Nablus
We crossed Huwwara using the left lane,
the ‘Jews only’ lane used by the settlers, not slowing down, not
apologizing, not asking permission, which seems to work every time;
when you feel the ‘lord of the land’, look fairly fair, you can
move feely in ‘Apartheid-land’.
9.45 a.m.
When we saw Beit Furik from afar people were gathering, waiting,
this seemed like a good sign, why would they stand there if no one
was allowed to pass…..
We stood there for a while, soldiers didn’t seem to care, no one
approached, and the people standing didn’t call out, just stood
there in this desolate place, under the bleak sun.
Finally we approached the soldier who was neither friendly nor
hostile. ‘Why are they not passing’ we asked, ‘They were up until a
minute ago, now we received a phone call….. there is complete
closure’ (curfew in Nablus). To our questions about sick people,
humanitarian cases he answered: ‘How many times should I tell you,
NO ONE, even someone with no arms or legs… these are the
instructions, and that’s that… what do you care anyway’, he added
and went to pat the checkpoint’s ‘virile’ well nourished
bulldog.
It seemed that from the Nablus side people were allowed through,
when their IDs read villages in the opposite direction (Beit Furik,
etc.). Maybe orders were lax but so was the soldiers’ motivation.
Soldiers while sitting in the shade were using the Palestinians
standing in line as a ‘remote control’; sending them to open and
close the gate for cars, to save themselves the ‘trip’.
But on the Beit Furik side, where people were mostly on their way
to Nablus, the checkpoint was closed, sealed. Most people just
left, didn’t even want help, didn’t believe it was possible, but
were friendly, some accepted a drink of water.
A woman from Beit Furik with an X-ray, and a referral, on her way
to a clinic in Askar, stayed longer, hoping. We called the
Physicians for Human rights but no one was available, then we
called the Moked who tried to help, but she gave up too and
wouldn’t wait…
Only one man wouldn’t give up. His son, around nine years old
needed an operation. He told us that before we came he pleaded with
the soldier, telling him his son needed an operation, and that he
had been told: ‘One more word and you’ll be sitting under the tent
till noon’. But he was too desperate to give up. We called the
Moked who were trying to help them.
Just as we were about to leave an army Jeep arrived, a soldier came
out with food for the dog, cuddled him a bit and left, and we left
too.
Huwwara
See all reports for this place-
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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