‘Anin, Barta’a-Reihan, Tayba-Rummana, Tura-Shaked
05:50 ‘Anin/214
In the course of half an hour three military vehicles, coming down the security road, went through the checkpoint, which remained locked. People wait calmly on the other side. The delay in opening the checkpoint and disregard for their rights isn’t surprising. We call the DCL: where are the soldiers, and why don’t they open the checkpoint on time? The response: Everything’s under control.
06:30 The first person crosses half an hour late – the redhead who usually comes through on his tractor. Today it’s being repaired. Two tractors and some people on foot follow. Soldiers inspect a young man, tell him to turn around, lift his shirt (we can’t hear, but see the soldier motion with his finger). They send him back to the village. An older man carries a blue plastic bag. The soldier pats him down, the man shows him what’s in the bag. He’s allowed through. Another young man is sent back home. A third is detained off to the side. Consultation. Eventually he’s allowed through. We asked what the problems were; they said one tried to use his wife’s permit. Another’s permit had expired. The third, according to the list, hadn’t returned to the village in the afternoon. A cool wind blows. Wasps circle us. The occupation has no problems.
07:00 Tura-Shaked/300
The checkpoint opens 15 minutes late, which doesn’t bother anyone. Those coming through don’t complain to us – the soldiers who come late, and us, who aren’t much help, are part of their routine. School vacation has begun; the human landscape on this side of the checkpoint is missing the pupils and the teachers.
07:20 Barta’a-Reihan
A dense wave of people crossing from the West Bank to the seam zone fills the checkpoint area. Two windows are open in the terminal. Everyone coming through is a lucky holder of a job and a valid permit.
08:00 Tayba-Rummana
Border Police soldiers are supposed to be here at this hour and let people through from the eastern side of the checkpoint, but there’s no representative of the occupying forces on site.
08:05 A military vehicle resembling a paddy wagon goes through and…drives on.
08:10 A tractor smoothes the powdery surface of the track parallel to the security road, passes by, returns again (it’s an old photo).
08:20 The DCL tells us (as they did last time), “the forces will arrive in a few minutes…”
08:40 A military vehicle arrives, two soldiers get out – Force A – then the vehicle leaves. The two soldiers stretch and…sit. The next time we telephone a patient, polite officer explains at length that the forces came by mistake to this checkpoint at 7 AM, an hour early. What we managed to understand from this whole story is that rectifying the error takes them a very long time.
08:50 The DCL’s white vehicle arrives. That’s Force B, whose job is to supervise the Palestinians who cross, on behalf of the Civil Administration. Since the crossing hasn’t started, they don’t leave their vehicle either and the checkpoint remains locked.
08:55 The DCL officer (?) promises that Force C will soon arrive and the checkpoint will open. Why this indifference to the Palestinians’ schedules? We ask; the officer becomes slightly less patient: Why talk that way about the soldiers?
09:15 The third force is here! The crossing begins 1 ¼ hours late. As usual, the red tractor goes through first. Then a mother, a daughter and a little four-year-old boy, and then the rest of those on foot. None of them will complain to the occupation forces, express any anger, or insist on their right to cross at the appointed hour. The occupation forces, for their part, show not a trace of embarrassment at arriving so late. It’s doubtful any of them apologized or will make an effort to arrive promptly next 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)
Ruti TuvalMar-21-2022Anin Checkpoint: A magnificent breach in the center of the checkpoint
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