Barta’a-Reihan, Tura-Shaked
07.20 – 07.40 Tura-Shaked
The checkpoint is open to easy passage; no-one is waiting in front of the turnstiles, and people pass from side to side with no delays. There are relatively few people passing through, perhaps because of Ramadan. As usually happens, people are polite and smiling, and they greet us. The garbage container is full as usual.
07.50 – 08.15 Barta’a-Reihan
Also here the traffic is relatively small. People explain to us that it is because of the early hour and perhaps also because of the festival. Also here, no-one is eating, drinking or smoking. “The “coffee-corner” in the “sleeve” corridor is closed and covered with a cloth. Barking dogs can be heard from the area where cars are searched. A glimpse into the terminal reveals that there is no queue there, and people are passing quite fast.
It is still early so we decide to go to the Ya’bed-Dotan checkpoint. There a number of soldiers but the cars coming from the Jordan Valley are not being held-up. Quite quickly two soldiers arrive, polite and smiling with a bag of Choco-drink for us. They offer us to come and eat with them, and cheerfully offer to provide any help we need. The days of the Messiah have arrived ! In the meantime a number of cars arrive from the Jordan Valley (also here the traffic is very thin) and are stopped for inspection at the checkpoint, but the delay is short.
The tobacco fields are flowering, the harvest has already started and there is row-upon-row of tobacco leaves hung to dry in the sun
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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