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Reihan, Shaked, Sun 23.3.08, Morning

Place: Barta’a-Reihan Checkpoint Tura-Shaked
Tags: Children Closure DCO (District Coordination Offices) Passage Restrictions
Observers: Chana H., Yocheved G.
Mar-23-2008
| Morning
06:00 Reihan (Bartaa) Checkpoint
The women are coming out of the terminal to go to work in East Bartaa, as usual.
Eight trucks wait in line to be checked and to cross into the Seam Zone. The mobile kiosk is waiting for customers.
Our impression is that fewer people are crossing today, perhaps because of the Purim closure.
One Palestinian is sent back from the checkpoint, even though he has a pass to stay in the Seam Zone and a crossing permit. We asked Sharon, the security man, to check why people with permits are being denied passage even though their permits are valid, and now they have to get to the Salem DCO to draw new documents.

07:00 Shaked-Tura Checkpoint

The checkpoint is open. Even though we've heard complaints from people, it seems that traffic is flowing as usual. Schoolchildren, big and small, passing with no checks. A flock of sheep goes through.

07:40 Reihan (Bartaa) Checkpoint

We returned to the checkpoint to see what had happened to the man who was turned back. After talking to Sharon, it appears that there is a problem with his fingerprints, and he has to go in any case to DCO Salem.
Till now four vehicles have been through the inspection and have continued to the Seam Zone. According to the drivers, passage only began at 07:30. Again there are eight loaded vehicles waiting to pass.
08:00 – seven cars wait to enter the Territories, and six wait to enter the Seam Zone.

08:15 Old Bartaa (agricultural) Checkpoint

Three tractors wait to cross from the West Bank into the Seam Zone. Two armoured vehicles and eight soldiers are on duty in this shift.
The first tractor doesn’t pass because its permit has expired. The elderly driver fumes – perhaps he can’t read.
The second goes through.
The third, with a water cart for irrigation, goes through, the driver being warned that he must return at 16:00, and mustn’t try to return earlier or with water remaining. What do they think he’s going to do?
08:30 – the gate is closed.

  • 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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