Huwwara, Sun 30.11.08, Afternoon
Translation: Tal H.
15:15 Huwwara Checkpoint
DCO representative – Tomer, Checkpoint commander – X
3 active checking posts, X-ray truck, no detainees in the cubicle when we arrive.
As usual at this hour, the waiting lines for young males are not yet over-crowded, but the special side line for women and the elderly is full to bursting.
Men wait between half an hour and an hour, on the average.
The soldier 'securing' the western and middle checking posts stands leaning his gun barrel on the tip of the concrete ledge. As a result, every Palestinian exiting the metal detector and turning to hand his ID to the woman soldier at the middle checking post necessarily misses the soldier's gun barrel by millimeters. If he is a bit more full-bodied than the rest of his very slim mates, there's almost no escaping the added flesh- to-metal touch. Our friend adds sardonically that this is probably done in consideration of the Palestinians, so that whoever passes through must tuck in his belly… (photo among the ones sent separately).
The greater the pressure in the lines, all the more numerous are the uniformed men throughout the checkpoint, but the connection seems more temporal than causal – there's a constantly growing crowd in khaki standing around and debating, discussing, socializing and very mentally busy around the middle area of the vehicle checking posts, while procedures slow down even more.
Naturally, even on this 'quiet' afternoon, the inevitable soldier very quietly approaches the Palestinians busy tucking their shirts back into their trousers and inserting their belts after having completed the search and ID check and found clean – and shoos them away with the eternal "Go on, git!"
16:00 – the lines begin to fill up more densely and pressure rises, from where we stand we cannot see how far back the special side line stretches.
16:30 – hour of the dog – man's best friend in khaki has arrived to make sure there are no explosives in the flat-bread traveling from town to village.
17:20 – back from our visit to Beit Furik Checkpoint, we find Huwwara Checkpoint busier, much noisier than before, 3 young detainees held in the cubicle for having behaved rowdily in the lines. Noa and Judith who stayed here while Tal and our guest went to Beit Furik report that for about ten minutes everything stood still and no Palesitnians were checked while the soldiers were apparently eating (or praying).
We left at 17:45.
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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