‘Anin, Barta’a-Reihan, Tura-Shaked
05:45 – Barta’a Reihan Checkpoint
A lot of workers have been checked and are waiting for their rides outside the checkpoint. A lot of Israeli vehicles are waiting for workers who have not yet been checked. There is no shade in the upper parking lot or anywhere to sit. People are sitting on the curb and it is very crowded. As usual we walked down to the lower parking lot because our driver, an Israeli Arab, is not permitted to drive to the other side to the West Bank in his car. The security guard stopped us and informed us that it is dangerous for us to walk across on the road. Instead we walked through the sleeve through the route that bypasses the terminal. The lower parking lot is extremely crowded and there is a long line of people waiting to enter the terminal, which extends to the main road and divides into several lines. There are currently four windows operating inside the terminal and people report that things are moving very slowly. There was a commotion as several young Palestinians attempted to push their way to the front of the line, and the Palestinian security guard sent them to the end of the line.
06:15 – Our friend Ziad informed us that by 06:00 about 2,000 workers had crossed. About 3,500 to 4,000 workers cross here each day. According to Ziad, there is talk with the Barta’a municipality about building a shelter in the lower parking lot.
06:30 – About ten trucks are waiting on the side of the road for the vehicle inspection facility to open at 08:00.
On our way back to the upper parking lot we were stopped again by the security guard, who informed us that we would no longer be allowed to walk down to the lower parking lot. When we asked why the vehicle inspection opens only at 08:00 we were told that the hour was agreed upon with representatives of the drivers. We left the checkpoint at 06:30.
A’anin Checkpoint
The checkpoint opened at 06:20. Many people have already crossed and are on their way to harvest olives. At 06:45 many tractors are still driving across, some with wagons and some without. The wagons are filled with people – the olive harvest is a family affair. An elderly couple crosses with a donkey to their grove on the steep hillside below the checkpoint. Another young man whose grove is on the other side of the fenced area of the village is forced to go a long way around and back again to reach his fields. Another young man who attempted to cross to harvest olives in place of his sick parents was sent back because he had no permit. He reported that even representatives from the Liaison and Coordination Administration were unable to convince the soldiers to let him through to work in the harvest.
By 07:00 all 140 people had crossed.
07:25 – Tura Shaked Checkpoint
Most of the people have already crossed. People report that there is a good soldier who ensures that everyone crosses quickly. To everyone’s satisfaction, the checkpoint opened on time. The children arrived and were not checked in the booth and crossed quickly.
We left at 07:35.
'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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