‘Anin, Barta’a-Reihan, Tura-Shaked
06:05 Barta`a Riehab checkpoint
Many workers are waiting on the seamline zone side for their rides to work. Many more are coming through the sleeve and there does not seem to be any coordination between the opening hours of the checkpoint and the schedule for workers’ transport. On the Palestinian side there is a long waiting line that extends nearly as far as the road. One usher wearing an orange iridescent vest is collecting parking fees, while another two wearing black vests are keeping order. Our friend B., who has worked in the carpet factory in Shahak for many years, tells us that he was forced to take an unpaid vacation day on the evening of Yom Kippur and the following day. Luckily he has work in the olive harvest as well.
06:40 – A’anin Checkpoint
the workers. Photo: Ruthi Tuval
Photo: Elia Levi
The checkpoint is open and people are already crossing. A man and woman soldier approached us even before we reach the checkpoint and attempted to make us leave. When she learned that we had a right to be there, the woman soldier became very angry. She parked the army vehicle so that it blocked part of the gate, making it difficult for the tractors to pass. (Elia’s photo) The male soldier was a bit embarrassed.
Many people continued to cross and told us that many permits had been issued for the olive harvest and that there had been few problems. They also reported that the soldiers were behaving well. After the pedestrians crossed the tractors arrived, with women sitting in the wagons. There is an atmosphere of the olive harvest in the air. We were treated to a beautiful sunrise. Our friend M. told us that on Yom Kippur the checkpoint was closed but that the checkpoint had opened and closed at 13:00 in the afternoon. To our surprise there was a sign hanging on the gate with the opening hours during the olive harvest: 06:30 – 07:00, 12:0 – 13:00, and 15:30 – 16:00. These were the same hours that had been publicized at the Liaison and Coordination Administration.
By 07:15 everyone had crossed and the soldiers locked the gates. We were told that approximately 120 people had crossed.
Six boys and a girl from the Bedouin family that lives below the checkpoint arrive to be driven to school in Um A Reihan in the seamline zone.
07:30 – Tura Shaked Checkpoint
Adults crossed to the seamline zone, most were on their way to work. Children crossed to the West Bank to get to school in Tura. A couple crossed to the seamline zone in a horse – drawn wagon. The man complained that he had to tie the horse up on the side of the checkpoint and wait a long time to cross. The horse left droppings on the seamline zone side in protest….
People complained that the checkpoint only opens from Sundays to Wednesday at 06:30 and on Thursdays to Saturdays at 07:00. Since when is Thursday part of the weekend?
08:20 – We left an empty checkpoint. The facilities look out of place, as always.
'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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