Back to reports search page

‘Anin, Barta’a-Reihan, Tura-Shaked

Place: 'Anin checkpoint (214) Barta’a-Reihan Checkpoint Tura-Shaked
Observers: Rachel V., Vera M. (reporting))
Nov-11-2015
| Afternoon
 
15.20  Tura-Shaked
A surprise awaits us at this quiet checkpoint (there are only a few cars, a truck and people who are crossing in the Palestinian direction): the garbage container and even its surroundings are clean!
A soldier approaches us and politely asks who we are.  We praise the long overdue cleaning initiative.  The cleaners are two Palestinians – father and son.  The father is a pleasant person and he tells us about his and his family’s efforts to secure a better life.  He works as a cleaner at several checkpoints and he also has a modest family business in his village.  He asks for our help to find out why one of his sons is denied entry to Israel.  The only thoughts that came to his mind were a deep sadness about the existing situation and what could happen if the occupation were to end.
15.45  Barta’a-Reihan
A mass of workers is returning home, and the employers’ vehicles almost completely block the entrance to the car-park. The people are all hurrying.  Some of them are young and energetic, and others who are older are slower; there are a few women. At the entrance to the “sleeve” (a long passageway enclosed by wire netting) which leads to the terminal, an additional drinks facility and an automatic soft-drink vending machine have been placed. The “coffee and pastry” station, owned by the local settler, is closed. The side of the “sleeve” beside the checkpoint building is sealed by corrugated-iron sheets, a container, and concrete blocks.  We don’t understand the meaning of this.  A man marching in the direction of the terminal surprises us with a fragrant bunch of wild narcissus. We are so surprised that we don’t even manage to thank the man, who has already vanished in the crowd.  We photograph the flowers in a moment of forgetfulness of where and who we are.  The security guards angrily jump on us: “It’s forbidden to photograph!” they shout.  But we describe what  happened to us and they leave us alone.  We offer the narcissus to a woman on the way to the turnstile.
At the entry to the terminal there is a big crowd.  Three out of the four inspection windows are working, but slowly.  We measure the waiting time in the queue: it’s 15 – 20 minutes, which is a long time for someone who is returning from a day’s work. Many people complain and point out that there are long queues in the morning also.
16.40  Anin
As Rachel wrote in one of the last reports: “There are many people returning from the olive harvest, and many of them are young.  The atmosphere is 'togetherness.'” They load many full sacks onto a tractor’s trailer. There is also a genuine white donkey.
Everyone has returned by 17.00.  The soldiers tell us that the checkpoint is open until 17.00, not 19.00 as we had thought.

 

 

  • 'Anin checkpoint (214)

    See all reports for this place


    • '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.

  • Barta’a-Reihan Checkpoint

    See all reports for this place

    • 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).

  • Tura-Shaked

    See all reports for this place

    • 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)
      מחסום עאנין: פרצה מפוארת במרכז המחסום
      Mar-21-2022
      Anin Checkpoint: A magnificent breach in the center of the checkpoint
      View the full album
Donate