'Anin, Barta'a-Reihan, Tura-Shaked
15:50 – A’anin Agricultural Checkpoint
The soldiers arrived shortly after we did and struggled with the difficult lock that locks the checkpoint gate. The lock eventually opened. The large crowd who were attempting to get home were pushed back together with the only tractor present with shouts of “five at a time”. Each person presented their license to the soldiers. Two young men were refused entry because their permits allowed them to cross at Barta’a Checkpoint, and they had to waste what little money they had on an hour’s journey to the village which is five minutes’ walk from this checkpoint. We offered them a ride, but they smiled bashfully and continued to wait outside the gate. Evidently they preferred to wait and hoped the soldiers would let them cross. We attempted to intervene but this did not help and perhaps even hindered the situation. One of the soldiers told us, “This isn’t a kindergarten.” Eventually the young men were called over and told to wait. From our experience this usually means that they would be permitted to cross.
At the junction we met Faez who was attempting to get a permit for his daughter-in-law to cross to the seamline zone. He explained that only land owners and their close relatives are permitted to cross to work in the fields.
16:35 – Tura – Shaked Checkpoint (Daily Life Checkpoint)
A few people and vehicles were crossing at this quiet checkpoint.
16:55 – Reihan – Barta’a Checkpoint, Palestinian Side
The parking lot was completely full. A strong odor of fresh fish was coming from the temporary booth, and someone opposite was attempting to sell mobile telephones from the trunk of his car. Many people were returning from work and the turnstile was turning constantly. A person who was attempting to cross in the opposite direction was having trouble getting through and Ali made people stop and halted the turnstile.
Ali assertively makes an absurd request – he wants a retrial. A judge in the Salem military court found him not guilty. He is the father of four children and had nothing to do with throwing stones, of which he was accused by an enemy. However, the army made an appeal in the military court in Ofer and he was sentenced to four months in prison, of which he served three weeks. All claims he went crazy and he was released after his attorney arranged for him to pay 12,000 NIS. Now he cannot earn a living because his car was sold and his work permit was cancelled. Now he is willing to compromise. “All right, I don’t need another trial; all I need is a work permit to cross at Barta’a Checkpoint.” We also met the cheerful Hadi and Jihad who is trying to acquire a guarantor payment of NIS 15,000. This will mean a lot of work for our dedicated Sylvia, Elia, and Tami.
We left at 17:45.
'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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