‘Anin, Barta’a-Reihan, Tayba-Rummana, Tura-Shaked
Eid el Adha begins today so only few came to the checkpoint early this morning.
The Festival of the Sacrifice – Eid el Adha commemorates the biblical account of the sacrifice at which, according to Moslem tradition, Ishmael, not Isaac, was to have been the victim. Ishmael considered his father’s dream of the sacrifice to be God’s commandment and asked him to fulfill it. Abraham took his son and ascended Mt. Arafat, the Mountain of Mercy, near Mecca, and as in the Hebrew account the sacrifice was called off and instead a sheep was sacrificed to Israel’s god. The festival’s principal ceremony is the Haj’, the pilgrimage to Mecca, which lasts one week. The festival itself lasts four days during which people celebrate with their family, eat a great deal of lamb, buy new clothes, particularly for the children, donate money or meat to the poor, recite Koranic verses in cemeteries, etc.
06:00 Barta’a-Reihan checkpoint
Cars with Israeli plates are parked in the upper lot, probably belonging to Israeli Arabs who travelled yesterday to visit relatives on the West Bank and left their vehicles here. Unlike the usual morning chaos at this checkpoint, this morning it’s quiet and deserted. The checkpoint lanes are partially blocked; the security staff says it’s because crossing will begin at 10:00. There’s a note on the sentry booth with the hours the checkpoint will open during the Jewish holidays.
06:25 A’anin checkpoint (214)
The soldiers arrived on time but no one else is here. If they’d opened the checkpoint two hours later and allowed people to cross in both directions to visit relatives, many people would probably have come. What could we have been thinking, expecting the occupier to be considerate and generous?
Two people come up from the Bedouin encampment below the checkpoint, a Bedouin who lives there and a resident of Umm el Fahm who’d come to drive him to the Barta’a checkpoint so he could cross and visit his family in A’anin. It isn’t possible to cross through the A’anin checkpoint to the village in the morning; going in that direction is definitely prohibited. In the morning it’s permitted only to leave the village. Instead of a fifteen minute walk to his family, this man will make a very long detour and pay a lot of money to reach his family on the other side of this fence. And meanwhile the soldiers stand idle at the checkpoint.
06:55 Tura-Shaked checkpoint (300)
We arrive at the same time as the soldiers. Ten minutes later a woman comes through the checkpoint; she’d gone through inspection and is waiting for a vehicle to finish being inspected and they’ll continue together. A vehicle arrives a few minutes later. During the half hour we stood there only a few people crossed from the West Bank to the seam zone. And only one in the opposite direction. It’s not that there are no people who have to cross here. There are no permits!!!!!
07:45 Tayibe-Rummaneh checkpoint (154)
We didn’t see anyone waiting on the eastern side of the fence, as we usually do. A Border Police jeep arrived exactly at 08:00 but there’s no one to let through. The Border Police personnel didn’t even get out to open the gates.
'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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