Elkana salient, Hani, Oranit, Habla and Jayyus checkpoints - A tour

Place:

1474 Oranit

Habla Checkpoint (1393)

Jayyus

Tags:

Seam Zone

Settlers, Settlements

Tours in villages in the West Bank

Observers:

Esther, an American guest, Karin Lindner (reporting and photographing) Translator: Charles K.

Oct-26-2021

Afternoon

Habla Checkpoint

Photo:

Karin Lindner

I was asked to give a tour to a student whose family lives in the Bat Ayin settlement and wanted to hear and see the situation from the other side.

14:45 We arrived at the Elkana salient after explaining en route about the occupation, the settlements, the separation fence, and the seam zone. The work on the waterworks or sewage installation next to Hani Gate is expanding. While we were explaining a civilian security vehicle arrived to check whether we were alright.

The student was amazed to see “large homes” in the settlements because she’d understood from her family that they’re forbidden to build with concrete, but only with less-permanent materials. I replied that apparently their land had not been formally registered and tried to explain the complex issue of State Lands, and of private Palestinian land ownership on the West Bank.

We stopped at the Oranit checkpoint (4). She noticed someone who’d managed to sneak past or over the high fence.

We continued to Highway 55 and saw the work progressing on both sides to widen it and separate the access road to the plant nurseries from the main highway (cf. Amira Hass’s Friday article, 5.11.21, regarding the environmental damage caused). After a brief circuit in Alfei Menasheh and explanations about the villages trapped in the seam zone we went to ‘Arab a-Ramadin, which is not officially recognized. We met the village head next to the school. He told us they’d finished building a school for all grades. That explains the shortening of the hours Habla checkpoint is open. The children and parents are pleased, but sometimes the teachers don’t manage to arrive.

From there through the Eliyahu checkpoint, and after a visit to ‘Azzun to show a Palestinian town we drove through Jayous and back to Highway 55.

We reached the Habla checkpoint after 5 PM and decided not to wait for it to open at 6 PM. But we saw the many people returning to their homes on the West Bank. No longer individual people sneaking through – cars arrive one by one and the workers get out.

Location Description

Jayyus

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Jayyus Village. Some of its lands were separated from the village when the separation barrier was first built. The wall is very close to the village itself and access to a large part of its lands was exproptiated. After a petition to the High Court that was convinced that there was no security ground for the route of the barrier, the barrier was moved and some of the lands were returned to the village.

1393 Habla checkpoint

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The Habla checkpoint (1393) was established on the lands of the residents of Qalqilya, on the short road that connected it for centuries to the nearby town of Habla. The separation barrier intersects this road twice and cut off the residents of Qalqilya from their lands in the seam zone.(between the fence and the green line).
There is a passage under Road 55 that connects Qalqilya to the sabotage This agricultural barrier is used by the farmers and nursery owners established along Road 55 from the Green Line and on both sides of the kurkar road leading to the checkpoint.
This agricultural checkpoint serves the residents of Arab a-Ramadin al-Janoubi (detached from the West Bank), who pass through it to the West Bank and back to their homes. The opening hours (3 times a day) of this agricultural checkpoint are longer than usual, about an hour (recently shortened to 45 minutes), and are coordinated with the transportation hours of a-Ramadin children studying in the occupied in the West Bank.

Dec-18-2023

Nina Seba

Habla, the checkpoint is closed

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Oranit checkpoint

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Oranit Checkpoint (4) (formerly 1474)
An agricultural checkpoint in the separation wall serves the farmers of 'Azzun' Atma, whose land is in the seam zone near Oranit. Since the construction of the new wall in 2013. Was opened 3 times a day. Since 2018, the army has refused to open it except during the olive harvest. Since 2018, it has been opened only during the olive harvest and the farmers have to pass daily at the Beit Amin / Abu Salman checkpoint (1447).

Fein Report from March 24, 2021: "The farmers from Beit Amin and Azzun Atma are happy that since last month the checkpoint has been open 3 times a day, at 6 in the morning, at 1 in the afternoon and at 4 in the afternoon. The farmers are really developing the place. "

Mar-22-2022

Ruti Tuval

The locked gate at the Anin checkpoint

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