Curfews and Closures: The Town of Azzun

The slope where she slid -- underpass at the entrance to Azzun - Photo by Patricia Carswell

I was sent by the Common Board of Global Ministries of the United Church of Christ (UCC) and the Christian Church, Disciples of Christ, and Church World Service, to participate in the World Council of Churches’ (WCC’s) Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI). The views contained herein are personal and do not necessarily reflect those of the Common Board of Global Ministries, the UCC or the WCC. If you would like to publish the information contained here or disseminate it further, please first contact the EAPPI Coordination (eappi-co@jrol.com) for permission. Thank you.
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Azzun, population about 10,000, is the neareast town to Jayyous, and it is in Azzun where we frequently connect with busses or a “service” (ser-VEES, a group taxi with a fixed route) to major West Bank cities. Like Jayyous, it is a farming town, but critically situated at a crossroads that connects three governorates in this agricultural area. Economic traffic -- truckloads of produce and goods – must pass through Azzun to get to and from markets. Interference with passage through Azzun means that produce and goods do not move. Sales are not made. Money is not spent. Businesses close. The economy contracts.

Azzun is known as a town with a history of opposing the Wall and of conflicts with the Israeli settlements in the area. Azzun regularly suffers from curfews (when the entire population is obliged to remain off the street for an indefinite period of time, schools and businesses close, people are confined to their homes), road closures (when neither vehicles nor pedestrian traffic can come into or out of town), raids by the Israeli army and other forms of “collective punishment” (when a community is punished for an alleged offense by one or more perpetrators, identified or unidentified).

The major highway entrance/exit for Azzun has been covered by a gradually-increasing mound of earth and rocks that our group first noticed about a week after we began working here. About ten days ago, when I returned from a weekend in Jerusalem, the service left me off at the earth mound, outside of town (since the car couldn’t get over the mound to get into town from the highway.) I climbed up the mound, balancing my handbag and backpack, and jumped down the other side to reach the taxi stand where I could catch a ride to Jayyous. Just one week later, one of my teammates phoned from Azzun to say that a coil of barbed wire had been placed on top of the mound and manned army vehicles were obstructing the crossing. She turned around, crossed the road, slid down the slope to the underpass beneath the highway, and walked through the underpass, into town and to the taxi stand.

Abdullah is a long-time friend of, and local contact for, EAs in this area. In addition to being a friend and source of vital background on the local scene, he keeps us regularly updated on what happens in and around Azzun. Abdullah sends me a text message on my cell phone two, three, four times a week:

27 Aug.09, 11:09 p.m.:
Hi. Now its curfew at Azzun and still now the entrance of Azzun is closed.

6 Sept.09, 8:17 p.m.:
Hi. Israeli army imposed curfew at Azzun at 5:00 p.m. and they shooting live bullets. Now they put many checkpoints and they didn’t allow the cars to go anywhere.

9 Sept.09, 2:28 p.m.:
Now Israeli army imposed curfew at Azzun.

9 Sept.09, 4:43 p.m.:
Hi. Situation is very bad. The people can’t enter Azzun because the army close all roads.
Our taxi driver reported next morning that he’d been stuck in Azzun the previous afternoon and was unable to get home to break the Ramadan fast with his family.
Per phone call to Abdullah the following day: curfew was lifted at about 7:00 p.m.

11 Sept.09, 2:04 a.m.:
NOW THE ARMY ARRESTING BOYS AND SHOOTING LIVE BULLETS. HAVE ARRESTED 4 BOYS. AMBULANCE ENTERING NOW.

A phone call to Abdullah later that morning yielded the information that the curfew was in effect. At least one of the boys arrested had tried to escape, he told us, and was shot at and badly beaten.

“What can we do?”

“Maybe you can come and see the army in the town, and take pictures.”

The two of us who were home at the time (my Norwegian teammate and I) quickly consulted with taxidriver/contact/friend Abed, who knows Abdullah and the Azzun situation well, and who agreed to drive us. We cancelled our scheduled Arabic lessons for that afternoon, and set out.
To our surprise, the road into Azzun was open and the town was completely silent and empty as we drove in; there were no soldiers in evidence -- nor anyone else! However, a little further into town, we began to see kids in the street. Abed spoke with some people as we drove along, and it seems there was a break in the curfew to allow people to go to the mosque for midday prayers (it was the middle of Ramadan, the fasting month for Muslims, and one of the most observant and prayerful seasons of the religious year) or do whatever brief errands they could. Abed dropped us at Abdullah's for an update and went off to the mosque, as our sudden trip had prevented him for attending prayers in Jayyous.

Abdullah reported that one of his sons had gone to the football and volleyball practices at the local playing field the previous afternoon, and, around 7:00 p.m., soldiers had come, ordered the players and spectators home, and arrested one of the son's classmates (around 13 years old) and another boy.

By about 2:00 in the morning, at least another four boys had been arrested. Abdullah heard two shots and automatic fire some time after midnight; a neighbor, he said, witnessed a boy trying to run away from soldiers, but could not tell if he was wounded by the gunfire; they did hear him shouting and crying as the soldiers beat him. He was about 18-19 years old, Abdullah said. The soldiers left, going in the direction of the Israeli settlement, between 3:00-4:00 a.m., and he'd slept from about 4:00-7:00 a.m.; when he awoke, his children told him that curfew was in force.

One of Abdullah's brothers dropped by while we were there and he said a total of eight actually had been arrested. He reported that the army had broken into one home, and all the sons were beaten with rifle butts.

As of that time, no one had been released, nor could we get any names. Abed came back quickly from midday prayers, which he said had been intentionally foreshortened to allow people to get home again before curfew was re-imposed. He drove us past the house that was broken into, but it was closed up; a few shops were open. Abed was anxious to get out of town, lest we be unable to leave once the curfew was again in effect.

A postscript as of this writing: Abdul Kareem, from B’Tselem, whom we accompanied a few weeks earlier on interviews with families who had property demolition orders, had been able to enter Azzun that weekend, where he visited the bruised and injured boy following his release from detention; apparently no charges were filed.

11 Sept. 7, 7:48 p.m.:
No curfew but the army in town and on the field.

12 Sept.09, 10:32 a.m.:
Hi. Now Israeli army imposed curfew at Azzun.

15 Sept.09, 1:47 p.m.:
Hi. Now it’s curfew at Azzun and the army now imposing it.

15 Sept.09, 2:00 p.m.:
Israeli army now close entrance to Qalqilya

(our nearest city, which has a checkpoint where Palestinians with permits to work in Israel cross the Green Line to access their jobs).