‘Anin, Reihan, Shaked, Thu 12.2.09, Afternoon
Today we learned that the laws of the occupation do not apply to people only. They apply to animals as well…
Reihan Checkpoint: 14:35
Five vans are waiting in the Palestinian parking lot below, and drivers are waiting for workers to come back. There is a lot of contention among the drivers regarding the fact that Israeli Arab drivers from Barta’a are now allowed to come to the seamline area and work, depriving the Palestinian drivers of their work. The checkpoint is quiet since workers have not yet arrived. We leave for A’anin.
A’anin Checkpoint: 15:20
When we arrive the tractors and farmers have already gone through the gate, which now stands wide open. Four men are being detained near the inner gate on the other side. The only traveler still waiting to pass through from the seamline zone to A’anin is none other than a white horse. A young man leading him approaches us and explains that the horse was taken through the checkpoint to the seamline zone two days ago to receive veterinary care. The driver dropped him off at the A’anin checkpoint with the horse, but they are now stranded on the seamline side of the gate because the soldiers will not let the horse back in! The young man does not know what to do: he cannot leave with the horse: it is not his, and he lives far away, and he cannot leave him tied up here.
We approach the gate and ask the soldiers what is going on. One, who gives his name as G., politely explains to us that there is a new regulation that animals cannot pass back and forth through the checkpoints. He is sorry, but this is a division-level decision and he must follow orders. He does not know who let the horse out two days ago, but he cannot let it back in because he has been ordered not to.
We back off from the gate: there is a stalemate. Sima decided to call the brigade commander and begins dialing other MW members to retrieve the number. The young man paces back and forth helplessly with the horse, which whinnies, paws the ground, and grows restless: The young man wants to be relieved of his responsibility and go home, and the horses is probably hungry and eager to cross the gate and go home as well. Fifteen minutes later, before Sima manages to find the number of the commander the young man comes up to us to shake our hands and thank us: the soldiers have relented and the horse has been let through to his waiting owner. We approach the gate to thank the soldiers, but G’s companion is standing resolutely with his back to us, obviously not eager to speak to us at all.
Meanwhile, one of the soldiers is talking over the radio in the jeep, reading off the names and ID numbers of the four men who are still being detained. We leave and depart for Shaked Tura.
Shaked Tura – 16:10
The checkpoint is empty. End of shift.
'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.
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Barta’a-Reihan Checkpoint
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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).
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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)
Mar-21-2022Anin Checkpoint: A magnificent breach in the center of the checkpoint
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