ברטעה-ריחן, טורה-שקד
06:05 Bartaa-Rehan checkpoint
Many workers are waiting for their transportation outside the checkpoint. The coffee-cart which was moved outside the “sleeve” (see explanation below) is very busy. Many cars with Israeli license-plates are waiting for their passengers. An acquaintance of Hanah tells us that the terminal is very congested. More workmen have received permits recently, and his leg was injured as a result of the crowding there.
We descend to the terminal through a long corridor called “the sleeve" because it is made of strong wire mesh ( which envelopes us from the side and also from above – why ?), and 06.05 Barta- Rechan checkpointsthis Kafkaesque place through the eyes of our guest. We go against the tide of men exiting the inspection booths, with their belts in their hands; why? Most of them greet us with a “shalom” and a wide smile; why?
The elegently dressed seamstresses who work in Barta’ah pass through the checkpoint. We stand at the point where the stream of workmen pours out from the inspection booths in the terminal into the “sleeve.
06.30 One of the workmen pauses next to us and is angry at the slowness of the passage through the checkpoint today. According to him, it took him over half an hour to pass.
06.40 We go outside, and pass the security officer, to the lower car-park. There the passengers get out of the Palestinian taxis, and are swallowed-up into the turnstiles in the inspection facility ; they are hurrying.
06.55 The flow of workers slows and we leave the checkpoint. On the way, we try to explain briefly the subject of the Seam-line Zone to our guest. She has already put her name down for one of the (MachsomWatch) tours and will see more.
07.05 The Tura-Shaked checkpoint
The checkpoint is already open and functioning. A teacher leaves the checkpoint (on the Palestinian side), and is collected by a driver and travels to the school in Rechan (which is in the Seam-line Zone). Small children arrive and pass through the checkpoint into the Palestinian Authority to go to a school in Tura. It is difficult to explain (to our guest) the dreadful absurdity of this checkpoint which divides village from village and school from school without any logic.
07.25 There are still many people waiting to go through the checkpoint into the Seam-line Zone and to their work. It seems to us that the crossing is slow today but we didn’t count how many have passed.
Cars enter the checkpoint on their way to the West Bank after their drivers have been checked, and cars exit into the Seam-line Zone and collect passengers who have already passed on foot and are waiting for transport.
07.45 The quantity of people waiting decreases and we leave the checkpoint.
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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