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‘Anin, Reihan, Shaked, Mon 29.9.08, Morning

Observers: Anna N. S., Neta J. (reporting)
Sep-29-2008
| Morning
Rosh Hashana Eve
Translation: Devorah K.

05:00 Reihan-Barta'a CP
The CP is open and there is no queue. Those who arrive enter immediately. Because of the closure, most of those who work in Israel have not arrived. The workers in Kibbutz Metzer did arrive and of course were not allowed to go through. The seamstresses who work in East Barta'a in the seamline zone went through as usual. Cars are being inspected with a mirror. The dog is apparently still sleeping. Only two pickup trucks are waiting for inspection which begins at 07:00.

05:50 It seems that 'everything is fine' (afterwards we discovered that we were mistaken) and we drive to the A'anin CP.

06:00 A'anin CP
The CP is still closed. We can hear the voices of those waiting from afar.

06:05 The soldiers arrive. The opening of the gates goes on until about 06:15.

06:20 The first person goes through. He offers greetings for our holiday and we greet him for his. We still do not know if 'Id el Fitr' begins on Tuesday or Wednesday.
We are told that they are waiting for about 50 people. The tempo of the passage is reasonable. Many of those going through greet us and we greet them. One of those going through conveys an order from the soldiers — that we should not pass the gate.

07:00 Shaked-Tura CP
The CP is open. A pupil who is industrious and quick arrives and goes through to Tura on the West Bank. About 20 people are waiting in front of the turnstile at the entrance to the inspection pavilion in order to go through to the seamline zone. 07:15 – An additional group of people arrives at the turnstile. They tell us that the workers from the Shahak industrial zone in the seamline zone were not allowed through at the Reihan-Barta'a CP and they had to go to the Shaked-Tura CP.

07:25 Pupils arrive and go through to their school without any inspection.

07:30 Our friend, B., who works in the rug plant in Shahak, goes through. He tells us that at 06:00 (after we left), they wanted to go through at the Reihan CP and were not allowed through. Telephone calls from the employer did not help. The employer discovered that they will be allowed to go through at the Shaked CP and that is what happened in the end. B. tells us that they are paid by the hour and now they have lost an hour of work. He also tells us that they have 12 vacation days a year, including the holidays. Those who 'waste' the vacation do not get paid for the holiday. In the past they did get extra pay for 'recovery days', but there is a new boss and now they do not get this extra vacation money.

07:45 Reihan-Barta'a CP
A few drivers are waiting for passengers and there is almost no pedestrian traffic. Many soldiers are traveling for their free holiday on bus number 27.

08:00 Two pickup trucks that arrived from Nablus in the morning are now leaving after inspection. No additional pickup trucks have arrived. Three cars are being inspected. The dog is now up and is helping in the inspection.
Two boys and four girls go through the CP on their way to school in Zebda. Their walking along the road looks really dangerous.

08:15 – We left the CP.
  • 'Anin checkpoint (214)

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    • 'Anin checkpoint (214)
      'Anin checkpoint is located on the Separation Fence east of the Israeli community Mei Ami and close to the village of Anin in the West Bank. It is opened twice a week, morning and afternoon, on days with shorter light time, for Anin farmers whose olive groves have been separated from the village by the fence it became difficult to cultivate their land. Transit permits are only issued to those who can produce ownership documents for their caged-in land, and sometimes only to the head of the family or his widow, eldest son, and children. Sometimes the inheritors lose their right to tend to the family’s land. The permits are eked out and are re-issued only with difficulty. 55-year-old persons may cross the checkpoint (into Israel) without special permits. During the olive harvest season (about one month around October) the checkpoint is open daily and more transit permits are issued. Names of persons eligible to cross are held in the soldiers’ computers. In July 2007, a sweeping instruction was issued, stating that whoever does not return to the village through this checkpoint in the afternoon will be stripped of his transit permit when he shows up there next time. Since 2019, the checkpoint has not been allways locked with the seam-line zone gate (1 of 3 gates), and the fence around it has been broken in several sites.

  • Barta’a-Reihan Checkpoint

    See all reports for this place
    • This checkpoint is located on the Separation Fence route, east of the Palestinian town of East Barta’a. The latter is the largest Palestinian community inside the seam-line zone (Barta’a Enclave) in the northern West Bank. Western Barta’a, inside Israel, is adjacent to it. The Checkpoint is open all week from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. Since mid-May 2007, the checkpoint has been managed by a civilian security company subordinate to the Ministry of Defense. People permitted to cross through this checkpoint into and from the West Bank are residents of Palestinian communities inside the Barta’a Enclave as well as West Bank Palestinian residents holding transit permit. Jewish settlers from Hermesh and Mevo Dotan cross here without inspection. A large, modern terminal is active here with 8 windows for document inspection and biometric tests (eyes and fingerprints).  Usually only one or two  of the 8 windows are in operation. Goods,  up to medium commercial size, may pass here from the West Bank into the Barta’a Enclave.  A permanent registered group of drives who have been approved by the may pass with farm produce. When the administration of the checkpoint was turned over to a civilian security firm, the Ya’abad-Mevo Dotan Junction became a permanent checkpoint. . It is manned by soldiers who sit in the watchtower and come down at random to inspect vehicles and passengers (February 2020).

  • Tura-Shaked

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    • Tura-Shaked

      This is a fabric of life* checkpoint through which pedestrians, cabs and private cars (since 2008) pass to and from the West Bank and the Seam-line Zone to and from the industrical zone near the settler-colony Shaked, schools and kindergartens, and Jenin university campuses. The checkpoint is located between Tura village inside the West Bank and the village of Dahar Al Malah inside the enclave of the Seam-line Zone.  It is opened twice a day, between 7 a.m. and 10 a.m., and from 12 noon to 7 p.m. People crossing it (at times even kindergarten children) are inspected in a bungalow with a magnometer. Names of those allowed to cross it appear in a list held by the soldiers. Usually traffic here is scant.

      • fabric of life roads and checkpoints, as defined by the Terminals Authority in the Ministry of Defense (fabric of life is a laundered name that does not actually describe any kind of humanitarian purpose) are intended for Palestinians only. These roads and checkpoints have been built on lands appropriated from their Palestinian owners, including tunnels, bypass roads, and tracks passing under bridges. Thus traffic can flow between the West Bank and its separated parts that are not in any kind of territorial contiguity with it. Mostly there are no permanent checkpoint on these roads but rather ‘flying’ checkpoints, check-posts or surprise barriers. At Toura, a small (less than one dunam) and sleepy checkpoint has been established, which has filled up with the years with nearly .every means of supervision and surveillance that the Israeli military occupation has produced. (February 2020)
      מחסום עאנין:  פרצה מפוארת במרכז המחסום
      Mar-21-2022
      Anin Checkpoint: A magnificent breach in the center of the checkpoint
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