'Anin, Barta'a-Reihan, Tura-Shaked
The Border Patrol is on the hunt between Meiami and the A’anin Checkpoint (opposite the upper entrance to Um Al Fahem).
On our way to the A’anin Checkpoint we saw the unpleasant sight of soldiers belonging to the border patrol standing on the side of the road near Meiami and Um Al Fahem.
15:00 A’anin Checkpoint
The soldiers were in position, the gates of the checkpoint were open, and some of the people had already crossed. As we arrived a tractor arrived at the checkpoint carrying a wagon loaded with branches and crossed immediately. Pedestrians arrived and crossed. We asked if anyone knew what the border patrol was doing there and were told that they were looking for workers who are working in Israel without a permit. We have not encountered this for a long time. A soldier came up and asked us politely what we were doing. He is new here and the other soldiers have been serving here for a month. We have been here longer.
15:30 – Tura – Shaked Checkpoint
The soldiers were changing shifts when we arrived and as usual at this time there was very little traffic. Two soldiers came up to us and asked if we needed help and we told them we did not.
16:00 – Barta’a Reihan Checkpoint
A lot of cars arrived with people on their way home from work and they got out near the fenced-in sleeve. The Palestinian parking lot was crowded and disorderly. There are no Palestinian attendants at this hour of the day. Drivers were hawking their destinations to passengers and the cars were filling up. Our friends the seamstresses were among them and they called to us and shook our hands warmly. .
We observed something out of the ordinary through the fence that separates the area of the terminal and the parking lot. People coming back from work filled up the sleeve on the side of the terminal and left the sleeve one by one. Someone explained to us that no one was holding people up, but that the two turnstiles through which people must pass to get out to the parking lot could not handle the crowd fast enough. Unfortunately we were unable to photograph what was going on.
A few people are crossing from the West Bank to the seamline zone including families carrying packages. A few people who have been banned from entering Israel asked us for help. The notes that Sylvia printed have helped us as well as them. A young man made an original and sensible request to install an electrical outlet in the shed to charge mobile phones. His phone had run out of power.
A lot of people appeared to be pleased and happy. They have work and the weekend is about to begin. Things are all right despite the occupation. These were the ambivalently happy people who have work permits.
The owner of the kiosk and S, the former owner of the previous kiosk who now works as a driver asked us to have their picture taken alongside the snacks (See photo). S. worked at a kiosk at the checkpoint until he was evicted by the checkpoint managers to allow a settler to operate a kiosk instead.
16:40: We left. The parking lot was no longer as full as it was and only one vehicle was waiting at the vehicle inspection point to cross to the seamline zone. . There was a long line of cars on the road leading up from the checkpoint. All the drivers who drove workers to the checkpoint from Israel and the seamline zone were returning home.
16:40 אנחנו עוזבות. מגרש החנה כבר לא מלא כל כך, במחסום הרכב רק מכונית אחת ממתינה למעבר למרחב התפר, בכביש העולה מהמחסום שורה ארוכה של מכוניות. גם הנהגים שהסיעו את הפועלים מישראל וממרחב התפר למחסום חוזרים הביתה.
'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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