PM
HUWWARA, Thursday 13 May 2004 PM Observers: Shelly, Olga, Norah (reporting) colour =red>We arrived at Huwwara at 14:15, and divided into two groups for most of the shift – Nora in the north (the entrance to Nablus), Shelly and Olga in the south where the checkpoint is always more crowded with people leaving the city.Summary: After some weeks during which shifts have been intolerable, this was a relatively ‘normal’ one, that is, it presented only the usual difficulties. The soldiers told me that they were new to the checkpoint. One of them added: “We’ll probably have had enough after a month, and run out of patience”. The advantage of these tyros was that they hadn’t been worn down yet, and at least the ones we watched did their shift painstakingly. On the other hand, they didn’t show any flexibility, and checking every handbag and carrier bag – all of which had to be emptied out because of the risk of explosive charges – took an interminable time.There weren’t many detainees. I saw that the soldiers simply checked the young men (and young women), cross-checking with a list of wanted people. Everyone who wasn’t on the list was permitted to proceed. Things were far simpler that way. Throughout the whole shift, there was a total of four detainees who were released after two to three hours. And after being checked, all the cars passed through.Between 15:00 and 16:00, the pressure intensified. People grew impatient, pushing and trying to get ahead in the line towards the soldiers doing the checks. A free-for-all began. The soldiers focussed on discipline: “Back, back – we’ll stop checking…” the old familiar story. Instead of wasting time in shouting and keeping people in straight lines, they could have got people through, thinned out the crowd and defused some of the stress and irritation. I tried to explain this and told them about O. at Beit Iba who – when this sort of situation occurs – summons people (particularly women) to be checked in groups of four and speeds up the process. I may have had a little influence.At each checkpoint, there were the same stories of sick people – it was hard to convince the soldiers to help them, but in every case, the people were allowed through, after some delay.From 16:30 to 18:30 (when the checkpoint was closed for the day) there were fewer people trying to cross and everyone went through.Another incident: two male settlers appeared, who’d come “just to raise the soldiers’ morale”. They got into an argument with me. Their conclusion was that everything’s our fault, we, the lefties….we’re selling the Palestinians the idea of national solidarity … and the terror attacks, the spilt blood of soldiers and settlers is all due to us … Auschwitz was also mentioned. The bottom line – we’ve got to be disposed of (it wasn’t clear if they meant simple expulsion or something more serious).
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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