Huwwara Beit Furiq
Huwwara, Beit Furik, Tuesday, 6.6.06 AMObservers: Nurit W., Rahel A., (reporting)Translation: Hanna K.At the Tapuach CP there are few cars. At the “temporary” CP at the Yithzar junction there are about 20 cars from the direction of Nablus, waiting.At Huwwara there is the routine procedure. Not many people leaving Nablus, and the queues are not long.The soldiers are reserved and even hostile, even before we took our places. Something or somebody incited them against us. They refuse to answer. We are not allowed to talk to them. The CP commander M. answers us politely but does not volunteer information. The Liaison Administration officer D., who in the past exhibited initiative and readiness to assist us, ignores us demonstratively. Ok, so we didn’t come to be popular with the guys, but the hostile attitude almost does not make it possible for us to help the Palestinians.There is an ongoing problem regarding the observation of what goes on at the CP since the checking activities were transferred back – to the rear part of the CP, while the front checking posts (the southern ones) were abandoned. The soldiers take care, all the time, that we should not pass the “turnstile line”. In a conversation with Micky is transpired that this indeed was what was, for lack of any other option, allowed us. The problem is that the “turnstile line” – which was fixed in a very arbitrary manner, does not allow us to see, and certainly not to hear, what goes on at the checking points. When people are returned, we don’t have a clue why that was done. And they cannot come to us to ask for help. We are in fact rather detached from what goes on, and this is a pity and very frustrating. It seems to us the organization must try and do something in the matter. Our right, as a human rights organization, is to be in a place from which we can observe, report on wrongs committed and try to prevent them. The insistence on the “turnstile line” is clearly intended to obstruct our work.Beit FurikAs usual there are very few people working here. The soldiers seems bored and are even glad to enter into a conversation with us. They try to understand how the organization functions and what we think of the soldiers… It seems to us they accept our explanations with understanding, even with a kind of acquiescence.Back to Huwwara. We conduct a conversation with one of the inhabitants who passes at the CP. He introduces himself as a Professor of Social Science, lecturing at different universities in the United States and the Arab world. He claims that the two peoples wants peace, and that it is only the leaders who incite wars because of their egoistical interest. It seems that he is on his way to lecture at some conference in Jerusalem. His name is C. K. he is very interested to find a connection with the activities of bereaved parents from both peoples.
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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