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Reihan, Shaked, Tue 18.3.08, Morning

Place: Barta’a-Reihan Checkpoint Tura-Shaked
Tags: Children Palestinian farmers
Observers: Tami S., Hassida S. (reporting)
Mar-18-2008
| Morning

07:45 Shaked-Tura Checkpoint

Apparently the children, students, and teachers have already crossed, some to the Seam Zone, others to the West Bank, to Tura, Yaabed or Jenin.
Two flocks of goats are already through, one by the gate on the Seam Zone side and the other between the fences.
Twenty people are still waiting on the Tura (West Bank) side, apparently going to work.
One car is being checked for five minutes, then it passed through. Pedestrians enter one after the other into the x-ray facility. Check lasts a minute.
We are told that there is a list of permit holders, and each one knows his place on the list, so the traffic is fast.

08:00 Reihan-Bartaa Checkpoint

No one waiting either side. The flow through the terminal is steady. Only drivers waiting for work, and trucks with produce. Not many trucks waiting, and on each, apart from vegetables or other goods, the 50 trays of eggs that are permitted. Reihan cars crossing into the Seam Zone are being checked in fours under the roof.
We met our acquaintance I., who told us about a traffic accident he had. The insurance doesn’t cover the damage of the person responsible, and the repairs cost a lot of money.
We chatted for a long while with Muhammad A. about education and culture in the villages and about another book that he is writing.
The landscaping is progressing: on one of the squares a basket in the shape of a seesaw, or perhaps a seesaw in the shape of a basket (ceramic). And rocks with what appear to be steel helmets holding baskets of flowers. Creativity is rampant, but "all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand (Macbeth, Act V, Scene 1).

09:00 Old Bartaa Checkpoint

The gate is locked and no one is there. The yellow notice board on the gate does not mark opening hours or telephone numbers to call. There is only a newly paved path leading to a high red–and–white painted antenna.
We sought to pass through the village. On the eastern entry road, work is in progress to widen and pave two lanes and lamp poles are already in place between the lanes.

  • 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).

  • 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)
      מחסום עאנין: פרצה מפוארת במרכז המחסום
      Mar-21-2022
      Anin Checkpoint: A magnificent breach in the center of the checkpoint
      View the full album
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