Huwwara North
HUWWARA NORTH, Thursday 21 October 2004 PM Ofra T. (reporting) Shani M. (guest)colour=red>Control over the checkpoint area has become more and more effective, and all the more horrifying: for where there’s no improvisation , there’s also no room for the exercise of judgment, or for the kind gesture . If the use of the [army slang] term “jorah” (sewer) bothered you , then relax. In Huwwara today there’s no longer a “jorah” to which the detainees are sent : instead they have cages [detainees are, typically, men aged from 16 to 30 or 35 who have no passage permits; their ID details are phoned through to the General Security Services (GSS, also known as the Shabak or the Shin Bet, the Hebrew acronym for the GSS) for checking against a central list of security suspects and the answers are then relayed back to the checkpoints. This cumbersome process can take considerable time, and that can be prolonged even more if the soldiers wait to accumulate a batch of ID cards before passing them on to the GSS , or if they behave in a similarly tardy manner at the end of the process, waiting until they have a batch of GSS clearances before they release individual detainees. Meanwhile, the detainees are virtually prisoners at the checkpoint where the soldiers retain the ID cards until the entire process is completed]. We arrived at 14:00 to find massive security presence. The checkpoint was ticking over normally. In the detainees’ area were some 10 detainees: around them, construction continued. The army was installing a fence “so they won’t escape” (so we were informed). While the “cage” filled up with detainees, the officer, an expert in the job, welded the fence around them, simultaneously sharing welding techniques with another “expert”, discussing the dangers of inhaling the vapour ….cigarette in mouth. His assistant, another soldier, held his gun trained on the growing number of detainees.And “progress” wasn’t limited to the fence: it extended, too, to the buttons controlling the turnstile. A volunteer – a polite, and older officer — passed the Palestinians through one by one; at the push of a button, the Palestinians rolled out of the turnstile towards him. He had absolute control over the tempo, the line and its progress . There was no need to speak,….to shout.. today it was all “untouched by human hands”. After the button, came the x-ray machine. Parcels were placed on it and then person whose belongings were being checked had to run as quickly as possible to the other side to catch the goods and chattels before they fell to the ground – and that held true for everyone , including mothers with infants in their arms.Soon the detectors (what are they exactly?) will be in use immediately after the turnstiles… and then the army can move out and leave us here with stopwatches to carry out time and motion studies…… A few metres before the checkpoint, the army had put up a number of signs (we saw them being readied on Sunday). They were written only in Arabic. It was enough to see the caricatures featured here to realize that they contained no arrival and departure information….. two “evil” Palestinians tormenting a helpless Palestinian – the last time I saw similar depictions of “evil” was in History lessons where I was taught how anti-Semites de-humanized the Jews… With so many soldiers and Y. as checkpoint commander there was no buildup of people waiting behind the turnstiles. The detainees were released only when there were “enough” people in the cage. The volunteer courteously explained to me that our own people’s welfare must be safeguarded, for God forbid …..and the GSS cannot be rushed….15:30 – Border policemen arrived and started detaining taxi drivers who’d dared to cross the sacred line which keeps them at a distance from the checkpoint proper. The men were sent to sit in the cage and were later released. One taxi driver had been caught in the morning with some others and taken to the command headquarters. They were all released, and only his taxi was confiscated. He had an official, signed document, explaining that he could come to get his taxi back only in another week’s time. When I asked the checkpoint commander how it might be possible to help the man, Y. explained to me in all seriousness that he could only help himself by following the rules, learning from experience….. 16:00 – The wagon owner of the cart whose identity card was confiscated yesterday was privileged to have it returned!
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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Ronit Dahan-RamatiAug-24-2026Huwara: The school on the outskirts of town and an outpost hidden among the trees
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