'Anin, Barta'a-Reihan
15.00. The Bridge still closed in both directions.
We passed Barta’a checkpoint and continued east, to the “bridge” on route 596., wanting to see if the gate in the direction of route 6115 west is still open. (report of 12/9/2018). It is not. The road is once again blocked. The yellow gate is locked, with cement blocks underneath it. The gate in the other direction, to Zebda, is locked as usual.
15.15. Barta’a – Reihan checkpoint, Palestinian side.
The parking lot is full, but orderly. Two Palestinian ushers see to the order. Few people return from work at this hour. Above one of the routes in the station is a notice in Arabic and Hebrew, in yellow and red: “Private [?] entrance for Barta’a inhabitants .” A child sells coffee from a thermos, two people sell light drinks and snacks; drivers wait for passengers.
15.45-16.45. A’anin checkpoint.
The checkpoint is open and we see on the slope going down people who have already passed. 15.45 is opening-time in the olive harvest season, as we were told on the phone by a D.C.O. soldier. Checking of permits is done at the gate near us by two women soldiers of regiment Tabor. We asked one of them, a sergeant, what the opening time should be – perhaps the D.C.O. soldier was mistaken? She said she would have to get permission to let us know. She went aside to phone, and returned to tell us that she was forbidden to tell us and that we were forbidden to be there. We tried to explain that we have been coming there for years, while she asked if we wanted to be arrested.
We continued to stand there as usual. Palestinians dribble out in ones and twos. They all greet us warmly. Checking is quick. We tried to ask people when the checkpoint is opened – they said at about 4 o’clock. We did not become much wiser. The sergeant, apparently in charge of the watch, asked how long we intend standing there, as the checkpoint would remain open for a long time. We showed her the document allowing us to take photographs, and she does not react. Meanwhile a vehicle arrived with a new batch from Tabor regiment, and a lieutenant descended, who helped the two women soldiers to check the documents of the few people passing. The lieutenant departs. The soldiers and we remain until the gates close, at precisely 16.45.
'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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