ברטעה-ריחן, טורה-שקד, טייבה-רומנה, עאנין
Checkpoint Barta`a (Area’s terminal 05:45
in the upper parking lot a few taxis are waiting for work but there are very few clients. Apparently just a few people arrive to work from the West Bank, because of Ramadan. Palestinians explained to us that after walking around at night between neighbors and family members, and going to sleep late, they have no desire to get up at dawn for work. In the lower level parking there are people who still came to work – they immediately pass to the terminal and from there to their working places, mainly at Palestinian Barta'a. Ten commercial vehicles are waiting on the road since last night. Ibrahim, the veteran ride’s organizer explains that the agricultural products and goods that are passing here go all over the country. "No, not just to Barta'a," he makes fun of us.
Checkpoint (Agricultural *) Anin 06:10
At the CP there are more people in uniform than Palestinians. The crossing begin – one tractor and barely 10 pedestrians. People do not get new permits. In comparison – during the last olive’s harvest (October, November 2013) every day more than 100 people passed, during other days, not in the harvest season, around 30-50 people passed twice a week. For quite some time now, less and less people pass here. There are about 4,000 people in the village the vast majority of them are farmers. Why don’t they renew their permits and issue new permits so that they can cross over to their lands? Apparently someone in the Civil Administration / DCO decided there is no need. It should be reminded that farmers do not need a formal reason no to explain why the need or want to approach their lands!
Hosni, the redhead farmer, says that last Monday only he and two others returned to the village in the afternoon. And what do you do on other days when this checkpoint is closed? Stay at home, he says, I have a few goats, I take them out to the pasture, I milk them. Those who have a job "outside" pass on other days through the farther Al-Jalama Checkpoint.
CP (Life’s Fabric*) Tura 6:55 
A group of soldier + one female soldier are arriving from the military base on their way to open and operate the checkpoint. At the CP there are already some of the security forces. In Tura, the village that’s close to the CP on the Palestinian side we see unfamiliar sight: a patrol of soldiers are leaving the village (marked on the left photo) and go on to cross the checkpoint. The soldiers pass next to us and some of them greet us or respond with a warm “good morning”. This positive attitude toward us is surprising! Maybe they are new soldiers and in a short while their friends will influence them to see in us a bitter enemy.
Usually in the morning only few people pass, today even less.
CP (Agricultural) Taibe Romana 08:00 –
on our way to the checkpoint we got lost in the alleys of Umm al-Fahm. When we asked for help from a young local he said adamantly: There is no checkpoint, and insisted time and again. We invited him to join us but he refused angrily. It is unclear why the anger? The checkpoint is located at the foot of the mountain town, on its eastern border. It may be amazing that an Umm al-Fahm resident does not know about it but actually it’s not that surprising.
Today the border guards opened the checkpoint on time and in doing so agreed to talk a little. Although they weren’t filled with joy to see us, they didn’t show hostility as has happened in the past.
The red tractor passed first, as usual. What's going on? We asked the tractor operator. "Once it’s like this and once like that," he said and hurried away. Six people followed. A woman accompanied by a young man and a little boy is angrily arguing with the guards. One can understand that she is trying to convince them to let them cross over to their lands. "Here, here", she points towards Umm al-Fahm. It doesn’t help her. She goes back home with her sons. Border police explained that the youngster had no permit.
On our way back we again got lost, although we enjoyed it, in the alleys of the city. Every corner is overlooking the mosque with its golden domes, strange houses with all kinds of high floors and decorations… A city that grows higher and higher.
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Area’s terminal: a large checkpoint with elaborate systems of checking and identifications, for passing people, vehicles and goods of any size between the West Bank, the Seam Zone and Israel.
Agricultural Checkpoint: Located on the separation wall and allowing Palestinians farmers who are cut form their lands to continue working on them only twice a week.
Life’s Fabric Checkpoint: is supposed to provide a humane solution for Palestinians who were cut off from the West Bank with the construction of the wall, to continue their relationships with the West Bank and vice versa.
'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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Tayba-Rummana
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Tayba-Rummana is an agricultural checkpoint. It is located in the separation fence in front of the eastern slopes of the Israeli city of Umm al-Fahm. The Palestinian villages next to the checkpoint are Khirbet Tayba and Rummana. Dozens of dunams of olive groves were removed from their owners, the residents of these villages on the western side of the separation fence. The Palestinian villages next to the checkpoint are Khirbet Tayba and Rumna. Dozens of olives dunams were removed from these villages' residents and swallowed up in a narrow strip of space, on the western side of the separation fence. The checkpoint allows the plantation owners who have permits to pass. Twice a week, the checkpoint opens for fifteen minutes in the morning and evening. During the harvest season, it opens every day for fifteen minutes in the morning (around 0630) and fifteen minutes in the afternoon (around 1530). (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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