Beit Furik, Huwwara, Za'tara (Tapuah), Mon 25.8.08, Afternoon

Place:

Beit Furik

Za'tara (Tapuah)

Huwwara

Tags:

Punishment

Arbitrariness, e.g. an arbitrary decision

Hitches at checkpoints

DCO (District Coordination Offices)

Observers:

Hagar (guest) Merav A., Nur B.O., Noa P. (reporting)

Leave this field blank

Aug-25-2008

Afternoon

Translation: Ruth F.

13:25- Shomron Gate wasn't manned.
We entered the Barkan industrial zone to look for the vineyards. We found out that it has been moved to a new territory by Kibutz Hulda.

14:00- Marda was open, Zeita was closed.

14:10- Za'tara-
From the west- One vehicle was being inspected. At the north was a line of 17 vehicles.
At the square- a Palestinian car was parked on a towing truck with yellow plats, by it was another car, two men were in it, they said: "everything is fine", and asked that we leave.
The soldiers at the checkpoint weren't too pleased to see us, but the checkpoint commander said: So what, they aren't disturbing you, if worst comes to worse- the police is here, they will take care of them.

14:25- At the entrance to the village Huwwara, right in front of the entrance to Beita was a police jeep with a BP soldier sitting in it.
They signaled transits and cabs to pull over. They order other vehicles to head on. A bus driver was arrests five minutes earlier. This jeep has been functioning as another checkpoint on the way leading from Huwwara to Za'tara for the past couple of days. While speaking to him the JP soldier handed back their IDs.
The soldiers told a transit driver with their speaker, to come and get his IDs and those of his passengers.
Each ID was documented before being handed over to its owner, who was then permitted to head on.

14:40 -Huwwara-
When we arrived the soldiers seemed to be very tense, the lines were in order and the soldiers busy with handing out orders regarding the line- go back, back, back, more, more more.... That made us wonder about what had happened before we came.
This continued during the whole shift.
Six vehicles were waiting at the entrance to Nablus, by the booth for vehicles that are entering A' from the DCO explained to a cab driver that he can't enter to Nablus without a permit.
It was evident during the whole shift the soldiers set for themselves to educate the Palestinians at the vehicle inspection post: "Send him back, he bypassed all the others!", said a sergeant to a soldier. That vehicle was a new Mercedes and the soldier was too embarrassed to send it back. The sergeant on the other hand had no problem.
He told the driver to go back, and we wondered- will he tell him to stand in the corner with is face to the wall or maybe write something down 100 times on the blackboard: "I won't bypass the line ever again".
A soldier yelled at the people in the line. A' shut him up and said: "if you have a problem talking to them, come to me and I'll do it, but don't talk to them like that.
The x-ray machine was working again.
The fast lane on the other hand was block on that day as well. The high fence that had been place there on the week before had been taken down, but instead of it was a plastic blockage ("New Jersey"- that's how they call it) with a metal one as well. They were placed one on top of the other.
Lieutenant Y., presented himself to us and said he was the checkpoint commander, he asked that we stand back (we weren't standing very close as it was), behind the turnstiles. Why? We asked, "because you are getting in the way"- he said assertively- "and there are places here you can be and others where you can't".
Nur politely and assertively told him that there was no law that defines where we can or can't be, and that the only reason we take notice of the line they themselves have painted is because we didn't want to cause any provocations, even though in itself that line wasn't legal.
He got convinced rather quickly and walked away.
"Hay, you, stand back, go, go"- a soldier notified that the place was no sterile info-icon .
Nur- "but they want to be in the shad". Another soldier: "why is she butting in?"
The soldier explained to Nur- "you can't go to the cell because someone might get out of there and stab you with a knife, and we would be held responsible". We weren't allowed to stand under the shad because the Palestinians will see us and then "behave badly".
15:20- The turnstile stopped working for 25 minutes. Why? "Because the security guard wasn't there", why wasn't he there?, they wouldn't answer.

We called the Moked and they promised to look into it. When it started working the Palestinians had to go through two inspection- one with a magnometer and the other through a metal detector . Why? Just like that.
15:20- A second lieutenant (blue eyes and tall that wouldn't tell us his name) "asked" that we stand back.
He said: "I'm asking you politely, but there is also another way".
At 15:50 a big police car arrived and the police man talk to the two officers (A': you see what happened because of you, we called the police)
The police man came to talk to us: "Hi, why do I have to make all this way just for you?"
We really couldn't think of a reason so we didn't answer.
After a short chat we went back to the officers and talk to them, then he came back to us and said "okay, you can stay here but don't get in the soldiers way(.....).
He later decided that I was the checkpoint commander, that got us all laughing and as this was my new title he told me to give him my ID and phone number. I refused to give him my number and instead Merav gave him the MachsomWatch card with a phone number printed on the back of it.
A student came to talk to me- he said he live at Qusra (he said it was just after Za'tara) and studies at Anajha. He said: "it's now five days before the Ramadan and things are very bad. The waiting time is of two hours".
He and his friends wonder: "why are you writing? And how are your reports supposed to help us?"
It was very frustrating.

Beit Furik:
Merav and Hagar headed to Beit Furik and reported back:
The checkpoint was rather empty. One soldier told them to stand behind the white line but they refused. The commander said: "leave them alone, they'll be gone in a minute any way..."
There were few people and no vehicles. The reason: there was a celebration in Nablus for the return of some prisoners.
A 14 year old boy was allowed to enter Nablus without the escort of his parents since he said his father was in Nablus.

17:00 Beita checkpoint was still active. Three vehicles were waiting and two people were being inspected by the BP soldiers.

17:10- Za'tara- ten cars were standing from the north and five from the west.
A manual inspection was preformed to a car arriving from the west: all the windows were opened and all the passengers were inspected.

17:35- The tent by the end of the fence: there were three detainees.

Location Description

Checkpoint Beit Furik

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One of the three internal checkpoints that closed on the city of Nablus - Beit Furik to the east, Hawara to the south, Beit Iba to the west.
The checkpoint is located at the junction of Roads 557 (an apartheid road that was forbidden for Palestinians), leading to the Itamar and Alon Morea settlements and Road 5487. The checkpoint was established in 2001 for pedestrians and vehicles; The opening hours were short and the transition was slow and very problematic.

Allegedly, the checkpoint is intended to monitor the movement to and from Nablus of the residents of Beit Furik and Beit Dajan, being the only opening outside their villages.
Since May 2009 the checkpoint is open 24 hours a day, the military presence is limited, vehicles can pass through it without inspections, except for random inspections. (Updated April 2010)

Za'tara (Tapuah) Checkpoint

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Za'atara is an internal checkpoint in the heart of the West Bank, at the intersection of Road 60 and Road 505 (Trans-Samaria), east of the Tapuach settlement.
This checkpoint is the "border" marked by the IDF between the north and south of the West Bank, in accordance with the policy of separation between the two parts of the West Bank that has been in place since December 2005.

At the Za'atara checkpoint, there are separate routes for Israelis and Palestinians. In the route for Israelis, there are no inspections and the route for Palestinians inspects. The queue lengthens and shortens suits.

The checkpoint is open 24 hours a day. The checkpoint is partially staffed and the people who pass through it are checked at random.

Sep-28-2023

Shoshi Anbar

Za'atra (Tapuah Intersection). Signs

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Huwwara - the checkpoint and the township

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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 info-icon 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 today is free, but there is still a military presence in the guard tower and vehicle inspections are done from time to time.

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 info-icon 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)

Feb-29-2024

Nina Seba

Huwara checkpoint - the gate is closed

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