‘Anin, Barta’a-Reihan, Tura-Shaked
A'anin Agricultural Checkpoint
All the gates of the checkpoint are open and the soldiers are getting ready to let people through. The tractors cross first. We watch the body language of people who have permits: they attempt to convince and explain things to the soldiers, and within a minute they cross. One of them complains that the woman soldier had claimed that he had no permit when he returned to the village the last time. He is therefore accused of remaining illegally in Israel or the seamline zone overnight. He and the soldier agree that this is the "last time" and he is allowed to cross.
There are other complaints about the meticulous inspection of bags of sandwiches which people take with them in the morning, and if there is a toothbrush inside even more so. If a man is wearing a white shirt he is accused of going to Israel and not to work in his olive grove, heaven forbid…he then undergoes a grilling interrogation. These are things people complain about.
There are piles of used clothing next to the checkpoint. These are used clothes which members of Machsom Watch have brought over and people were not permitted to take across because it is "not permitted to bring clothing across the checkpoint." For this reason we could not give anyone here the clothing we had with us.
By 06:10 five tractors had crossed and 15 people were still waiting. At 06:20 two young people were sent back. At 06:30 three people emerged after arguing with the woman soldier. By 06:37 no one else was waiting to cross and the checkpoint closed.
We left, feeling secure in the knowledge that someone is guarding us from those who wish to do us harm…
06:50 – New Barta'a Checkpoint
Those who have already crossed the checkpoint are waiting for rides to work. There are, of course, no benches for people to sit on while waiting. More and more people are walking up the sleeve from the terminal. The men are fastening their belts as they walk. They are angry and not everyone greets us or says "good morning" and they ignore us. What does this imply about their crossing? I wonder if anything has happened recently. They answer "no," curtly; they don't understand Hebrew. It appears that today the crossing is difficult.
Buses with students from the settlements arrive from the direction of the West Bank. The students cheerfully disembark to wait for the bus which will take them to school in Israel. They are completely blind to what is happening next to them in the West Bank. The road leading to the bus stop is about two meters wide. An Israeli vehicle winds its way through and there is a lot of activity in the area of the checkpoint. Meanwhile weary people are crossing through the sleeve, which is only a meter and a half wide. They walk along the area which is walled and fenced in.
An armed security guard asks politely to see what I am writing. I refuse and suggest him to read the reports on our website. He says that by then perhaps it will be too late. I assure him that I will not disclose any military secrets in a place where civilians cross.
07:15 – Tura Checkpoint
School children are crossing to their school in Tura on the other side of the checkpoint, and about 20 people are waiting to cross to the seamline zone. Everything here is as usual.
Mahmud, the driver of the old Subaru, is willing to take our bags of used clothing and distribute them to needy people.
We left at 07:45.
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'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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