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‘Anin, Reihan, Shaked, Sun 4.11.12, Morning

Observers: Mirele, Ruthi (Reporting)
Nov-04-2012
| Morning

ranslation: Bracha B.A.

 

 

06:45 – A'anin Checkpoint

We met F. to get a container of olive oil for our friend Raya.  We asked him about the new checkpoint that is about to open for the residents of A'anin who wish to harvest the olives from the groves on the hill to the right of the checkpoint.   F. claims that the residents of A'anin prevented the checkpoint from opening, since they were not able to commit themselves to crossing through it on a daily basis and the checkpoint would not be used sufficiently to warrant opening it.   F. explained that the olive yield was low this year because the trees were damaged by material that was sprayed on the nearby forests by the JNF.   This matter needs to be investigated.  

By 07:00 it appears that everyone who had arrived at the checkpoint has already crossed.    A young man gallops across the checkpoint on a donkey and stops near us to make a phone call and to have his picture taken.   It is time for the soldiers to lock the checkpoint, but they are in no hurry.

07:05 – Shaked-Tura Checkpoint

The school principal, the banker, and a few workers cross, and about 20 children arrive in a blue transit at 07:20 as usual.  They cross the checkpoint on foot (see photograph) and walk along the road rather than through the sleeve and cross without being checked.  At 07:40 the transit returns and picks up the teachers to take them to school in Um Reihan.  Three 14-year-old boys are sent to the inspection booth and return in a minute or two and take a shortcut through the field to the school in Tura. 

   

07:55 – Reihan Barta'a Checkpoint

Today we observed the checkpoint only from the seamline zone side.  About ten women students and mothers with babies are going to the West Bank.  They present documents and permits at the booth.    They are followed by a car with a woman driver and passenger.   They are told to open all the doors and the hood.  The driver is extremely agitated, says: "I am a doctor!" and is in a hurry to get to work.   Her car is meticulously checked by a female worker who is guarded, wearing protective clothing, and holding a flashlight.    A small truck arrives with a young family and crosses without being checked.  We descend the sleeve to the entrance to the terminal.  N., a striking Druze man with a thin face and large mustache, is in the high guard position on the side of the hill.   We usually meet him in the center of the checkpoint and ask him what he is doing there.  He answers happily, "I'm floating in the clouds."   He then conducts a conversation above us with R., the vice-manager of the checkpoint, about stone throwing.  R. goes behind the sleeve and strikes up a friendly conversation with Mirele. 

Both of them are kibbutzniks.  A house wares salesman from Barta'a complained that he had been inside the terminal for half an hour.  He feels they are working slowly.   Others agree with him and explain that it is crowded, and complain that: "there are lots of people inside."  Someone comes out and asks jokingly if there was a power failure because the gates were closed.  At 08:50 the gates were open again. 

  • '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

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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).

  • 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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