Nablus- Every day, before leaving home for work, Muhammad Radwan browses news websites and social media pages, especially those related to road conditions and Israeli military checkpoints. He also makes numerous calls to find out the latest news about them and which ones are “passable” and allow Palestinian citizens to pass.
Radwan lives in the village of Beit Dajan, east of Nablus. To reach his workplace in the town of Qusra in the south, he has to cross at least three permanent military checkpoints: the Beit Furik-Beit Dajan checkpoint, the Awarta or Al-Murabba’a checkpoint, and the Za’tara checkpoint.
If he is unlucky, he faces “flying” checkpoints (i.e. sudden, also called mobile), in addition to two military gates with which the occupation closes the entrances to the village of Qasra, where Radwan and the citizens pass through.
collective punishment
Under the pretext of imposing security, Israel is implementing collective punishment against Palestinians in the West Bank by erecting more than 800 permanent military checkpoints (not including sudden checkpoints), which vary in shape and type between stone and earthen barriers, in addition to about 150 military iron gates that close off residential areas, trapping them behind them and paralyzing their movement.
Palestinians – especially those traveling via external roads – circulate a list of the names of dozens of Israeli checkpoints daily. Closed ones are indicated by a red sign, and green means that the checkpoint is “passable”, meaning open.
Therefore, Radwan (45 years old) prepares himself every day for hours full of suffering and waiting at those checkpoints or to increase the distance of the road that has been doubled due to the occupation’s measures and military restrictions, and he waits for the opportunity after intensive contacts to know which checkpoint allows entry without delay.
Radwan sets off early and coordinates with his colleagues to gather in the city of Nablus, then they take one car, to avoid the congestion and crisis at the checkpoints, and to avoid being detained and abused as the soldiers usually do when he is alone.
Describing his daily suffering, he told Tel Aviv Tribune Net, “I have been moving through checkpoints for 24 years, but in the last three years and more after the Gaza war, the suffering has doubled and the checkpoints have turned into prisons and means of abusing, oppressing and taking revenge on citizens.”
Radwan was detained and abused several times at the “particularly notorious” Beit Furik checkpoint, as he described it. Once, soldiers stopped him, handcuffed him, blindfolded him, and held him like that for six hours. Another time, they shot at the tires of his car, and in a third attack, they smashed his cell phone.
As is the case with hundreds of thousands of people in the West Bank, the occupation’s measures have limited Radwan’s movement outside his village after returning from work, except for extreme necessity. Until recently, he was always roaming the cities and villages of the northern West Bank.
The danger of barriers
By closing the Beit Furik-Beit Dajan checkpoint, the occupation is trapping 23,000 people behind it, and turning the two towns into a large prison, with no other exit or passage to or from them.
The danger of military checkpoints today lies in their complete control over the areas, as the occupation closes all bypass and secondary roads between cities and villages, forcing Palestinians to pass through its checkpoints only, thus turning them into ambushes where Israeli soldiers hunt down citizens for arrest or killing.
Around Nablus, the largest city in the northern West Bank, the Israeli occupation has set up 10 fixed and mobile military checkpoints and no less than 20 gates, isolating and closing dozens of villages in the governorate.
Like Radwan, Jamil Abu Saud (48 years old) – due to his work in the Ramallah and Jenin areas – moves through no less than 6 fixed and surprise checkpoints.
He leaves his home in Nablus shortly after dawn to reach his workplace on time and to avoid this crisis. If he heads south towards Ramallah, he must cross at least 4 military checkpoints, and if he heads north towards Jenin, he must cross at least 2 checkpoints.
Abu Saud is from Tubas Governorate and moved to live in Nablus to avoid some of the daily suffering, but he found himself trapped by those barriers that also limited his communication with his relatives and family who live in villages outside the city.
His fear increases as he travels back and forth every day, whenever he approaches a settlement or military site. The settlers set up ambushes and hunt down passing Palestinians by shooting at them, throwing stones at them, or often detaining them, especially if this coincides with their being on alert as a result of a security incident.
daily horror
Abu Saud says that he lives in fear every day from the time he leaves his home until he returns, and he stays in touch with news sites and drivers to know the latest conditions at the checkpoints and roads and whether they are free of settlers. He adds, “Under the pressure of all the circumstances, I was forced to sleep in Ramallah, away from my wife and children, whom I entrust to God every day.”
During his travels, he makes sure to document with his personal phone camera what happens to him if he is attacked by settlers or occupation soldiers.
As for Saher Obeid, an employee of the Palestinian Authority, he was, until recently, luckier than others. He leaves his home in the city of Tulkarm in the northern West Bank and heads to Ramallah in his private vehicle, taking the “Jbara Road” south of Tulkarm, where there are no permanent military checkpoints on his way except those surrounding Ramallah.
But his joy did not last long, as two weeks ago the occupation closed that road with a military gate, and Obaid began to travel in two vehicles, one of which takes him to the gate, and from there he walks to the second which takes him to Ramallah.
Obaid’s luck would be even worse if that road were completely closed. He would then have to go north of Tulkarm, pass through several villages to reach the main Nablus-Jenin road, and from there to Ramallah in the south, crossing the Shavei Shomron and Deir Sharaf checkpoints west of Nablus and Ein Siniya checkpoints north of Ramallah, at least.
Obaid told Tel Aviv Tribune Net, “We have stories of suffering with all these checkpoints, and the road that used to take an hour and a few minutes now takes three hours in the best of circumstances.”
According to the latest statistics from the Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission, Israel has installed 872 checkpoints and military gates in the West Bank, 145 of which were installed after October 7, all for the purpose of “dividing and isolating areas and military surveillance and control more than for preserving the security of the occupation.”