‘Anin, Barta’a-Reihan, Tayba-Rummana, Tura-Shaked
see a video of the incident in Taybeh Romana.checkpoint below
Barta’a Checkpoint 06:00
Money makes the world go round
A long waiting line stretches – expectedly at this hour – into the Palestinian car park, but this morning there is no chaos such as we’ve seen on other mornings. Although no one is supervising the line, people wait patiently and there is no crowding nor shoving near the turnstile. This morning one turnstile let in people by groups of about 25 at a time every few minutes. There appears to be no delay inside the terminal so the line is in flow. The volunteer ‘usher’ no longer works here and the paid ones (supervisors) supposed to continue his work remain jobless. This is because the Palestinian owners of the land on which this checkpoint is situated (the Amarna family from Ya’abad village) stopped the plan promoted by Jenin’s governor and the head of East Barta’a’s local council to charge money for parking here and use it to pay the car-park supervisors. The family is not willing for anyone other than themselves to earn money from the land that was indeed stolen from them but is still in fact their property. They will likely reach some sort of arrangement – neither side will readily give up the money.
‘Anin agricultural Checkpoint (214) 06:45 – few cross this checkpoint into the seam-line zone. We heard complaints about the soldiers new at this site, who pester people because of their clothes (claiming they are dressed too nicely to really be farmers) and suspect them of going not to work but elsewhere. The truth known to everyone is that any Palestinian entering the seam-line zone from here can actually proceed to move anywhere in the world unhampered. The separation fence was erected in order to separate Palestinian from their land (and eventually in order to take over the same land), and not to protect Tel Aviv from car bombs. We have seen how a single tractor is not allowed through, and since this is no new sight, we assume the driver has no permit required by law and therefore he cannot cross with it from the Occupied Territories into Area C controlled completely by Israel. A farmer without a tractor has a hard time tending to his olive tree groves and might even abandon them with time (it is happening in front of our very eyes). This draconian implementation, too, is part of the occupier’s expansionist intentions. Schoolchildren have now begun their long summer vacation which lasts 3 months. From now we will see them either joining their parents for work or on trips.
Toura-Shaked Checkpoint(300) 07:20 – At this time most Palestinians who work in the seam-line zone have already crossed. Traffic is sparse, schoolchildren are on vacation as are their teachers. The occupier’s garbage dumpster overflows.
Palestinian farmers cross here to their olive groves
beyond the separation fence. photo Karin A.
Tayibe-Roumana Agricultural Checkpoint (154) 08:00
almost a crossing strike
fence to their olives photo: Karin A.
Border Policemen arrive 15 minutes late and open the checkpoint’s three gates. A Palestinian collects IDs from those waiting and goes to be checked first. As he is through, he calls the next one and leaves the checkpoint. This is how things proceed. At some point a father, mother and three children – a one-year old baby among them – approached the checking post. The Border Policemen sent them back home. “This is a gate for farm workers, not babies”. The father spoke to them angrily: “I have been crossing here for 11 years; suddenly you won’t let my children through? Children up to 12 years of age are registered in their parents’ ID and may cross the checkpoint with them.” Crossing wherever the parents go, unless the soldier at the checkpoint doesn’t know about this and insists on denying them passage. Apparently the policemen are not updated on the occupation’s procedures and continue to insist that this family does not look like it’s about to go work in their olive grove… The family returns to the waiting lines and from there the father calls out in rage: “If we don’t pass, no one does!” Then, “Go get your officer!” He is taken into the army jeep, apparently in order to put an end to this ‘strike’ before it begins. The waiting people’s solidarity does not hold more than two minutes. One by one they walk up to the checking area and proceed on their way. Some of them stop next to us to ventilate. In the meantime, someone calls the Palestinian or Israeli DCO and reports the situation. Within 10 minutes 2 Israeli DCO officers arrive, one of them an Arabic speaker. They explained the procedure to the policemen and instructed them to let the family through. “They simply hate us”, the father tells us, angrily.
More about this check[point: We were told that his Monday morning all or some of the men were not allowed to cross this checkpoint. The Palestinians called the Palestinian DCO who contacted the Israeli DCO and finally those refused entry got through, but 4 hours later than the usual opening time.
'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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