‘Anin, Barta’a-Reihan, Tura-Shaked, Thu 18.4.13, Afternoon
Translator: Charles K.
14:20 Barta’a-Reihan checkpoint
We brought Ali, our young friend, and his mother from Rambam Hospital to the checkpoint. He and his mother are allowed to go cross in a vehicle through the lane for Israelis; they only glance at the mother’s ID. The inspector apologized because he’s new and doesn’t know Ali. He called his supervisor and we crossed without incident.
The Palestinian parking lot is completely full. We didn’t enter.
14:35 Tura-Shaked checkpoint
More traffic than usual at this checkpoint. A horse and cart among those going through – very pastoral. Two families with children cross to the seam zone. A dilapidated Subaru waits for one of them, a fancy jeep for the other.
15:00 A’anin checkpoint
The soldiers arrive at the same time as we do and get ready to open the checkpoint. A dozen men, two women and one child are already waiting to cross to the village. People cross on foot and on a tractor. One tractor driver wishes us a happy holiday (Independence Day). It’s a little embarrassing.
The person who cleans the checkpoint, who lives in Tura, finishes for the day. He takes a full sack to the garbage container at the Tura checkpoint. He says the garbage container was placed there at his request. Now he’ll ask them to cover it so the stray dogs don’t scatter the garbage everywhere. He cleans checkpoints from Jubara to A’anin and talks as if he’s the one in charge.
15:40 Barta’a-Reihan checkpoint, seam zone side.
People walk down the fenced corridor on their way to their homes on the West Bank and are swallowed up in the terminal. A few families and female students cross to the seam zone. A young man crosses, carrying a bouquet of flowers for his mother. Again one of the people crossing to the West Bank complains about what happens in the morning at the Irtach checkpoint (Efrayim gate). He says we should go there, not to Barta’a. Maybe someone should suggest to Yoaz Hendel and his friends to go there; perhaps their connections will help.
A group of seamstresses returns to the West Bank from the sewing workshop in Barta’a. We haven’t seen them in a long time. We greet one another and shake hands.
16:30 We leave a checkpoint that’s operating like clockwork.
'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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