Barta'a-Reihan, Tura-Shaked
15:30 – Tura-Shaked Checkpoint
It’s quiet, empty, and filthy. A car with an Israeli license plate waits next to the checkpoint, we don’t know for whom, or why. The driver is not in the car and there is no one to ask. Two Palestinian cars arrive from the Seamline Zone to the West Bank.
15:50 – Barta’a-Reihan Checkpoint
Actually, we almost canceled this observation after some snag, but we scheduled a meeting with G. and didn’t want to disappoint him. His son is ill and requires complicated treatment every week. He needs a car to transport his son for this treatment, but his car was confiscated, and a guarantee is demanded in order to release it. It turns out that the guarantee has been collected by mistake, but not yet been returned and the father needs financial help. We brought him a sum of money that our friend, M., collected for him and, well as a bundle of clothes and toys.
On the Seamline Zone side, workers disembark from transport vehicles and go down the long sleeve (covered walkway) to the terminal and the turnstile by the side. We travel to the Palestinian side of the checkpoint. It seems to us that we have never seen such a large number of parked cars.
G. phones and says he will arrive in a few minutes. He advises us to park at the end of a long line of cars by the side of the road, next to the private parking lots. We park there and he arrives with a friend. He was happy to receive what we brought and quickly went to the clinic where he left his son to await treatment.
16:20 – Junction of East Barta’a
A long line of stalls, as in a shuk, is stretching out there, following the massive passage of Palestinians on the way to the separation fence near the junction. But today, we didn’t see any sign of this passage; no workers wait on the road for rides and there are no military vehicles. We bought some vegetables and fruit and went home. Our friend who joined us on a shift a few weeks ago bought tomatoes there and said they lasted two weeks on the counter, without getting soft.
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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