'Awarta, Beit Furik, Huwwara, Za'tara (Tapuah), יום ה' 19.3.09, בוקר

Place:

'Awarta

Beit Furik

Za'tara (Tapuah)

Huwwara

Tags:

Slow passage

Detainees

Observers:

Rachel A., and Tamar S. (reporting)

Mar-19-2009

Morning

We met Tzvia and Rachel there.

Translation: Suzanne O.

6:50 a.m.

The entrance to Zeita is barred; the entrance to Marda is open.

Za'atra/Tapuach

7:00 a.m.

There are five vehicles in the queue in front of the junction from the west. When we neared the roadblock an officer came over to us, the roadblock commander, who requests that we not approach the roadblock and starts to say defensively that they are people and we are people (meaning Jews and Palestinians) and it is not pleasant to do what they do (the soldiers) but there is no alternative and it has to be done to avoid terrorist attacks, because there are some of them who want to hurt and kill us and that is why there are roadblocks. The unit is new at the roadblock; the soldiers are in course of a paratrooper commando course.

Vehicles are inspected randomly. There are over 20 vehicles in the queue from the direction of Nablus; three lanes are functioning and the inspection is quick.

7:10 a.m.

At the entrance to the junction, from the west, there is a detainee. We go over to him and he speaks Hebrew, tells us that he left his ID card at home - it was in the pocket of his shirt and he forgot to take it out when he changed his clothes. He is waiting for someone from home to bring his card so that he can continue on his way; he is going to the market.

7:22 a.m.

There was no longer a queue either from the west or from Nablus.

7:34 a.m.

There is a build up of vehicles into a queue again from the direction of Nablus.

A police vehicle is parked at the junction of the road in the direction of Nablus and stops a private vehicle and a motor bike at the side of the road. By the time we got over there the motor cycle had already been released. We stood on the pavement by the vehicle, a few metres from the policeman and his vehicle. The policeman comes over to us and shouts at us very aggressively warning us not to interfere with his work, and if we should do so he will hold us at the police station. I go over to the police driver of the vehicle and ask if it is possible to ask him a question and he responds rudely, no. Meanwhile Rachel goes over to the passengers and wishes them good morning, they sit as if paralysed by fear and do not reply to her.

We do not understand why the vehicles are detained. A few minutes later another vehicle is detained. When the policeman moves away from them Rachel goes over and asks how they are. The policeman sees her and shouts loudly at us, claiming that we are not permitted to speak with anyone he detains and because of these kinds of things policemen have been killed. Hysterical and disturbed. After an exchange between us he demands to see my ID card, I pass it to him and he notes the details.

7:57 a.m.

A jeep is parked at the entrance to Beita and another one at the side of the road, on the incline, in the village.

Huwwara

8:00 a.m.

There are 8 cars in the queue and there is no queue of pedestrians. There are no stalls at the roadblock - the soldiers drove all the stall holders out. The DCO representative claims that these are the directions, on the orders of the Brigade Commander. No one knows the reason, various explanations fly around - bad hygiene, unpaid taxes, they all sound like unfounded excuses.

8:58 a.m.

A small coffee stall is at the back of the car park, far from the soldiers' view. Even so, they find him, and two jeeps arrive (one military and one Border Police) with 7 soldiers to get rid of him. The stallholder hides from them and they do not find him. (Attached are photographs that Rachel took of the stall and the soldiers ready to get rid of it.)

Tzvia and Rachel who met us there stay and monitor what is happening, Rachel and I continue on our course.

Awarta

9:15 a.m.

There is a very long queue of lorries. We count over 20 cars as far as we can see (up to the bend in the road) and the queue continues after the bend too. The lorry drivers report on waiting time of between one and two hours. When we say that the situation is bad to the DCO representative he laughs and says that it is good compared to what went on this morning, and as soon as the soldiers finish their breakfast the queue will reduce.

Two lorries are detained as punishment for driving on the road forbidden to Palestinians. One driver lives in Ramallah, his elderly mother sits next to him and he tells us that they are on their way to his sick brother who has just had surgery in hospital, he was not aware that they were forbidden to driver on the road. The second driver also claims that he didn't know. We turned to the DCO representative who said that he hadn't noticed that they had been detained, "so it's lucky you are here", and a few minutes later he released both of them.

Beit Furiq

9:40 a.m.

Empty.

Huwwara

9:50 a.m.

There are about 20 people in the pedestrian queue. The stall had been banished, and when we returned we found it once again, this time further away from the roadblock, at the entrance to the car park. The vehicle queue is long, there are about 30 vehicles.

Three soldiers walk round the roundabout in front of the roadblock.

A Border Police jeep is parked at the side of the road.

Za'atra/Tapuach

10:36 a.m

There are 37 vehicles in the queue.

Marda and Zeita

As before.

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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