Beit Furik, Huwwara, Za'tara (Tapuah), Sun 12.4.09, Afternoon

Place:

Beit Furik

Za'tara (Tapuah)

Huwwara

Tags:

X-ray machine

Observers:

Noa P., Judit B., Linda, Tal H. (reporting)

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Apr-12-2009

Afternoon

Translation: Tal H.

14:55 Za'tara/Tapuach Junction Checkpoint

The sniper posts at the side of the junction and in its middle are unmanned. 12 vehicles are waiting to be checked, coming from the Nablus area.

15:15 Huwwara Checkpoint

Active X-ray truck, as well as sniffer-dog and trainer.

As we arrive, we witness the following: A Palestinian taxi about to enter Nablus flies colorful flags at the sight of which many of the people around applaud and seem very happy. Soldiers grab the delinquent flag being waved out the window and throw it back into the cab, order the cab to turn back, put on their helmets, and close the iron gate barring all further vehicle movement into town. (So!) Immediately the compound is filled with the 'here we go, some action!' vibes.

Five minutes later, helmets are removed, the iron gate is opened, and traffic resumes.

The 'flagged' cab passes and just at that moment once again the flag is waved out the window, and people cheer...

A soldier grabs it again, but now at the intervention of the DCO representative it is returned to the passengers who merrily get on their way.

What was this all about? Assem the DCO rep. explained that the celebration is around a Palestinian who has just been freed from jail and is riding back home - probably in the cab. The flat (yellow and red) that so jeopardizes Israeli security is of the Fatah (as A. the child vendor explained to us with shining eyes, and was confirmed by the DCO). Our question as to how such signs of merriment endanger anyone and entail the closing of the vehicle entry to Nablus - was answered with a wordless smile.

The whole affair lasted about ten minutes.

No detainees info-icon as we arrive, the special side line for women and children is very crowded.

At the men pedestrians' lines, special Passover procedure. Meaning? Here goes:

How is this day at the men's line different from all other days?

In that on all other days the MPmen and women sitting in their bunker checking posts bark at the Palestinians waiting to be checked "One by one!!" "Get back!", "Don't crowd, whoa!!!" and all in the loudest, roughest, most insolent manner of the enforcers of the rules of Creation. We are conditioned to hearing this, certainly the Palestinians are. Suddenly - today the MPwoman's voice in the loudspeaker screeches "Come on, faster!! Don't you understand? What's the matter with you? How long do I have to wait for you??!!!!!!!"

The young men are taken aback, embarrassed at this turn of events, get confused, trip, she gets even more irritated, her voice a paragon of boredom, irritation and exasperation. The upshot of this, however, is that passage at the men's lines right now is at top speed, they empty in a matter of seconds.

What's this all about? The missing part of the usual picture: no soldiers standing around the head of the line, securing the checks.

After some minutes of this inverted order of things, suddenly, without any warning, two male MPs take position and reverse the word of the law, barking in their turn the usual mantras of "Get back, one by one, where do you think you're going????!!!! Hey, whoa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

This shift occurs in no time flat and embodies in one senseless beat the essence of the entire occupation mechanism: Contradictory, arbitrary restrictive instructions enforced in rough scorn, crassness and totally callous manner, as if the future of the universe depended on them.

Epilogue: a young, insolent paratrooper approaches us asking us behind the fence if everything's alright. We answer that the contradicting screeches bawled through the loudspeakers are an offense to any citizen. This suffices for him to try and chase us away. "You're disturbing the soldiers'. How's that? "Saying things like this."

Vehicle checks: waiting in line between 15 and 45 minutes.

The inspection of a bus and its passengers lasted 40 minutes!

On the brighter side of things: M. the child-vendor who works after school hours to help his family survive shows us a test on which he received a 100 mark. A bit of focused bliss.

17:05 Three detainees - two of them taxi cabs along the usual procedure, one 'bingo' (his ID number comes up on the wanted list). The DCO representative assured us he intervened on their behalf with the checkpoint commander.

We left towards 6 p.m.

Beit Furik Checkpoint 16:30-16:50

Noa B. and Linda

Nothing happening here. As we watched, the commander approached asking who we are. He received an expalantion. He had never ever heard of Machsomwatch. Even though he's been here for quite a while. How long? Four days...

Some more explanations, and when he heard the word 'Occupation', his eyes opened wide: "What occupation???!" He had not the faintest idea what we were talking about.

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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