Northern Checkpoints, Barta’a: On the face of it, everything is wonderful, but the reality is gloomy, with no change
15:50 – 16:45
15:45 – Tura Checkpoint
Few workers return from the Seamline Zone to the West Bank. One car, from Umm Reihan, waits for students who arrive from the university in Shechem. They leave every day to study there. The mother who is waiting tells us that at the American university in Jenin, many Israelis also learn nursing.
16:05 – Barta’a Checkpoint
The checkpoint is bustling with life. Many groups of workers return from work in the Seamline Zone, but primarily from Israel. The workers return to the checkpoint from Hadera, Caesaria, and from Harish, close to the checkpoint, but most of them leave for work in the morning from the distant Jalama (Gilboa) or Tayibe (Efraim Gate). Even the kiosk at the checkpoint is open in the afternoon for the comfort of the increased number of those passing through, and according to the owner of the kiosk, the number who have permits has increased lately. Students with suitcases return home for the weekend–in Israel and in Barta’a.
Summer is felt and families with children who are on vacation, pass in two directions. At present, it is possible to be mistaken and think that we are in a normal border crossing: two singers from the West Bank pass to Akko to sing at a wedding; a large group of women, young boys and girls dressed for celebration, pass from Kafin to a family wedding in Barta’a. But the long, enclosed “sleeve” covered with barbed wire brings us quickly to the gloomy reality of the checkpoint and of the policies of the arbitrary permits.
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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