‘Anin, Barta’a-Reihan, Tura-Shaked
14:50 – An Officer of the Law
At 15:00 about 20 men, two women, and five tractors are already waiting for the checkpoint to open. The tractors are loaded with wood for cooking and heating. It is cold.
At 15:10 the soldiers arrive, open the gates, and close them again each time without locking them. Some people arrive, who had been caught entering Israel illegally on the way from Um Al Fahem to the checkpoint: tTwo women, a four-year-old girl, a two-year-old boy, and three young men. They are accompanied by an Israeli Arab who is a family member living in Um Al Fahem. The soldiers took everyone's permits, which were valid only for the seamline zone, as well as the blue Israeli ID of the Israeli Arab and his driver's license. We tried to find out when they would be sent home. The lieutenant claims that we are disturbing him at his job and that we are not allowed to stand at the gate since it is a military zone.
By 15:40 everyone except the family has passed through. Even the firewood had been allowed through as well as the used clothing, after a discussion with the military policewoman and the lieutenant. The lieutenant ordered the police to come and deal with the illegals. Meanwhile he invited the women and the children to sit in the military jeep, to keep them out of the cold. They accepted. The young men waited in the shelter next to the fence with the resident of Um Al Fahem.
Two Palestinians arrive late. The checkpoint is due to close at 15:30. The lieutenant looks at his watch, scolds them, and lets them pass. The lieutenant talks with the resident of Um Al Fahem who attempts to apologize for driving illegals. The lieutenant is not convinced. He reminds the man about abiding by the law. He is convinced that he is right and emphasizes that he has nothing against the man, but that the law must be obeyed.
The gates are locked and the soldiers and the illegals are inside, while the resident of Um AL Fahem and we are outside. The police have not arrived. We speak to the lieutenant and tell him that all they want to do is to return home, and he tells us that the law must be obeyed and he will not be a party to breaking the law.
16:20 – Another jeep arrives. The officers confer. It appears that the police will come to Shaked-Tura Checkpoint. The three young men get into the jeep and the resident of Um-Al-Fahem is invited to join them on the drive to Shaked – Tura. The man refuses. The soldiers drive along the security road inside the fence with the illegals. We invite the man from Um AL Fahem to come with us on the regular road. He goes with us as far as the junction and decided to go home without his driver's license and ID.
16:30 – Shaked – Tura Checkpoint
We don't see the illegals or the officers and police from A'anin have no idea what is going on. Unfortunately we did not ask the man from Um Al Fahem for his telephone number. The checkpoint appears as it always does: the total of technology and facilities that have been invested here are disproportionate to the small amount of traffic.
17:00 – Reihan – Barta'a, Seamline Zone Side
We descend the sleeve together with the many workers returning from their work. The people arrive at the turnstile at the entrance to the terminal. A line forms next to the inspection position. The turnstile is closed and a security officer directs people to enter the terminal as they once did, and immediately a line forms next to the inspection point inside. The other position is filled with people going to the seamline zone.
The outside turnstile opens. The security guard lets some of the people pass through it while others are directed into the terminal. It is not clear what the criteria are for who goes where.
17:20 – There are three detainees sitting on the bench inside, as it used to be once. We leave.
The entire checkpoint is lit up with colored lights – the greenery and the fake well are lit up with green lights. The bucket above the well is lit up with a pink light. A beautiful checkpoint…
Epilogue – 19:00
Our Friend Raya Z. telephoned and informed us that a friend from A'anin has called and told her that two young men had been arrested at the checkpoint.
(What about the third?) They were taken to Tura-Shaked and it is not clear where they were taken from there. She was surprised to learn that we were at A'anin at the time and I wondered what we might have done. After a half hour I spoke with Raya again and she informed me that her friend called back and said that the young men had been released. We hope that the women and children returned home earlier.
'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)
Ruti TuvalMar-21-2022Anin Checkpoint: A magnificent breach in the center of the checkpoint
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