‘Anin, Barta’a-Reihan, Tura-Shaked
05.50. Barta’a checkpoint
In the upper parking lot, on the seamline zone side, there are few workers and vehicles. The mornings of large crowds have vanished. In the kiosk in the middle of the metal sleeve leading to and from the terminal (an enclosed path for pedestrians) are just two people. People who are coming up now from the terminal are construction workers who work in the settlements Shaked and Reihan, in the SHAHAK industrial park in the seamline zone, and a few work in Harish (Israel). The lower parking lot on the West Bank side is empty.
Anyone arriving immediately enters the terminal, where the operators of the five open windows are idle most of the time. Was it for this that they had built such a complex checkpoint on such a large area? The young woman working in the kiosk confirms our fears that the number of workers passing decreases from day to day. We felt also that today there were fewer trucks carrying goods to the Barta’a market. Perhaps because of the rain?
06:30. A’anin checkpoint
The checkpoint was opened on time. Three by three, people approach for permit-checking. About 40 people and two tractors pass quietly and quickly; two youths with no permits are sent back home. One of them was telling us why he was sent back; the officer heard him, came out to scold him and to tell us the correct version.
An elderly man told us that his 66-year-old wife had been refused a permit, because of a prevention order by General Security Services, for an unknown reason.
The D.C.O. chief, who happened to be present, came out in a vehicle in the direction of the seamline zone. When he returned we introduced ourselves and he said that he was observing the workers who had exited the checkpoint and noted that in fact, they all continued to work in Israel. He said also that he was now responsible to see that those working in Israel should no longer come out in the morning through Barta’a checkpoint – which explains the difference in traffic we have been reporting lately.
07:00. Tura checkpoint
The checkpoint opened at 07:00, half an hour late, instead of at 06:30. 40 people and 11 cars pass to the seamline zone. 4 cars and a few adults and senior .pupils pass to the West Bank. The young female pupils, all wearing hijabs, begin to pass at 07:15
'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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