'Anin, Barta'a-Reihan, Tura-Shaked, Ya'bed-Dotan
14:50 – A’anin Agricultural Checkpoint
The gate on the seamline zone side was open and two soldiers were under the awning. A military vehicle arrived and stopped. An officer got out and asked us where we came from and we told him we were from Machsom Watch. He said we were not allowed to cross to the other side, which we knew. When we asked why the checkpoint was closed to farmers from A’anin he said it was because of the coronavirus. We were also told the same thing by the District Coordination and Liaison Office, on June 7th. Why are all the checkpoints open except for this one and one other? Again, we were told that it was because of the coronavirus. We have not heard of an outbreak of the coronavirus in A’anin, Hirbet Tibeh, or Romena.
15:10 – Tura – Shaked Checkpoint
The garbage that usually is here has been taken away. The tobacco in the nearby fields was in flower. There was light traffic in both directions. A wagon passed through to the West Bank, filled with smelly garbage. A young resident of Um Reihan who’s been studying auto mechanics in Nablus crossed and waited for his friend who had come in a car to collect him.
15:30 – Yaabed – Dotan Checkpoint
We drove past Barta’a-Reihan checkpoint. The parking lots were crowded and we saw an Israeli police car, marked with red and white, by cars parked alongside the road. We drove on to Yaabed-Dotan checkpoint. It was unmanned and cars were driving through freely, being slowed down only by the concrete blocks. There was a large sign advertising a house in the settlement of Dotan, selling for NIS 1,080,000.
15:50 – Barta’a – Reihan Checkpoint, Palestinian Side
We parked far away from the police, because we worried they would write us up, but we had an opportunity to photograph the sign forbidding passage of agricultural products to and from the West Bank.
There was chaos in the parking lot, and we made our way among the parked and moving cars and crowds of people coming home from work. Drivers were sitting by the awning and calling “Jenin, Jenin!” Many people don’t need their services and walk to their cars.
16:15 – Barta’a – Reihan Checkpoint, Seamline Zone Side
There is a new sidewalk leading down to the checkpoint and a new plastic roof covering the sleeve. Many workers are returning from work and passing through the turnstile on the side of the terminal. A few stop to buy cookies at the kiosk that is owned by to the settler from Hermesh.
16:30 – We left and join the convoy of empty transport vehicles returning to Israel.
'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)
Mar-21-2022Anin Checkpoint: A magnificent breach in the center of the checkpoint
-
Ya'bed-Dotan
See all reports for this place-
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)
-