Barta’a-Reihan, Tura-Shaked, Ya’bed-Dotan
07.30 Tura
We are late: the checkpoint opened at the normal time of 07:00, and It seems that most of the workers have already passed through, as did the school-children, but there were still a few people crossing from the West-Bank, going to work. Our acquaintance is making his rounds, taking people from the checkpoint to Bart’a in his beat-up Subaru.
The pace at which people pass through is reasonable, and there is no queue at the turnstile. Everyone who approaches enters and after a few minutes crosses the checkpoint and is already on our side. We are told that at the Barta’a terminal there is heavy pressure because the inspection machines are not working. Many workers had to return home because their employers have given up waiting for them.
08.00 Barta’a
The equipment breakdown in the checkpoint has been mended and everything is working. One of the drivers complains that lately the checkpoint closes to traffic at 10 pm and not at midnight, which used to be the custom. We speak to R., the deputy manager of the checkpoint, who confirms that there had been a breakdown and it’s indeed mended. He is not bothered to hear that people have lost a day’s work because of this. Everything is fine. Regarding the earlier closing time of the checkpoint, he tells us there is no point in keeping it open during hours when there is no traffic. In case of an emergency there is always someone to open it. If a Palestinian ambulance is needed for a sick person to get to the village, Barta’a’s ambulance can be used, or another vehicle, according to the need.
R. is very proud of the renovation that has been done at the lower parking lot. On the day that the work started we were told that it would take a day to complete. That was three weeks ago…
What was I expecting to see in the renovated parking space? Removal of the bus parking area, which has never served even one bus, because they never go there. The result is that drivers park their cars near the center of the lot, to avoid being blocked when they return. Even worse, one row of cars has often blocked another and sometimes even more. This parking lot is so packed that sometimes many drivers don’t even try to enter, because it is so difficult to get out again. And so I dreamed about a renovated parking lot: each parking space marked with white lines, and spaces between each row of cars, so that it would be easy to enter and leave. OK, so I dreamed…
R.'s response to my proposal is: “It wouldn’t suit the Palestinians, because they wouldn’t keep order.” However, he is very proud of the layer of asphalt that has been laid in the area where the pavement, which marked the buses’ parking-spaces, has been removed. Similarly, the area behind the shed to the end of the plot has been covered with asphalt.
The prayer area, which used to be enclosed and covered with carpets, has been removed, and H.'s small lunchroom is no longer there as well. R. tells us that H.’s issues (he also cleans the checkpoint) are on the way to being resolved.
In addition, there is another change: across the road, a site has been opened for trucks waiting to be inspected. It seems that not all the truck drivers have internalized this fact, and they still stand at the roadside.
We dare to enter the yard in our car, right to the end, and the only way we can go back is in reverse. It doesn’t seem to us that the renovation has improved the lives of its users, and quite a few of them still park on the hill to the south.
09.00 Ya’bed-Dotan
The checkpoint is busy. We count twelve cars on the east side and cars are arriving from the west too. Instructions are shouted from the watchtower to the soldiers below :“Now from the east, now from the west”. One soldier receives an order to approach us. Wow! What a telling-off we receive, both from the soldier and also a settler from Mavo Dotan who comes to help him. We are rewarded with epithets such as traitors, destroyers of Israel, and even Nazis, no less. Also, “go back to Europe, that’s where you should live”. It would be useless to try and argue with them.
Seeing that the soldier claims that our car is too close to the cross-roads, and threatens to call the police, we act as if we are terribly scared, and we distance ourselves from fire and brimstone which has been directed at us. We also hear that stones have been thrown at the man from Mavo-Dotan, and the soldier tells us that a lot of firearms have been discovered at the checkpoint. However, we don’t see that cars are being inspected except for the checking of documents.
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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Ya'bed-Dotan
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Ya’bed-Dotan
This checkpoint is located on road 585, at the crossroads of Mevo Dotan settler-colony / Jenin/ Ya’abad. It has an army watchtower (‘pillbox’ post) and concrete blocs that slow down vehicular traffic. It was erected when Barta’a Checkpoint, lying to the west on the Separation Fence, was privatized and its operation was passed over to civilian security personnel. Since December 2009 this checkpoint enables flow of Palestinian vehicular traffic towards the Barta’a Checkpoint. Seldom is it manned by soldiers sitting in the watchtower, who conduct random inspections of vehicles and passengers. (february 2020)
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