? Playing chess." When the car drives off the ambulance comes forward and at least five minutes have been lost. May that same soldier never know the feeling of a life which was lost because those 5 minutes prevented the patient getting to the hospital on time.
The university vacation starts tomorrow until 12.1.2008 or after the holiday 23.12…this was from different students.
16.15 A man who went on foot on an apartheid road to Beit Furik was detained by an army jeep. First the soldiers from afar signed to him to stop…they were also on foot and he stopped and waited. He could have run away as they were far off. They checked his ID and all went on their way.
16.30 Beit Furik.
Today a driver says the checkpoint is good. Only one car and few pedestrians who pass quickly. An old man sits and smokes a cigarette in the shed and has a cup of coffee which the soldier tells us proudly that he made for him. The commander who tells us to make a note of his name, Vadir Kalminian, sends us away and will not tell us how long the man has been there or why. He and another 5 soldiers stop the checking and stand around us and say that they will not go on checking until we leave. A line begins to form. I phone R. at the DCO firstly about the old man. Why should an old man have to be detained in the freezing Nablus weather and also that the checkpoint has been closed because of our presence. He advises us to advance to the beginning of the checkpoint and then to phone him. He says he will not send a captain of the DCO for the old man but if the soldiers close the checkpoint he will have to do so.
When we advanced the soldiers freed the old man and we decided that it was pointless to bother the DCO as it would take them an hour to get there and the Palestinians would freeze in the cold. We moved back and the commander came to explain to us that his job was not to allow anyone who did not live there to pass through to Beit Furik. I asked him if this was what he had hoped to do when he enlisted and he was a bit confused but then said that Beit Furik is a village full of terrorists . He quotes the lectures he has heard without thinking too much about them.
When we leave a taxi driver insists on taking us 20 metres to our car and that warms the heart.
17.30 Huwwara, Hardly any movement and a driver tells us to go to Za'tara where there is a long line but at 17.50 we find no line and only a few cars,.
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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