‘Anin, Barta’a-Reihan, Tura-Shaked, Ya’bed-Dotan
14:50 Anin
Five tractors loaded with junk and firewood are waiting, along with ten people. The soldiers arrive and open the gate on time. In a few minutes everybody has passed without any problems.
The commander of the "Nachal" company and a number of female soldiers arrive on patrol. The commander seems to have a relaxing influence at the checkpoint. The problem is the mere fact that there is a checkpoint and that the land belonging to people in Anin remains cut off from its owners.
15:50 Tura-Shaked
About ten men and women arrive from Yaabed to the funeral of a family member in Um Reihan. The commander and the female soldiers are also here.
We reach the vehicle checkpoint at Barta'a-Rehan. The woman at the check post is evidently new at the job, she does not know Machsomwatch. After inquiring she lets us through. We pass by the full parking lots. Many cars are also parking on both sides of the blocked "bridge". The road leading from Emricha to Yabed has been blocked for a long time as well.
16:10 Yabed-Dotan
There are no soldiers at the checkpoint and the traffic is moving freely in both directions. Some drivers stop anyway, since they find it hard to believe that they do not have to slow down. One of them even asks us if he is allowed to drive on.
16:40 Barta'a-Reihan
Many workers are going down the sleeve and cross on the side of the terminal. Most of them have working permits so they do not need to pass through the check posts. The passage is quick and there are no lines.
Hardly any people enter the seamline zone. From the terminal we hear the voice of a child. After some time we see a little girl jumping up and down next to the check post. Her mother, with a bandaged hand, is standing behind. The father is arguing with the woman at the check post until two security guards arrive. We have been waiting quite a long time until the family is allowed to cross. The father, who speaks Hebrew, explains to us that they live in Barta'a and that they are on their way home from the hospital in Nablus, where the mother has had her hand operated on. She could not open the door to the check post, so he opened it for her. The woman who checked them got angry and detained the father. He felt that he was treated with disrespect for no reason at all and so the argument started. The father keeps repeating how important it is to show people respect.
17:20 Many workers return from work and go down the sleeve. We leave.
In the parking lot on the side of the seamline zone, a man is complaining about the way the DCO in Salem works. His son has applied for a magnetic card and has been to Salem four times already, in vain.
'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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