'Anin, Barta'a-Reihan, Tura-Shaked
15:10 – A’anin Checkpoint
Eight men, three women, two boys, and a girl were waiting, as well as a donkey carrying one of the children. The soldiers from the military police arrived a bit late, opened the gates and started to keep order. People began crossing in groups of three: one showed documents while the other two waited a short distance away. The tractor drivers were checked and drove their tractors through. Our friend M. was not present. Evidently, his agricultural permit had not yet been renewed.
We took a hitchhiker to the Barta’a checkpoint. He told us that a permit to work in Israel cost 2500 Nis a month: 1700 NIS is paid to the employment office and the rest goes to the employer. The money paid to the employment office is transferred to the Palestinian Authority, to pay for compensation and other expenses. The Palestinian Authority takes 20% of the amount and it is not clear for what purpose. Travel expenses are also high: it costs NIS 60 each day to travel from the checkpoint to Jenin, and from Jenin to the village where he lives. This leaves about NIS 4000 to live on. Working in Israel is worthwhile for professionals, who earn about NIS 10,000 a month, while laborers earn anywhere from NIS 6000 to 7000 per month, and they end up with little money. He works at remodeling houses and does OK. He feels that, despite everything, the Palestinians are better off than people in the surrounding Arab countries. He points out the new expensive cars in the parking lot at Barta’a Checkpoint as testimony. He has three children who study at the university, and he is proud of them and of their professional future. He feels that they would not have done so well anywhere else, which is sad.
15:45 – Reihan – Barta’a Checkpoint, Palestinian Side
An enterprising person has opened a booth near one of the auxiliary parking lots and is selling clothing, beverages, and snacks.
The regular parking lot was not crowded, and people were returning to the West Bank through the new area. A green arrow indicated that four lanes were open to exit the terminal. A police car arrived with its siren wailing loudly. The green arrows changed to red Xs, the gates to the security road opened, and people stopped moving. By the time the police car left and the lanes opened again a long line had formed on the side of the terminal, which disappeared quickly when crossing resumed.
16:10 – When we left the checkpoint we were sent from the vehicle checkpoint to a red X marked on the road next to the well-kept traffic circle. A security guard did not ask for our documents but claimed that we were taking pictures and that it was forbidden to photograph a security facility. We had not taken our phones out at all.
16:30 – Tura – Shaked Checkpoint
There is not much vehicle and pedestrian traffic in both directions. The area on the sides of the road is filled with litter and plastic bags that are an ecological eyesore.
'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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