Central West Bank: A tour of Palestinian villages trapped between terrorist settlements
We went on a lengthy journey on purpose, to see what goes on in villages surrounded by the worst settlements. We wanted to enter Kafr A-Dik but the gate was closed. We continued on Road 446 until the junction: right to Rafat, left to Beit Arye and straight to Deir Ballut.
The road to Rafat was open, but the gate at Deir Ballut was closed and we could not enter.
We continued through Rafat and Zawiya back to Road 5. We went under the road and continued eastward through Masha and Bidiya. We passed the entrance to Barqan Industrial Zone and the villages of Qarawat Bani Hassan and Hares. The gates to their access roads were open. We got on Road 5 again near Hares and continued eastward.
At the Duma municipality we left a bundle of clothes for Bedouin communities living on the eastern outskirts of the town, having been expelled from the Palestinian Jordan Valley.
In Aqraba we met I., an ambulance driver, who wished to give his regards to our friend Sylvia with whom he had had contact in the past, and who had helped blacklisted people. About the events of recent days, he had this to tell us:
On Sunday, January 25th, settlers from Migdalim entered Aqraba on their ATV and attacked B. while he was building a fence around his home. They chased away the workers and uprooted trees. B. managed to chase them away, but half an hour later they returned, this time accompanied by the man in charge – and clashed with him again.
Another case that same day: B., another farmer, was grazing his sheep and had built a wooden farming storehouse in his area. settlers from Nahalim arrived, chased him and his flock away. At night, around midnight, they returned and incinerated the storehouse.
The junction by the old Huwara Checkpoint and regional brigade HQ were unmanned by soldiers. The checkpoint on the road from Awarta to Nablus was unmanned as well. Without checkpoints there are no traffic jams, traffic flows. Sara Checkpoint, too, was unmanned by soldiers.
We entered Burin only to leave Doha’s husband utensils that Fathiya had brought them. From Burin we filmed the continued expansion of the settlers: they have erected two new caravans and expanded the settlement below Yitzhar, on Burin land, north of the settlement and near the road.
There no soldiers in their usual posts on Road 55, inside Funduk (as the road turns toward Hajja). There was a large traffic jam caused by a funeral that had just ended in the village.
At 4:30 p.m. we turned on Road 5066 and passed the beautiful road through Wadi Kana, on our way back to Road 5 and Israel. After Deir Istiya, close to the road, we saw a group of settlers, apparently from nearby Revava settlement, uprooting olive trees that belong to Deir Istiya residents and flattening the ground by daylight, no interference…
Location Description
Burin (Yitzhar)
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Burin (Yitzhar)
This is a Palestinian village in the Nablus governorate, a little south of Nablus, on the main road passing through the West Bank. The settlements: Yitzhar and Har Bracha, settled in locations that surrounded the village, placed fences so it is cut off the main road.
There are around 4000 inhabitants. Most of them are engaged in agriculture and pasture, although many graduates of the two secondary schools continue to study at the university. Academic positions are hardly available, they find work as builderd, or leave for the Gulf countries.
The village lands were appropriated several times for the establishment of Israeli settlements and military bases, and as a result, Burin's land and water resources dwindled. lSince 1982, more than 2,000 dunams of village land have been declared "state land" and then transferred to Har Bracha settlement.
Over the past few years and more so since 2017, the villagers have been terrorized by the residents of Yitzhar and Har Bracha, the Givat Ronen outpost and others. Despite the close proximity of soldiers to an IDF base close to one of the village's schools, residents are suffering from numerous stone-throwing events, vehicle and fire arson, also reported in the press.
In 2023, the prevention of the olive harvest in the village plot was more violent than ever. Soldiers and settlers walked with drawn weapons between the houses of the village and demanded that people stop harvesting in the village itself and in the private plots outside the village. The settlers from Yitzhar and Giv'at Roned raided the olive groves and stole crops. 300 olive trees belonging to the residents of Burin, near Yitzhar, were uprooted. The loss of livelihood from the olives causes long-term economic damage to the farmers' families, bringing them to the point of starvation.
(updated for November 2023)
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Deir Ballut
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An internal checkpoint on Road 446 at the entrance to the village of Deir Ballut and near the settlements there, Alei Zahav and Peduel. Partially staffed, vehicles are inspected at random.
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