Barta’a-Reihan, Tura-Shaked, Sun 17.3.13, Morning
Translator: Charles K.
Two guests joined us today. After having taken a guided tour of the West Bank they asked to participate in our work. We were happy to introduce them to our “territory” instead of carrying out an activity that’s very important to us – transporting patients to hospital. Our shift lasted longer than usual; nothing out of the ordinary occurred.
07:00 Tura/Shaked checkpoint
Three driverless cars stood in front of the entrance. The drivers were being inspected and then went to bring the cars for inspection too. The first to cross came through at 07:05; the others followed, one after the other, every five minutes or so. The drivers were inspected more quickly; that might have slightly delayed the laborers’ exit.
The children from the seam zone arrived on their way to their schools in the Palestinian village of Tura, beyond the checkpoint. They came running from their transportation and went through the checkpoint, some on the road and others through the fenced corridor. They weren’t inspected.
We showed the area to our guests – the Palestinian villages, the settlements and the industrial zone. It was pouring, a real cloudburst, making it hard to identify the enterprises in the industrial zone.
08:00 Barta’a-Reihan checkpoint
We went through the checkpoint and drove east toward the Yabed-Dothan checkpoint. We were glad to meet A., the driver, an old acquaintance, farther along the road, opposite Zbeida. We explained to our guests why cars were parked on the other side of locked iron barriers blocking the highway to Tulkarm, Qafin and Jenin, tightening the army’s control of Palestinian traffic in the area. We drove up to the settlement of Mavo Dothan (many empty houses) overlooking the Dothan Valley to the west and parts of the West Bank to the east and north, showed them the guard towers (pillboxes) all along the road and returned to the Reihan checkpoint.
Seven loaded trucks waited for inspection. We explained to our guests the inspection procedure for merchandise coming from the West Bank to east Barta’a. We drove to the crowded lower parking lot and were welcomed happily, demonstratively, by Hadi, who has a stall there. We talked about the function and location of the terminal at this large checkpoint, then returned through both sides of Barta’a, the Palestinian and the Israeli.
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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