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Beit Furik, Huwwara, Za’tara (Tapuah), Wed 5.11.08, Morning

Observers: Dalia W., Nurit W'-L' (reporting)
Nov-05-2008
| Morning

Translation: HannaK.

Summary:
Settlers abuse Palestinian driver in Beit Furik. Boublil at the Huwwara CP. Detention of many young men for interrogation at Huwwara.

07:10 Zatara-Tapuah
7 cars from the west, 12 from the north, but the traffic flows.

07:20 Beit Furik
When we arrived there were three vehicles waiting at the parking lot. At the CP the pedestrians traffic was relatively lively, but there were no delays.
A transportation bus stops in front of the CP. Its passengers descend – first boys then girls. Some look like schoolchildren, others like students. The DCO representative organizes the pedestrians' traffic aggressively and efficiently (it is strange to see him on the spot at that hour, later it transpired why). He lets the girls pass first, then the boys. In a short while the CP is emptied out.
A car driven by an elderly man arrives from the direction of Beit Furik. Also in the car is his elderly wife and a young girl (probably their daughter). The elderly couple is asked to leave the car and pass at the CP. The young girl on whose name, so it seems, the car is registered, takes the wheel in her father's stead and continues driving to the other side of the CP.
07:35 The soldier responsible for the vehicle queue takes a two minute smoking break. Opposite him the Palestinian waits (patiently?) in his car.
07:40 The CP is empty.
07:45 The first vehicle coming from Nablus is being passed.
At the parking lot 5-7 cars wait alternately. The owner of the booth tells us that in the early hours of the morning (before or just after the opening of the CP – 05:00) a car of settles arrived. They descended from the car and began cursing the Palestinian drivers and teasing them. A commotion began. When the Palestinians called the soldiers, they entered their car and disappeared. This is the reason for the presence of the DCO representative at the CP.
 
08:10 Huwwara
A great number of people passing at the CP, relatively to this early morning hour.Two girl-soldiers man the checking-stations. Both of them scream rudely (at first we thought that is was only one of them, L., at the Western station) and continuously. Amongst the other roars:
"Here is Yossi Boublil", "Yalla, up with you", "Doesn't he resemble Boublil?", "come come"' "come you man, come", "how does one say tomato in Arabic?", "you head of bandore (tomato)" (it is not clear whether this is intended to a Palestinian or to one of the soldiers), "Come hither, come come" (what happened that she uses good Hebrew???) and at the top of their voices a few times: "Yaniv, do you want more?"  and this refers to the central event that takes place this morning at the CP -" recruitment day".
Every few minutes a few young men are sent  to the concrete barricades of the vehicle queues, are detained there and await to be summoned to behind the toilets. All the time of our stay at the CP there were 6-8 young men waiting. Most of them are released after ten minutes, and in rare cases are being interrogated. The "recruitment" to collaborate with the authorities.
09:00 The rude roars of the girl soldiers don't cease, a shame for the army and after many efforts (which lasted this time much too long) to summon the CP commander, we succeed in talking with the DCO representative. Obviously their behaviour does bother him too, but neither he nor the CP commander who promised to come up to us but didn't,  lift a finger until we protest. We explicitly informed him that we would write about the rude behavior of L. and of the other one, and demanded that they be immediately silenced. This does indeed help, he acts quickly, and from that moment until we leave there is relative quiet at the CP, but not before the last accord:
08:55 A taxi driver who refused twice to move away from the place where he had parked his car, north of the CP under the tower, is detained at the initiative of the DCO man and led to the cell. He refuses at first to enter it and a loud dialogue, bordering on violence, ensues. At the end he gives up and is put into the cell. Even before he arrives at the vicinity of the cell the girl soldier at the middle checking stations screams triumphantly: dry him out the whole day, till night".
We shall not repeat here the murmurs of the humiliated Palestinians who left the checking are.
Again we call the DCO man and ask him, in view of all the past even, not to judge too severely, as it is forbidden to punish! He promises.
Apart from all that there was a medium traffic of vehicles all along our shift, some cars that came from Nablus were checked for a long time (10-15 minutes). One taxi that came from the south was not allowed to enter.
For some reason the parking lot is not as crowded as usual.
10:10 There are no more detainees for interrogation. The DCO man went to release the driver.

Tapuah/Za'tara – there are 12 cars waiting in the queue.
 

  • 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)

      .
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  • 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
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      Sep-27-2023
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