'Anin, Barta'a-Reihan, Tura-Shaked
14:50 – Barta’a-Reihan Checkpoint
At the entrance to the checkpoint, we join the lane for Israelis. Unusually, everyone was asked where they were heading. Israeli Arabs may not enter West Bank towns, because of all kinds of closures. “Those are all right,” one of the security guards says regarding us, and we pass through. The parking lots on the Palestinian side are full; cars also park on both sides of the road, almost all the way to the distant parking lots. We return and go up to the parking lot on the Seamline Zone side. Many women come out of a taxi– the seamstresses of Barta’a– and workers arrive in all kinds of vehicles, including tourist buses. They tell us that these days, there is no passage at the checkpoint, except to those who have permits from to the Seamline Zone. But don’t worry, there are enough breaches in the fence for those industrious workers who are building the town of Harish.
15:30 – Anin Checkpoint
We were very early. On the road, a taxi driver who had brought workers is being questioned by soldiers inside a jeep. He presented his identity card. A number of people wait for the opening of the main gate, the only one among three that is locked. There are no tractors. The soldiers ride away and come back. The gate is opened at 15:37. Today the afternoon opening hours were changed: from 15:15 until 15:35. If so, they were late opening it by 15 minutes. Residents of Anin did not hear about the change. At 15:40, people were still coming. The gate was locked at 15:47. But don’t worry; there is a wide breach next to the gate, for the late arrivers. We ask the soldiers about those who pass through the breaches and they say that the issue is being taken care of; there are army reinforcements all along the fence. We told the soldiers about Border Police soldiers who had brutally robbed Palestinians who broke through the breach, on the assumption that since the Palestinians were “lawbreakers” themselves, they would not complain. They said that they had heard something.
16:00 – Tura-Shaked Checkpoint
Surprise: This dormant checkpoint is bustling today. Many cars arrive and wait to cross. Inside, next to the roadway – action. About 10 small grocery bags lined up on the ground are being collected at this moment by three people, who put them into the trunk of a 4 x 4 SUV. The owner of the vehicle was heard saying: “And the rice, isn’t that a shame”? We noticed that rice was scattered on the ground. We asked the people what happened, and they told us about smuggling workers through the gaps in the fence. Suddenly, an Israeli car arrived and stopped next to us. We wanted to ask the (Israeli) driver what was happening here, but he continued through the checkpoint, got into the vehicle in the road, and started interrogating the exciteable driver, right before our eyes. We heard some of what was being said. It appears that the investigator believed the driver, and when he’s left, we managed to talk with the driver. So, M., is an Israelii Arab, a resident of Baka al R’arbia. According to him, the soldier harassed him where he lives, interrogated him about the baggage in his car (grocery bags, including 8 kg. of meat), and in the end confiscated his identity card and his phone. “They eat and drink here and cause problems,” he says. The soldier told him to drive to Barta’a Checkpoint where he would get back what had been taken from him. At the checkpoint, they laughed at him and sent him to Tura Checkpoint. Here they emptied the car, and as described above, scattered bags of rice on the ground. Marina called M. in the evening and couldn’t believe how it had ended: The soldier apologized! And M.? He received the apology submissively.
'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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