'Anin, Barta'a-Reihan, Tura-Shaked
Five people and one tractor loaded with junk is waiting. They tell us that this morning, ten people went through the checkpoint. At 15:15. A car with soldiers arrives and with it, another 4 army vehicles which continue on the security road.
15:20 – The checkpoint is opened and people pass through without problems. One more worker arrives, running, and at 15:30, the checkpoint is closed.
15:40 – Tura Checkpoint
It’s filthy, cold, and quiet. In adjacent Daher–al Malec, many new homes are being built, and the village is getting closer to the settlement of Shaked, which is also growing. We hope there will not be any disputes between the neighbors.
About ten people and a few vehicles pass in two directions. Children return to the isolated house, coming back from school in the Seamline Zone, on the road surrounding the checkpoint. The workers who return from work tell us that in the morning the checkpoint routinely opens between 07:00 and 07:10; that is, a delay of 30–40 minutes.
A family from Umm Reihan returns from Jenin in an car, and the driver remains at the inspection a long time, speaking with the soldiers. In answer to our questions, he tells us that the family bought ceramic tiles for their kitchen in Jenin, for NIS 250. They are unable to bring he tiles through this checkpoint because this amount is considered as merchandise! They have to request what is called “coordination” from the Coordination and Liaison Authority, which costs NIS 380. And then, they can bring the tiles only through the Barta’a Checkpoint.
16:00 Barta’a Checkpoint
Hundreds of workers arrive and go down the sleeve (the enclosed path to the terminal), on their way home. A few of them stop beside us and tell us that lately, people who arrived at the checkpoint at , 05:15, only left at 06:30, because the line at the entrance to the terminal was very long and crowded. People were allowed entry at the rate of 30-40, with pauses in between.
Two Israeli cars with office equipment are delayed at the vehicle checkpoint and is returned. It turns out that they are also not allowed to bring this merchandise through the checkpoint.
When we returned to the upper parking lot, a driver, who was supposed to take a family that is returning from a visit in the West Bank, speaks with us. Three men of the family have already passed through and are waiting in a car up in the parking lot, for more than an hour, for three women who were delayed in the terminal. We returned to the terminal and it turned out that in the suitcase of two of the women. Suspicious materials were discovered and they were held for further inspection, including a body search. The inspection was done by a woman inspector, because they didn’t want “to complicate any situation with the Attorney General.” However, according to the inspector’s complaint, the women wouldn’t cooperate and therefore it took so much time. Our impression was that our interest spurred the inspection on a bit, and they assured us that within few minutes, the women would be released.
On the Wadi Ara road, we see a car with the rejoinder to “The Deal of the Century.”
'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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