'Anin, Barta'a-Reihan, Tura-Shaked, Ya'bed-Dotan
A’anin Checkpoint
We arrived at the checkpoint shortly before 15:00 and a Palestinian told us that the checkpoint would open at 15:15. We decided to use the time to drive to Tura Checkpoint.
Tura Checkpoint
The gates were open and a few people were crossing by car and on foot. There were pieces of green plastic lying around the garbage container. Who is supposed to clean up? The garbage container was filled with leftover food and plastic trays from the soldiers’ meals. At one time a local Palestinian was paid to clean up around the checkpoint, but only for a short time. Are the soldiers supposed to take turns cleaning up?
Tura Checkpoint is extremely well-equipped. On the side of the village there are metal spikes embedded in the road that move up and down to stop cars. This is modern technology. There is also a traffic light facing the gate from the direction of the Israeli side, but it seems to be blinking a bit. There is also a spacious booth where the soldiers stand and a watchtower where a soldier sits. Who is all this technology for? When we are here there are usually no long lines of people waiting to cross.
We returned to A’anin Checkpoint, which was evidently due to open only at 15:45. We met several men who were waiting who told us that not many permits were being granted and it was not clear what the criteria were for giving permits. One man told us he had received a permit for only six weeks. He has a lot of olives and a great deal of work to do picking and making oil, but he has to work alone because his wife did not receive a permit. We did not understand whether his children had received permits. Some people receive a permit for two years and others for only one month. The man whom we talked to said he would begin harvesting in another week. Unfortunately it was difficult to understand everything they said.
Yaabed – Dotan Checkpoint
We didn’t see any soldiers and the traffic was moving as usual. There was a small sign pasted on a stone next to the large red sign warning people not to enter Area A. The sign read that whoever receives permission from the Rabbi or from the head of security can enter to visit Jacob’s water cistern.
On the way we noticed an area with trees that looked like a gathering place. When we drove back a man told us that he had charcoal. All the charcoal factories in the area have been closed and it is against the law to produce charcoal, but he claimed that he had charcoal from Egypt and was selling it here.
A new shop has opened in Emricha that is decorated with plants and flowers. Maybe next time we will go in and see it.
Reihan – Barta’a Checkpoint
We stopped to see the new crossing facility. It is reminiscent of a passage for leading cattle. There are a lot of runways for people to move through, but they must go through one by one. At any rate, our fears that the place would be hot inside during the summer were unfounded because there are a lot of openings for air.
'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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Ya'bed-Dotan
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Ya’bed-Dotan
This checkpoint is located on road 585, at the crossroads of Mevo Dotan settler-colony / Jenin/ Ya’abad. It has an army watchtower (‘pillbox’ post) and concrete blocs that slow down vehicular traffic. It was erected when Barta’a Checkpoint, lying to the west on the Separation Fence, was privatized and its operation was passed over to civilian security personnel. Since December 2009 this checkpoint enables flow of Palestinian vehicular traffic towards the Barta’a Checkpoint. Seldom is it manned by soldiers sitting in the watchtower, who conduct random inspections of vehicles and passengers. (february 2020)
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