Elkana salient, Oranit, Falamya, Habla
A normal shift and mini-tour.
We began at the Elkana salient, explaining about the seam zone, the separation barrier and the seasonal gates that don’t open. We continued to the Oranit checkpoint, which is supposed to open three times a day for farmers from ‘Azzun ‘Atma whose lands and greenhouses are about 200 meters distant from it.
It doesn’t open at all, by order of the army, as punishment, we’re told, for theft of iron rods.
We met a boy who explained he’s joining his father who has a permit to work his land, and then walked west. Suddenly he appeared with a donkey cart and galloped north along the security road.
12:35 Falamya checkpoint (North) (914)
A drizzle began and we sheltered in the pump shed with a young man who works there and a second waiting to cross to his land – his father’s land, actually – who told us they have no problem receiving permits, usually for two years. But others receive them for shorter periods. He explained to our guests the exhausting bureaucratic difficulties involved in filling out all the forms, and the tiring demand each time to provide anew the land registry documents. The rain strengthened; the soldiers opened the gate 15 minutes late. Six people crossed on foot and were picked up by cars waiting for them or by four tractors pulling carts that crossed behind them; six people on bicycles also went through.
The gate closed. We continued toward Jayyus gate (the new name, according to the latest chart we received. It was previously called Falamiya south.) 935. We didn’t reach it because of the weather but remained on the old security road and I described the changes that had occurred in agriculture and the types of crops in the area that had been returned after the fence was relocated westward. We continued to Habla via Jayyus and ‘Azzun.
3:45 Habla checkpoint (1393). We met Fathiya and Ariella and saw the last of the people crossing, before the gate closed, being carefully inspected by the soldiers.
We left to continue the tour in the Alfei Menashe salient and to view the separation fence that had been relocated following a Supreme Court decision. We received a telephone call from Fathiya who told us of a 10 year old boy who wasn’t allowed to cross to his father who was waiting for him at the checkpoint, and was sent back alone to Habla because he didn’t have the original of his birth certificate.
'Azzun
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Azoun (updated February 2019)
A Palestinian town situated in Area B (under civil Palestinian control and Israeli security control),
on road 5 between Nablus and Qalqiliya, east of Nabi Elias village. The inhabitants are allowed to construct and improve infrastructures. The Separation Fence has confiscated lands belonging to the town's people. In 2018 olive tree groves owned by one of its inhabitants were confiscated for the sake of paving a road to bypass Nabi Elias. Azoun population numbers 13,000, its economic state dire. Its infrastructures are poor, neglect and poverty rampant. In the meantime, the town council has completed paving an internal road for the inhabitants' welfare.
Because of its proximity to the Jewish settler-colony of Karnei Shomron and its outposts, the town suffers the intense presence of the Israeli army, especially at nighttime: soldiers enter homes, arrest suspects, trash the house and sometimes ruin it, as they do in numerous places in the West Bank. At times a checkpoint closes the entrance to the town, so no one can come in or get out.
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'Azzun 'Atma
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'Azzun 'Atma
A Palestinian village of about 1,800 residents. The settlement of Sha'arei Tikva was established on its land adjacent to it, and the settlement of Oranit was established on its agricultural lands. By 2013, the separation fence had passed through the village and a checkpoint staffed by the army allowed the residents to cross from side to side. After building a massive wall surrounding the village and some of its agricultural lands, the residents went daily for five years to their lands that remained in the Seam Zone through the Oranit agricultural checkpoint (4). Since 2018 it has only opened during the olive harvest and the farmers have to pass daily at the Beit Amin / Abu Salman checkpoint (1447), about 3 kilometers north.From a report from March 24, 2021: "The farmers from Beit Amin and Azon Atma are happy that since February 21 the Oranit checkpoint .is going to be open 3 times a day, The farmers are really developing the place."
Report from July 14, 2024: "Ornit checkpoint is closed . The Beit Amin/Abu Salman agricultural checkpoint is closed (there is no contact with the military to check if it opens rarely), the Ezbat Jaloud checkpoint was opened once a day before the war.
Updated for July 2024
Apr-11-2019Azoun: The main entrance to village blocked now for several weeks
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Falamiya North (914)
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Falamiya North (914) Opens 3 times a day for about 40 minutes each time. This checkpoint has extremely important for all farmers in the area since the previous, Falamya checkpoint opening routine of continuously open for 12 hours has been discontinued. This took place after the separation fence was moved westward following the High Court of Justice.
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Falamiya South (935)
See all reports for this placeHabla CP (1393)
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Habla CP (1393)
The Habla checkpoint (1393) was established on the lands of the residents of Qalqilya, on the short road that
connected it for centuries to the nearby town of Habla. The separation barrier intersects this road twice and cut off the residents of Qalqilya from their lands in the seam zone.(between the fence and the green line).
There is a passage under Road 55 that connects Qalqilya to the sabotage This agricultural barrier is used by the farmers and nursery owners established along Road 55 from the Green Line and on both sides of the kurkar road leading to the checkpoint.
This agricultural checkpoint serves the residents of Arab a-Ramadin al-Janoubi (detached from the West Bank), who pass through it to the West Bank and back to their homes. The opening hours (3 times a day) of this agricultural checkpoint are longer than usual, about an hour (recently shortened to 45 minutes), and are coordinated with the transportation hours of a-Ramadin children studying in the occupied in the West Bank.Nina SebaApr-11-2019Habla checkpoint: the checkpoint is open.
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Kufr Jammal
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Kufr Jammal This village, rising about 200 meters over sea level, is located about 14 kilometers south of Tul Karm town and about 17 kilometers from the Mediterranean Sea. The families living there since the mid-18th century number about 3,000 persons at present. The village has lost thousands of dunams of its northern and western lands due to the construction of the Separation Barrier, leaving the lands themselves behind the barrier. After the Israeli Supreme Court ruling in 2011, the barrier was moved to the west and many farmlands were returned to their owners. It is a quiet village, its relations with the nearby settler-colony of Sal’it are favorable, and many of the villagers work in the colony’s industrial plants. Farmers cross the agricultural checkpoint close to this settler-colony in order to tend their fields unhampered. However, there are numerous acts of harassment and disorder taking place when the village farmers cross the other agricultural checkpoints: gates do not open at hours suitable to the farmers’ needs, and for a short period of time only; the Civil Administration usually prevents all kinds of crops except olives; tractors and other farm equipment are forbidden entry; only a single permit is issued per family, and occasionally such permits are confiscated and their re-issue is delayed – the common excuse is usually “security reasons”. How do the villagers make their living? Holders of work permits inside Israel travel at 3 a.m. to Eyal Checkpoint near Qalqiliya town in order to make it on time to their workplace at Sal’it (close to their village) and elsewhere. Owners of vegetable patches who hold permits are allowed to reach their fields beyond the Separation Barrier through the distant Falamiya Checkpoint. Importantly, fields returned to the village show amazing improvement intending, irrigation and farming variety – and instead of the neglected olive tree groves that were accessible only to holders of transit permits through agricultural checkpoints usually closed, farming has now flourished. (updated Jan 2021)
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