Barta'a-Reihan, Tura-Shaked, Ya'bed-Dotan
14.20. Y’abed-Dotan checkpoint.
The checkpoint was wide open, even the boom blocking passage on the bypass route is open today. An army vehicle arrives with three mature, calm soldiers who alight and ask me what I am doing, and politely advise me to move away ’’because there have been a number of attack attempts on this road.” One of them enters our Facebook, at my suggestion, and his companion says, half-jokingly: “a leftist, huh” They also don’t know who built the chain of pillboxes between Barta’a and Y’abed checkpoints (I counted six.)
14.40. Barta’a –Reihan checkpoint.
The carpark on the Palestinian side is completely full. People talk about the magnetic cards recently renewed, but not required at the checkpoint. H, a young and friendly young man who kept a small counter selling coffee and candy, and also a delivery business, recently got into a violent scrap with a competing driver. He was released from home arrest. This, after a temporary “sulha” was arranged between the two families. According to the arrangement, his family paid 10,000 shekels to the wounded party to pay for hospital expenses and is obligated to pay him monthly wages until he recovers.
15.10. In the upper parking lot, seamline zone, T.C., a driver from east Barta’a, 27 years old, tells me that he was badly beaten by two Druze Border Policemen, without cause, after he told them that he had come to renew his magnetic card. An officer arrived at the place, also a Druze, and after they whispered something to him he told them to continue beating him. He doesn’t know their names as their tags were written in Hebrew. According to him, he has many witnesses, but in fact, no one dared to interfere. He promised to give precise details about the time of the incident – day and hour – but apparently decided against.
15.30. Many workers return from work in busses, taxis and private cars. I went down with them to the terminal as far as the first turnstile of the three they have to pass to reach the Palestinian car park. They pass quickly and nimbly with sacks of apples, large bundles, gifts for the children.
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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