‘Anin, Barta’a-Reihan, Tura-Shaked, Wed 6.11.13, Afternoon
13:50 Tura/Shaked checkpoint
We cross the seamline zone to reach the checkpoint.
It’s open from 07:00 to 10:00 and from 12:00 to 18:00. Most of those crossing in the afternoon are laborers returning from work in the settlements and the Shahak industrial zone in the seam zone.
At this hour few cross in the opposite direction, from the West Bank to the seamline zone.
A large taxi arrives from the West Bank. The passengers get out before it goes through, their documents are inspected and they cross on foot. The taxi and driver are inspected, go through the checkpoint and pick up the waiting passengers. The soldiers allowed a handicapped person to remain in the taxi during its inspection. It turns out the Jenin municipality runs a taxi service between the West Bank and the seam zone. The taxis are also permitted through the Barta’a-Reihan checkpoint.
14:15 More taxis arrive; many laborers get out, returning home to the West Bank. All greet us with broad smiles.
14:20 We leave.
14:30 Reihan/Barta’a checkpoint
Many laborers, both men and women, return at this time from their jobs in the seam zone and in Israel. Those who were required to leave in the morning through the Irtach/Sha’ar Efrayim checkpoint, near Tulkarm, are also allowed to return through this one. Many cars park in the lot on the Palestinian side of the checkpoint and by the roadsides. They must be waiting for those returning from work.
Minibuses transport Israeli (Jewish) pupils who live in the two settlements beyond the fence in the West Bank and go to school in Israel. They wait at the pickup station at the checkpoint for their rides to the settlements (unlike the situation in the central West Bank, where there are many settlements and it’s impossible to determine where each arriving Israeli lives, only settlers are permitted through this checkpoint; “ordinary” Israelis are not allowed to cross here).
All Palestinians must go through a long, winding, fenced corridor called a “sleeve,” which we (Machsom Watch women) are allowed to enter. The sleeve is fenced on the sides and the top; it leads to the terminal. At the end of the sleeve those entering and exiting the terminal are separated; at this hour, despite the dozens of people crossing, there’s no congestion or lines. Those returning from the seam zone (most are coming from east Barta’a) must have their permit stamped, but a machine does it and the process goes very quickly. Laborers who left this morning for Israel via Irtach aren’t required to have their permit stamped. There’s a drinking fountain with cold water and a bench at the end of the sleeve on which to rest.
As other reports on this checkpoint have noted, the same large group of women working in the sewing shops in east Barta’a crosses here on a regular basis, and at this hour they’re transported back to the checkpoint. All of them are attractive and well-groomed; they greet us happily (they include me in their greetings thanks to Chana).
15:00 We leave the checkpoint.
15:15 A’anin checkpoint
The checkpoint is still closed. The olive harvest continues. The checkpoint is supposed to open from 15:30 to 16:30. Palestinians are already waiting. A young man who speaks Hebrew well has taken the initiative to organize the line and holds in his hand the IDs of those waiting.
15:20 A car with an Israeli license plate arrives, then a military vehicle on the security road from the checkpoint. The soldiers open the locked gate and allow the two vehicles through.
15:25 The soldiers arrive, open the checkpoint’s three gates. Many Palestinians, including women and young men, are waiting, and also a tractor. When the man who organized the line goes through he gives the job to someone else, and so on. The line moves quickly; five people enter at a time.
15:40 An armored “Black Maria” arrives; three soldiers escorting three Palestinians follow on foot. Later we learn the Palestinians were caught working in the groves of Mei Ami, a locality in Israel, and are considered to have been in Israel illegally. They join three Palestinians who had been detained earlier. They’re not yet being allowed through. We’re far away, can’t see and certainly can’t hear what exactly is going on. One of the detainees, an older man, gets up now and tries to convince the soldiers to release him.
15:50 More laborers/olive pickers arrive. A farmer arrives from the grove next to the checkpoint with a female donkey and a young donkey madly in love with it. The Palestinian unloads some sacks of olives and returns to the grove for more. He waits for a tractor to arrive with more olive pickers.
People continue to arrive and go through the checkpoint, some without difficulty and others who are sent to have their documents more carefully inspected.
16:05 Some of the detainees are released. We can’t see whether their documents were returned, but three are still detained. They’ll probably be released at 16:30, when the checkpoint closes.
16:20 We leave.
I feel we’re participants in a play all of whose actors know their parts and roles and can’t change a thing. On our way home we drive toward a kitschy sunset which only makes us feel worse, even though, on the face of it, everything was “OK.”
'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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