A 3-year-old toddler is detained at checkpoint Barta`a
This report was written on January 26th after the sad events in Jenin, the local city of most people who cross through the northern checkpoints. 11 Palestinians were killed in clashes with the IDF.
14:35 – Barta’a-Reihan Checkpoint, Seamline Zone Side
New concrete benches have been built under the shed that is covered with prayer rugs. A large group of drivers were witting there and complained that they had no work. Meanwhile many transit vehicles arrived filled with workers who were coming back to the West bank from work in Israel. A young man approached us and was extremely agitated. His mother was being detained on the other side of the checkpoint because her three-year-old daughter had no permit to cross. She was listed in her father’s I.D. card and he was not here. We called the managers of the checkpoint and Y. promised to look into the matter. While we were talking another brother arrived who had also talked to the officer who also promised he would help.
We bought two containers of olive oil from Anwar in Emricha. You remember him from the report about the settlers from Maoz Zvi who evicted him during the olive harvest. He works to earn a living for his family but doesn’t have enough money to pay for his daughter’s university education. We continued on and stopped next to an unplanted field filled with poppies. To the north we could see the city of Ya`abad and to the south there was a view of the settlements of Mevo Dotan and Maoz Zvi on the ridge and the Hadera River that winds between them.
15:25 – Dotan Checkpoint
The traffic was flowing. A large truck had to execute some complicated maneuvers to drive through the concrete barricades and cross the checkpoint. Soldiers from the Kfir Brigade arrived in a jeep and warned us that the area was dangerous. An explosive device was set off not far from here the day before yesterday. We read Gideon Levi’s article entitled “And then the Soldiers Shot Him” about the lies told by the Kfir Brigade and the Netzach Yehuda Division that was recently sent to the Golan Heights.
15:50 – Reihan-Barta’a Checkpoint, Palestinian Side
There were a lot of cars everywhere. A new dirt road extended along the old embankment “the garbage dump”, and a new embankment now filled the riverbed near the main road. A small sign told about the contracting company that is now working here, but we have not found out who ordered this project: the checkpoint management, the Palestinian Authority, or a private initiator. Many people were hurrying along the sleeve and returning to the West Bank. There was a line of about 10 cars going in the opposite direction on their way to be checked.
16:20 Tura- Shaked Checkpoint
There was also a long line of cars waiting here in front of the checkpoint. The drivers explained that they had already been waiting for 15 minutes. Women with shopping bags were arriving from the other side as well as a tractor pilling a wide wagon that nearly scratched a luxury 4×4 car as it passed it. The young driver boasted that it cost NIS 200,000. Someone coming from the West Bank reported that there was only one woman soldier in the checkpoint who was playing. Suddenly a soldier named Judah was called over the loudspeaker and he came down from the guard tower. We attempted to ask him what was going on. Another soldier from the tower informed us that he could not stop to talk because he needed to let the cars cross. Until now he had remained in the watch tower doing nothing. With Judah’s arrival the checkpoint suddenly woke up, and the cars began to move. At 16:35 a group of women accompanied by girls and a baby walked up the road towards the checkpoint. They smiled at us with almond-shaped brown, blue, and green eyes and we photographed them happily.
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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Ya'bed-Dotan
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Ya’bed-Dotan
This checkpoint is located on road 585, at the crossroads of Mevo Dotan settler-colony / Jenin/ Ya’abad. It has an army watchtower (‘pillbox’ post) and concrete blocs that slow down vehicular traffic. It was erected when Barta’a Checkpoint, lying to the west on the Separation Fence, was privatized and its operation was passed over to civilian security personnel. Since December 2009 this checkpoint enables flow of Palestinian vehicular traffic towards the Barta’a Checkpoint. Seldom is it manned by soldiers sitting in the watchtower, who conduct random inspections of vehicles and passengers. (february 2020)
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