Haris, Huwwara, Wed 14.11.12, Morning
8:40 am: We entered the Palestinian territories through the Shomron crossing.
We drove past Azzun Atma and saw that there were no workers at the checkpoint and all was quiet.
We entered Haris where we heard that there had been house demolitions the previous day. At the entrance to the village there were 2 military jeeps and several soldiers just standing around. We spoke to some local men there at the entrance. They said that there would
be a demonstration at the meeting house in the village in protest of the demolitions. We drove to the site of the demolitions and got out of the car to photograph the destruction. A young man and a woman immediately came to us – a mother and her son. We were soon joined by others in their family. The woman, K., spoke enough English so that we could converse. She explained to whom all the houses in the vicinity belong – to her, to her uncle, to her brother, etc. A whole group of houses all belonging to the same extended family. The demolished houses were 2 additions to a main house that was still standing. The additions had been built to accommodate family members and their children. Now 12 persons were sharing one house. As she said, the children don’t sleep at night they are so afraid the soldiers will come back. Another destroyed house belonged to her uncle. Two more houses in the village are threatened with demolition.
K. said that 1000 soldiers had been in the village during the action and she pointed out the large rocks that the soldiers had pushed into the paths leading to the compound of houses so that no other villagers could come to their help. And we saw the olive trees near the houses which had branches broken off or even broken in half by the bulldozers. K.'s son, a student of education, atuncovered a huge pile of empty tear gas canisters that had been fired at the family while the bulldozers were working. Another son had been wounded by a bullet fired by the soldiers and had spent four hours in the hospital. We parted with K. and her family with wishes for meeting again soon in peace.
We drove through several more villages on our way to Huwwara. In 'Einabus we noticed a new 6 storied apartment building on one of the hillsides away from the center; it looked very Israeli and could have been in Tel Aviv. Nadim told us that local contractors are beginning to build apartment buildings for young couples. We certainly hope they are not demolished.
As we came into Huwwara we saw 6 military jeeps and soldiers at the Yitzhar-Huwwara junction. By the school a large group of women and children (mainly) were gathering. Then we saw a minibus from Burin arriving with young people. The windows were open and they were waving Palestinian flags out of every window. They joined the gathering by the school. We drove to the checkpoint and saw it was empty; cars were passing freely in both directions.
In Huwwara, as we ate falafel, we heard that the demonstrations were to protest the Israeli government’s decision for a large increase of building in the settlements in the West Bank. We noticed a caricature in the Palestinian newspaper on the table by us. There were no words in the picture of an old, bent over, weak looking Palestinian holding himself up with a walker. The handle of the walker was U, the legs of the walker were N. It was a sad comment on the Palestinian situation.
We left at 11:00 by the Shomron crossing.
תמר ס. מתרגמת
8:40 נכנסנו לגדה המערבית דרך שער שומרון, עברנו בעזון עתמה לא היו פועלים במחסום.
נכנסנו לחארס לראות את הבתים שנהרסו. בכניסה לכפר היו שני גי'פים צבאיים וחיילים אחדים עמדו על ידם. דיברנו עם אנשים מתושבי המקום בכניסה לכפר שסיפרו לנו שמתוכננת אספת מחאה נגד הריסת הבתים במועדון הכפר.
ירדנו לראות ולצלם את הבתים ההרוסים. איש צעיר ואמא שלו מיהרו אלינו. ובמהרה התאספו עוד נשים עם ילדים. האם דיברה אנגלית טובה. היא הסבירה שהבתים בסביבה שייכים למשפחתה, לדוד שלה, לאחיה ולמשפחה המורחבת. הבתים שנהרסו היו שתי תוספות לבית הראשי שעדיין עומד. התוספות נבנו ע"מ לאפשר מגורים לבני המשפחה וילדיהם. עכשיו 12 נפשות מצטופפות בבית אחד.
היא סיפרה שהילדים לא ישנים בלילות מפחד שהחיילים יחזרו. בית אחר שנהרס שייך לדוד שלה על וכן על שני בתים נוספים בכפר מאיים צו הריסה. ח. סיפרה שבזמן ההריסה היו בכפר אלף חיילים. היא הצביעה על סלעים גדולים שהחיילים דחפו אל הכניסה לאזור הבתים שלהם כדי למנוע מאנשי הכפר לבוא ולעזור למשפחה. ראינו בחצר סביב הבית עצי זיתים שהבולדוזרים שברו.
הבן של ח., סטודנט לחינוך, חשף בפנינו ערמה גדולה של מכלי גז מדמיע ריקים שנורו אל המשפחה בזמן שהבולדוזרים עסקו בהריסה. בן אחר נפגע מכדור של חייל ובילה ארבע שעות בבית חולים. נפרדנו מח. וממשפחתה בתקווה להיפגש שוב בהקדם ובשלום.
נסענו דרך כפרים נוספים בדרך לחווארה. בעינבוס ראינו בניין בין שש קומות בנוי בשולי הגבעה הרחק ממרכז הכפר. הבניין נראה כמו בניין ישראלי בתל אביב. נדים הסביר לנו שקבלנים מתחילים לבנות בנייני דירות לזוגות צעירים. אנחנו מקוות מאוד שהם לא ייהרסו.
כשהגענו לחווארה ראינו 6 ג'יפים צבאיים וחיילים בצומת יצהר-חווארה. על יד בית הספר התאספה קבוצה גדולה שכללה בעיקר נשים וילדים, ואז הגיע מיניבוס מבּוּרִין. היו בו אנשים צעירים שבאו לאספה בבית הספר, חלונות המיניבוס היו פתוחים והם נופפו מכל החלונות בדגלי פלסטין.
נסענו למחסום. הוא היה ריק. מכוניות עברו בחופשיות בשני הכיוונים.
אכלנו פלאפל בחווארה ושמענו שההפגנות היו נגד החלטת ממשלת ישראל להרחיב את הבנייה בהתנחלויות. על השולחן היה מונח עיתון פלסטיני. הייתה בו קריקטורה שבה נראה פלסטיני כפוף, תשוש וזקן נשען על הליכון שהידית שלו בצורת האות יו באנגלית והרגלים בצורת האות אֶן – דעה עצובה על המצב הפלסטיני.
עזבנו ב-11:000 דרך מעבר שומרון.
Haris
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Haris
The village has 4,500 people and they have 5,000 dunams of land. The entrance to the village is blocked and opened arbitrarily, without informing the residents.The village has a seasonal checkpoint that blocks the road to the agricultural land and this checkpoint opens once a year! 2,500-3,000 dunams were stolen from the village in order to build the settlements of Revava and Netafim, which are located west of Haris.
The center of the village is Area B and around Area C. The population grows but the occupation does not permit new construction in Area C.
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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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