‘Anin, Barta’a-Reihan, Tura-Shaked
15:05 – Tura – Shaked Checkpoint
Three soldiers are marching towards the checkpoint to begin a shift, and a few minutes later three others leave and go down to the army base, smiling. There is little vehicle or pedestrian traffic in either direction. A civilianvehicle bearing the insignia "Reihan Security" comes up the dirt road from the lone house. What was it doing there?
15:30 – Reihan Barta'a Checkpoint, Seamline Zone Side
Palestinians are beginning to return home from work in Israel and in the seamline zone. "As usual" in the past few weeks, only one window is open and a line has begun to form next to it. People returning from Israel do not go through the terminal but around it. A few cross from the West Bank to the seamline zone – most of whom are students. Two of them come up to me. They study in Nablus; one is studying engineering and the other nursing. The future engineer approaches, fastening his belt, which he has had to remove for the inspection. They express their dissatisfaction with the checkpoint and the separation barrier, both of which are standing on Palestinian land.
16:05 – A'anin Checkpoint
The soldiers arrived on time and have already opened the gates of the checkpoint. Dozens of people, a few tractors, and two donkeys are waiting to cross. People complain that they would not be able to pick all the olives by the end of the harvest in another nine days. A 63-year-old man riding a donkey explains that he is the only person in his family who has received a permit. He also complains that he will not manage to harvest the entire crop by the 15th of the month. Two more wagons arrive carrying women and laughing children. This is the first time I have seen something resembling joy at the olive harvest. The children want me to take their picture, and they photograph me as well, but unfortunately there is something wrong with my smartphone and I can't send them the pictures.
By 16:25 everyone has crossed. A military policeman approaches me and shows interest in what I am doing. He has not heard of Machsom Watch. He tells me I can go because the checkpoint is closing, but I correct him and tell him that it is open until 17:00. His friends verify this. A full, bright white moon is shining above A'anin.
16:45 – A young man arrives followed by a woman and her son. The young man passes through, but the woman and man do not. Apparently they are residents of Um el Fahem (in Israel) and want to go to A'anin in the seamline zone, to visit another son.
At 17:00the soldiers close the checkpoint. The moon turns yellow as I left.
'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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