Barta'a checkpoint: first visit since 07.10.23
09:00 Eastern entrance junction to the Palestinian Barta’a from Road 611
We arranged a meeting at the junction with a taxi driver from Barta’a to deliver supplies to a family in Ya’bad in preparation for the upcoming Ramadan month.
Near the junction, many military vehicles were parked, including several large trucks carrying cranes. All the vehicles entered Barta’a while we wondered what destruction mission they were intended for. A phone call with M. solved the mystery. In Eastern Barta’a, they are currently demolishing homes, not necessarily new ones, but those that could not provide a title deed or building permit or other documentation. The military vehicles accompany the cranes and secure the operation.
09:30 Barta’a checkpoint, seam zone side
In the upper parking lot, many yellow taxis (Palestinians) are parked in disarray. The drivers are waiting for passengers to Barta`a. To our surprise, despite the late morning hour, quite a few people are still walking through the sleeve (a long, fenced path) from the checkpoint to the upper parking lot. As far as we understood, almost everyone works in Palestinian Bartaa. Only one woman is walking in the opposite direction.
We try to go down the sleeve towards the checkpoint entrance to observe the guards’ work at the crossing. We couldn’t connect with the Palestinians around us. The only ones who really made contact with us were two guards standing at the vehicle checkpoint, beyond the sleeve’s fence. They asked who we were. We had been at the checkpoint for less than two years, and they did not recognize us and had not heard of Machsom Watch. They requested identification and called their supervisor. They returned to us and said we were not allowed to cross the pedestrian checkpoint, which is designated only for Palestinians, and we had to leave the area. They dismissed our explanation that we did not intend to cross, only to observe the terminal entrance (the checkpoint structure), and that we had been doing this for over twenty years; it did not help.
We returned to the parking lot. One of the drivers complained that he was held up at the checkpoint every time for about half an hour, even though he had a crossing permit for the seam zone. After half an hour, suddenly his papers were “in order,” and they let him through.
10:00 Tura checkpoint
Quiet and empty, just as we know it. We stayed there for about fifteen minutes. One pedestrian crossed into the seam zone and told us that he thought he recognized us and that two cars had crossed to the West Bank.
Location Description
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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East Barta'a Junction
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East Barta'a Junction
The main station at the eastern Barta'a junction (Roads 611/6115).
A junction without special activities became about April 2020 a bustling center of transportation to workplaces in Israel, following the free passage through loopholes in the nearby separation fence.
Palestinian workers from all over the West Bank gather here every morning, without transit permits and often without masks. The army is turning a blind eye and the occupation is losing control.
There is also no shortage of coffee and pastry stalls.
Hagar DrorSep-26-2023Barta'a: rapid construction of the separation fence
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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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