'Anin, Barta'a-Reihan, Tura-Shaked
Fruits and blooms at Barta’a Checkpoint – Theater of the Absurd
The parking lot is not yet full and there is no line. When they close the turnstile for a minute for whatever reason, a line forms immediately. The builders of the city of Harish stream to work in huge numbers. The Palestinian attendant keeps the order with much success. A young man sells coffee. He doesn’t have many clients. Someone asks what are we doing there so early in the morning.
06:10 – Barta’a-Reihan Checkpoint, The Seamline Zone side
The small, new waiting shelter, with climbing blossoms (bougainvillea), gives pleasure to those waiting for rides to work. Roses bloom across the fence of the sleeve (fenced-in passage to and from the checkpoint) that leads to the terminal. Clementines and pomelos are on the other side. The Occupation blooms and it is happy here at the checkpoint. The Harmish settler’s snack bar, in the middle of the sleeve, prospers. The Palestinian coffee seller in the parking lot, with a thermos and gas container, cannot compete with the aroma of a cappuccino and fresh pastries.
Seven inspection windows are open in the terminal. We meet people whom we have seen previously, waiting in line on the Palestinian side.
06:40 – Anin Checkpoint
The gates of the checkpoint are open. The soldiers appear to be alert, weapons drawn in their hands. The first of the Palestinians passes. After him, about 130 people, 5 women, 6 tractors and 2 mules pass at a slow pace,. The older woman, whose olives are far down on her back, stands opposite the checkpoint but doesn’t pass through. A young relative, who helps her, passes through with a mule and equipment for the olive harvest. One of our older acquaintances says in a conciliatory manner that “the soldiers work slowly, what can you do, they are children” Another complains that he always receives a new permit to pass through for two years, but this time they renewed it for only 3 months, until the end of December.
07:30 – The soldiers lock the gates of the checkpoint. Two female children, from the Bedouin village beneath the checkpoint, wait for transportation to school in Umm-a-Reihan.
07:40 – Tura-Shaked Checkpoint
Additional electric posts have been installed along the road that leads to the checkpoint.
People still wait in front of the turnstile at the entrance to the checkpoint that leads from the West Bank. They tell us that the checkpoint was open on time, at 06:30. A car from the Liaison and Coordination Administration stops next to us. The commander identifies us as “Women Watch”. We ask why on Thursdays they open only at 07:00, as they do on Fridays and Saturdays. He answers that he doesn’t know about the problem, but he will look into it.
08:00 – We leave. The “regular” routine of the checkpoints is depressing.
'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)
Mar-21-2022Anin Checkpoint: A magnificent breach in the center of the checkpoint
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