Reihan, Shaked, Sat 25.10.08, Morning
|
07:30 – 08:15 Shaked (Tura) Checkpoint
Checkpoint is very busy, with about 40 people waiting to cross from the West Bank to the Seam Zone. Most have come to pick their olives. Complete families with young children, sacks for the olives, thermos bottles and food. There is also traffic in the other direction and cars and donkeys. People say that the wait is long, the checks are slow by only one soldier. We call the DCO and, after 20 minutes, a Civil Administration vehicle arrives at the checkpoint. For this reason, or another, the pace accelerates. We timed 20 minutes to pass. When we leave, there is no one waiting to cross.
A woman from Tura approached us and said that her husband had not received a pass for the Seam Zone (his olive grove) and the burden of picking falls only on her: she comes with all her small children who she cannot leave at home alone. We are told that yesterday the pickers were not permitted to take into the Seam Zone more than one sack per person, or to make more trips. What will become of the olives already picked? We passed both problems on to the harvest coalition.
08:30 – 10:00 Reihan-Bartaa Checkpoint
Here too the checkpoint is full of pedestrians, mostly from the West Bank to the Seam Zone. People coming out of the terminal talk about an hour spent inside, while others say ten minutes. A man who has left his magnetic card in the terminal yesterday, by mistake, approached one of the workers and got the card back within minutes. Suddenly an incident is announced in the x-ray room. Immediately the doors are locked and the terminal closes for 45 minutes.
In a conversation with the DCO, after half an hour, we are told that there was indeed "something" and transit will be renewed shortly. When they tried to open for transit there were technical and "other" problems. Meanwhile 20 men were waiting to cross into the West Bank, and we do not know what was happening on the other side where traffic is usually heavier at this hour. We waited till everyone crossed into the West Bank, but were forced to leave without seeing the other side of the checkpoint.
For that reason we could not follow closely and measure transit times of cars, but when we arrived there was a line of five vehicles waiting, while four were being inspected under the roof, and when we left one car was waiting and the pace seemed normal.
|
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
See all reports for this place-
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)
Mar-21-2022Anin Checkpoint: A magnificent breach in the center of the checkpoint
-