Beit Furik, Huwwara, Za’tara (Tapuah), Wed 26.3.08, Morning
Translation: Ruth F.
Overview:
It has been a while now that the soldiers from the passages unit of the military police have been wearing a tag with their names. Each time another purple sign is added at Huwwara. Today for instance we found a sign by the x-ray machine. The sign was in English and Arabic: "luggage check". Does this make the occupation more comfortable? More friendly? Does it make the fact that one needs to jump over the cement bricks in order to reach the x-ray machine redundant?
7:07- The Samaria passage was also open from the east.
7:23- The entrance to Marda was open; the entrance to Zeita- Jamain was still closed.
7:27- Za'tara:
The cp was manned by reserve soldiers.
From the west: six cars and a buss that was being inspected.
From the north: three posts. It took an average of four minutes for the inspection of a cab. The inspection of the buss took longer. When the buss arrived at the inspection post, IDs were taken from the passengers and the buss was sent to the parking lot. The passengers waited in the bus. After the ID inspection the passengers were taken off and a soldier got on the buss and walked along the aisles of the sits. The IDs was handed to the driver who gave them out one by one to the passengers, those with luggage were inspected by the soldier before returning to the buss.
We left at 7:47, there were ten cars lined up from the north.
The cp was also activated to the north. On the dirt mound by the dog parlor advertisement, was a manned post.
7:50 – in front of the entrance to Beita was a BP jeep and at the main road to Huwwara were military jeep all over while the soldiers were walking about aiming their rifles.
7:57 Huwwara:
Three inspection posts for pedestrians. The x-ray machine was on and there was a DCO representative.
There were about 30 pedestrians.
Busses with pupils entered the city. Two managed to enter but the third one was detained. A BP jeep arrived and an argument between the police officers and the elders in the buss. The soldiers claimed that something was thrown out of the bus on to the jeep. The officer explained: "The kid that threw a bottle will tomorrow fire a gun". After several minutes one of the kids (they looked about 8 years old) get off escorted by and adult, and they walked towards the soldiers.
At 8:27 the boy got back on the buss which headed on.
8:35- A detainee was sent to the cell.
8:37- Another detainee was sent to the cell.
Apart for the removing of the belt ritual and the emptying of pockets, a soldier stood at one of the inspection posts holding a roll of toilet paper and asking it's owner whether it was in fact a toilet paper.
8:42- On of the detainees was released.
At the settlers hitchhiker station was a soldier. So Palestinian cars using the apartheid road were caught and sent to the checkpoint. While we were there two were caught. One was a privet car and the driver was allowed to head on. The other was a truck, the driver was detained for three hours according to the checkpoint commander. We managed to receive this information after a long time of trying to catch the DCO representative's and the checkpoint commander's attention. The DCO representative was too preoccupied with the conversation he had with the soldier at the vehicle inspection post.
When we got the information on the truck driver we asked the commander about the detainee and he said that he was being inspected and that there was another detainee.
Before we left the brother of one of the detainees came to us and asked what was going on with his brother. We tried explaining to him that he was "being inspected" and took the detainee's number. When we later tried to contact the detainee we didn't manage to find out whether or not he was released.
9:42- Beit Furik
When we arrived there were six cars waiting in front of the checkpoint.
We asked the driver of the last car how long he had been waiting and he said an hour. There was a baby in the car. This vehicle reached the inspection post 24 minutes afterwards.
In the meanwhile one of the cab driver that we know there (H') told us about what happened on the day before:
Two women from Tulza, one of which was a heart disease arrived at the checkpoint and were granted permission to enter Beit Furik. But they weren't permitted to head back home. When they asked the soldier why they were permitted to enter and not to exit, she answer that earlier they permitted it and now they don't. After making many phone calls and miki F's intervention, they were permitted to head home.
In a different event the ID of the person operating the coffee stand was confiscated since he was holding a Machsom Watch card with a phone number on it.
10:30 we left.
11:12- There were no lines at Za'tara.
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 AkfaMar-26-2008Huwara: 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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