Barta’a-Reihan, Tura-Shaked, Ya’bed-Dotan
06.20 Anin Checkpoint
There are soldiers – there are no keys.
We and the soldiers arrive at the checkpoint before the time. The DCO vehicle arrives via the security track and parks inside the checkpoint. The only problem : there are no keys, which arrive in a special vehicle at 06.30. The gate is opened. About 25 arrive, among them three women and three children. Six tractors pass through, one is turned back. We don’t know why. A young man complains that each time he is harassed before his passage is approved, although he has a valid approval in his hand, because he is on the denied entry to Israel list. To my best recollection, already during our first visit to the DCO about a decade ago, we were told that a denial of entry to Israel does not prevent entry to the Seam-line Zone.
07.15 Tura-Shaked
Two carts harnessed to a donkey greet our arrival. Additional people pass-through after them. One says that that the transit is slow, another that today it’s OK. One thing is certain, this checkpoint in this position is pointless. It is not open 24 hours a day and doesn’t enable free passage to the needy. The checkpoint to which the army gave the name “The fabric of Life”, mainly disrupts life. It isolates and distances many people from their lands, from their work-places and their families in the Seam-line zone, and those who were imprisoned in the Seam-line zone are cut-off from the center of their life in the Jordan Valley.
07.35 Barta’a-Reihan
The worker-transport vehicles are waiting in the upper parking-lot. Few people are passing at this hour, most have already gone to their work earlier. About one and a half dozen pick-ups loaded with agricultural produce designated for shops in Barta’a are waiting in the lower Palestinian parking-lot. They fill their secondary lot and block the entrance to the large parking-lot. Cars are parked in a long line on the road verges.
07.50 Ya’bed-Dotan
In the shade of olive trees between Amriha and the blocked road to Ya’bed, a military vehicle and a guard ensure that also pedestrians and not only cars will stay away from here. The checkpoint itself is not manned at this hour, and cars pass in both directions. 08.05 On our return via Barta’a checkpoint only a few people still arrive, some of the pick-ups have already left.
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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