Barta’a-Reihan, Tura-Shaked
05.50 Barta’a-Rechan Checkpoint
Many people are waiting for their transportation. Dress-makers who travel every day complain that it’s taking a long time, there is a lot of confusion, and every morning they waste a lot of valuable time. We enter the long passageway called “the sleeve” and meet a stream of people coming out. Accordng to the reports the time it takes to traverse the checkpoint is between an hour and 15 minutes.
Some of the people greet us with a “Shalom”, thread their belts back onto their trousers and run to their transportation. The daily routine.
06.20 We go out to see what’s happening at the entrance to the Palestinian side of the checkpoint because of reports that there is a long queue there. The parking-lot on the Palestinian side of the checkpoint is still closed for renovation. While we were there, no work was being done, and also there was no big change, although, according to the people we met, the parking-lot has been closed for over a week, causing gret difficulty for the workers.
Outside, eight loaded trucks are waiting to be inspected for entry into the seam-line zone (particularly to Barta’a). According to the waiting drivers the inspection starts at 06.30. There are seven more trucks which are being checked. The drivers tell us that the modifications to the parking-lot will provide space for trucks, which would be a big help.
One of the drivers asks for help in canceling a GSS (general security service) exclusion order, and we direct him to Sylvia.
A conversation develops about the situation and the war in Gaza, and there is agreement that peace and employment are more important than anything-else. . . . they hope that the Gaza inhabitants will receive aid to rebuild the area.
06.55 Tura-Shaked Checkpoint
There are no soldiers and still no people waiting on the seam-line zone side. The checkpoint is open. It’s possible to enter it and to stroll around there as far as the gate behind which the Palestinians are waiting.
07.05 Leah calls the civil administration office and complains that the gate still hasn’t been opened. She is told that they would send someone immediately and indeed a military vehicle arrives very quickly and at high-speed from the nearby base, bringing soldiers. It turns around and returns with military-police women.
07. 17 Meanwhile, a fellow, who has arrives in a car, enters the passageway for pedestrians, is examined, and then returns to his car and drives it across also.
07.20 The first Palestinian woman crosses on her way to her work in the Shaked industrial zone, situated within the Seam-line zone. She has to wait for a driver to take her there but he is still stuck in the queue. Loud shouts and complaints are heard from the queue, and the (female) soldier shouts and curses them.
07.30 The first car still hasn’t passed, and the (female) soldier just stares at me when I try to draw her attention to the waiting driver.
07.35 The first driver passes through. There is a lot of anger and resentment about the slowness and contempt towards the Palestinians. One of them tells me that on many days lately the soldiers arrived only at 07.30.
In a conversation with inhabitants of the small village of Daher El Malek near the checkpoint it appears that they are not connected to the electricity grid even though electric power-lines pass overhead. They have an electric generator which operates for three hours a day, but apart from this they live as if they are in the middle-ages, with no electricity. They said that the mukhtar (head) of the village has appealed to the authorities many times but they were refused. There is also a lawyer involved in the matter. Their lands are registered in their names but of course they are not allowed to construct any buildings there.
07.45 We leave while there are still many angry people waiting to pass.
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
-