‘Anin, Barta’a-Reihan, Tura-Shaked
15:15 A’anin CP
We arrived late (our hitchhiker from Rambam was late). All of the people have already gone through Only the soldiers were waiting for 15:30, the official time for locking up the CP.
15:40 Barta’a-Reihan, on the side of the seamline zone
Already at this hour, many people who work in Israel and in the seamline zone are returning to the West Bank. Those who work at picking citrus fruits are returning with sacks full of fruit. One person has a box full of flowering plants, and offers us some as a gift. We thank him and refuse. A sweet boy gives each of us an orange. It is tasty and refreshing. A few mothers with little children go through from the West Bank to the seamline zone. They are from Jenin and have received a permit to visit in Barta’a. The husbands and fathers apparently did not get permits. One of the women told us that her husband is forbidden to go through to Israel and some other people told us that they have permits to the seamline zone but not to Israel, and therefore cannot find work for their livelihood. We gave all of them Sylvia’s telephone number (her team helps those who have been barred from travel, by the General Security Service and the police, to overcome the complicated bureaucracy and try to find out why they are forbidden to travel, and whether it is possible to get permission after all.). Another person told us that passage in the afternoon is all right, but in the morning the conditions are terrible. He asked us to come every morning when they open at 05:00.
16:30 Tura-Shaked CP
According to the army’s definition, this CP exists so that Palestinians from both sides of the West Bank can lead their lives with minimal interference caused by the separation fence. That is the source of its (improbable) name : the”fabric of life” CP. It turns out that refurbishing a house is not part of ‘the “fabric of life”.
A small truck is waiting in front of the CP, on the side of the seamline zone. The driver, a resident of Daher el Malek (a small village in the seamline zone, near the CP) tells us that in order to refurbish his house, he bought some construction materials on the West Bank and he wanted to transport them to the house in his truck, which has a permit to go through this CP. The soldiers did not allow him to transport the materials. Two hours ago, he called the Salem DCO, to speak to First Lieutenant T., who is the soldier responsible. He sent her a photograph of the construction materials via his phone. He is still waiting for an answer. We saw the photo which shows that he is really talking about a small quantity. The man telephoned T. several times, but did not get an answer. We also phoned her and there was no answer. At 16:30 a soldier from the DCO answered us saying that “it is forbidden to transport construction materials at the Tura CP. It is allowed at the Barta’a CP.” She had no explanation for why he had to wait for two hours to get this response. The man is not allowed to go through the Barta’a CP with his truck. Moreover, it is far away and it will cost, he says, NIS 500 to transport the materials to another pickup truck, and this is more than the materials themselves cost. The DCO does not care about all this. As noted, refurbishing a house is not included in the ‘fabric of Palestinian life’.
16:40 A small wagon pulled by a donkey went through from the West Bank to the Seamline Zone with olive seedlings, which are included in the “fabric of life” concept.
'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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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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