ברטעה-ריחן, עאנין
The occupation’s bureaucracy and insensitivity are flourishing as usual. Example: the olive seedlings at A’anin checkpoint, below.
06:40 A’anin checkpoint
The checkpoint is supposed to open at 06:30, but the gates are locked even though the white DCL vehicle is in the checkpoint area. We telephone the DCL to find out what’s going on.
06:45 The soldiers arrive, slowly open one gate and have difficulty opening the second…
07:00 They start letting those who are waiting cross (only half an hour late). Two tractors go through. A third, loaded with olive seedlings, is stopped.
Two more tractors go through, and some people on foot. The farmers say there’s a great deal of work in the groves now and not everyone has received permits and they must get a lot done during the few days the gate is open.
One of the Palestinians isn’t allowed to cross because, one person says, the soldiers’ records don’t show him as having returned home yesterday. At least two more people were sent back.
It’s not possible to see and hear what’s really happening at the checkpoint. T
he tractor with the seedlings turns around and returns to the village but one of the Palestinians remains and continues to argue with the soldiers. We can’t hear what he says and even though he’s talking loudly the soldiers keep speaking to him and trying to persuade him. After a while the tractor returns without the trailer carrying the seedlings and the farmer who stayed to argue with the soldiers gets on and goes through the checkpoint. It turns out they didn’t allow him to bring the seedlings through on Thursday, and even though the Palestinian DCL had arranged in his presence with the Israeli DCL that he’d be allowed to bring them in on Monday, and even though the DCL representative was at the checkpoint, they wouldn’t let him bring them through today either. The youth was sent to the village to unload the seedlings from the trailer. A workday wasted during the high season, as were many similar days…
07:35 We leave the checkpoint and take someone along,whose leg hurts, and bring him to his destination.
Since we’d made an appointment to meet, at 08:00, a mother and daughter going to Rambam hospital in Haifa, we drove straight to the Barta’a checkpoint.
07:50 Even though they already waited for us, we nevertheless entered the fenced area to see what the situation was. Very few people crossing at this hour; they go through quickly. People continue going through and there are also laborers returning from the night shift.
08:05 We pick up the mother and the daughter and go on our way.
'Anin checkpoint (214)
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'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.
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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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