Huwwara, Wed 14.4.10, Afternoon
Huwwara 14:40
We had heard on the news during the morning that settlers had painted graffitti, including a Star of David (Magen David) on a wall of a mosque in Huwarra during the night. If this was a news-worthy item then we obviously had to investigate it and to report on it.
As we drove with Nadim through Huwarra we looked carefully at the older mosque in the center of the town. We saw signs of writing on the lower wall along the street that had been rubbed over; but these were all old graffitti. We thought it might be on the newer, larger mosque on the main street. Nadim stopped to ask someone about the graffitti made by the settlers that night. He was directed to a very new mosque in the neighborhood known as Cuza.
Cuza is a lovely area, higher up than the main part of Huwarra. We came to a beautiful small mosque in among the houses and olive trees in Cuza. Nadim knew that it had been built about two years ago. There were broad steps up to the porch for washing before entering the prayer house. There on the stone wall of the prayer house where everyone entering could see in black spray paint was a very large “magen david” and next to it the letters “MOHAME ” in Hebrew. (The final D had been rubbed out, and a rag was lying on the floor).
A young man from the nearest house came out to see who we were and told us that his mother had heard and seen a car moving slowly during the night, but she didn’t go out. The very first persons who came to pray early in the morning found the vandalism left by the settlers. They were very angry and distraught, and notified the head of the town council. This is how the story spread. At 9:00 in the morning 4 or 5 military and police cars drove up to the mosque. The police asked questions of the neighbors. All agreed that this was an attempt at religious provocation. We asked him about the possibility of rubbing it out. He said someone had tried but it was too difficult on the stone wall. (I think they would need to sand brush it off.(
The head of the town council, Samer Mil’eb Odi Abu Mir’eh, was no longer in his office at 15:15, so we contacted him by phone. He, of course, deplores the defacing of the mosque, and wants to see a time when actions like this against the Palestinians will stop. “We should be living in peace,” he said.In the center of Huwarra life goes on as usual. Unfortunately, vandalism such as what was done to the mosque is too common in the Palestinian territories, The people of Huwarra are carrying on with their lives. .
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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