‘Anin, Barta’a-Reihan, Tura-Shaked
We passed two tank carriers at the Megiddo Junction on our way to the checkpoint. We wondered where they were going.
15:00 – Shaked – Tura Checkpoint
A few cars are crossing to and from the seamline zone and to the West Bank. There are a few pedestrians, including an old acquaintance and his wife. He told us that the Ramadan fast is not difficult if one fasts from the heart, and it is more difficult if one counts the hours until the next meal.
The soldiers at the checkpoint are new, and this is their first day here. Two of them approached us to ask who we were. They had not heard of Machsom Watch. We told them a bit about our activities. One of them, who were wearing a Yarmulke, asked if we thought the entire country belonged to us, and was surprised at our answer. A polite discussion began, but was interrupted when one of his comrades and a policewoman called them to return to their places.
15:30 – Reihan – Barta'a Checkpoint
Our friend Tami sent a holiday gift to A., but he has not yet arrived at the checkpoint. When we arrived at Emricha A. called and explained that he had borrowed a car from a friend. He told us not to go to Yaabed Dotan Checkpoint because there were problems there and the soldiers would not let us stop and people were throwing stones on the road. We continued on to Barta'a Checkpoint instead. A. was waiting on the side of the road to ensure that we had come back. We did not know what happened there. Cars were standing on both sides of the blocked bridge. Both the regular and the auxiliary parking lot on the Palestinian side were full. A lot of cars were parked on the road where the tenders usually park on their way to the inspection facility.
16:00 – Workers are returning from work on the seamline zone side and walking down the fenced – in sleeve to the terminal. One of them reports that everything is OK here and that we should come to Jalameh Checkpoint at 05:00 AM. The owner of the kiosk is taking advantage of the Ramadan fast and enlarging his business, and is building a wooden patio facing the area of the checkpoint workers only.
The playground equipment at the upper entrance to the checkpoint has been dismantled, and there is a bench there and a drinking fountain and shelter. Two slides are standing abandoned. Someone evidently understood that the playground was unnecessary.
16:40 – We drove back through the two towns of Barta'a. The main street of East Barta'a is a colorful marketplace. There are a lot of empty cartons scattered along the way. Claire is not familiar with the crossing from East to West Barta'a through a small riverbed, and is surprised.
'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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