Northern checkpoints: Have someone explain what the checkpoints are for?
16.50 – 14.45
North 08.11.2021 Afternoon
Rachel Weizman and Hannah Heller (Reporting, Photos)
Translation: Bracha Ben-Avraham
16.50 – 14.45
14:15 – Route 611 opposite the Palestinian village of Qeiqis in the West Bank
We saw the hole in the fence that was in use and workers who were finished for the day were walking down to return to the West bank. On the hill going down to the village there was a parking lot for cars belonging to people who are going to work in Israel. There is an improvised transportation station on Route 611 for use by Palestinian workers. A group of women and children were walking through the hole in the fence on their way to a family visit on the Israeli side. Many workers were getting out of cars and returning to the West bank.
Further down the road there was a large sign advertising the second housing plan to populate the settlement of Reihan. There was indeed a lot of construction activity going on there. There were signs in the business center in the Palestinian village of Um Reihan in Hebrew as well.
A’anin Checkpoint, 15:20 – There were large piles of litter at the entrance to the checkpoint, as there are at most of the checkpoint in the seamline zone. No regional authority seems to feel responsible for these areas.
A family was harvesting olives in the grove close to the checkpoint. They were still working hard and we wondered what time the checkpoint would open today. According to the District Coordination and Liaison Office it is supposed to open at 15:30.
A large truck arrived at 15:30 that had been converted into a bus for “Rose Tours” carrying two soldiers. They did not open the checkpoint, but continued driving along the security road. We called the District Coordination and Liaison Office to find out what was going on. We were answered politely but didn’t get an answer. A., who was still working in the olive grove with his family, told us that this morning the checkpoint had opened at 10:00 instead of 06:30, and that was only after he had called Shuli to alert her as to what was going on. The 20 people who were waiting with him crossed through the hole in the fence, but he had to wait because he had a tractor with him {and couldn’t drive through the hole}. They promised they would come back to open the checkpoint at 16:00, but they were late again and came only at 16:30. The reset of the people had evidently returned home through the hole in the fence.
Tura Checkpoint 15:50 – There was light traffic in both directions and workers were returning to the West Bank from the seamline zone.
Barta’a Checkpoint 16:00
There were several houses on the hill near the checkpoint. An army truck dropped off a car with several soldiers who scattered among the houses. There were also several army vehicles at the checkpoint itself and a lot of soldiers at the nearby firing range.
Dozens of workers were returning to the checkpoint on busses from “The Peace Dove” and “Rose Tours” and from cars belonging to contractors. People were walking down the sleeve quickly, stopping at the kiosk, and continuing to the West bank.
'Anin checkpoint (214)
See all reports for this place-
'Anin checkpoint (214)
'Anin checkpoint is located on the Separation Fence east of the Israeli community Mei Ami and close to the village of Anin in the West Bank. It is opened twice a week, morning and afternoon, on days with shorter light time, for Anin farmers whose olive groves have been separated from the village by the fence it became difficult to cultivate their land. Transit permits are only issued to those who can produce ownership documents for their caged-in land, and sometimes only to the head of the family or his widow, eldest son, and children. Sometimes the inheritors lose their right to tend to the family’s land. The permits are eked out and are re-issued only with difficulty. 55-year-old persons may cross the checkpoint (into Israel) without special permits. During the olive harvest season (about one month around October) the checkpoint is open daily and more transit permits are issued. Names of persons eligible to cross are held in the soldiers’ computers. In July 2007, a sweeping instruction was issued, stating that whoever does not return to the village through this checkpoint in the afternoon will be stripped of his transit permit when he shows up there next time. Since 2019, the checkpoint has not been allways locked with the seam-line zone gate (1 of 3 gates), and the fence around it has been broken in several sites.
-
Barta’a-Reihan Checkpoint
See all reports for this place-
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
See all reports for this place-
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
-