‘Anin, Barta’a-Reihan, Tura-Shaked, Ya’bed-Dotan, Sun 3.11.13, Morning
A'anin Checkpoint, 07:00
We arrived late because of heavy traffic, but when we arrived there were still people and tractors crossing. Children are waiting in the shelter near the checkpoint to be driven to school. A family is spreading out plastic sheets under the olive trees near the checkpoint and is beginning to harvest their olives. I walk up to them to talk. As opposed to other places I heard about, the olives here are excellent this year and I was immediately treated to a cup of pure olive oil. The family consisted of a couple and a teenager. Unfortunately any thought of purchasing olive oil from the family vanished when soldiers arrived and told me that it was illegal to purchase oil from them and they would confiscate their permits to cross the checkpoint if I had. I decided to give up the idea of purchasing olive oil because I didn't want to cause these people any harm. I obeyed this evil rule. With rules like this, there will never be peace. Perhaps that is what our government wants. Thinking about this later, as Hananya Reichman stated, "Common sense always comes along after the police." I was sorry that I had not told the soldiers that they should think about what they had told me at home, after they take off their uniforms.
07:50 – Shaked-Tura Checkpoint
The checkpoint is completely deserted and not even the soldiers are here. Perhaps they are having breakfast. The garbage container is not full, but there is a lot of litter scattered around.
Reihan – Barta'a Checkpoint, 08:10
We drive past the checkpoint without going into the parking lot, which appears to be very crowded. Taxis are waiting at the top of the sleeve for passengers going to the seamline zone, but only a few people are going up the sleeve. Evidently at this hour most people have already crossed.
Yaabed-Dotan Checkpoint, 08:20
As usual the checkpoint is closed, the yellow gate that blocks the side entrance to Yaabed is locked, and as usual there is an army jeep parked across the road. Despite the fact that there has been a lot of news lately about incidents, it appears to be calm and traffic is moving. Palestinian and Israeli cars go past without being stopped. There are no delays and no one is being stopped at the checkpoint. A huge tractor which looks like a snowplow is standing at the entrance to Mevo Dotan. It is evidently being used to clear paths in the olive groves and fields. A soldier who sees me standing near the concrete blockades comes up to me and we talk about our purpose and objectives. He speaks like a yeshiva graduate and my claims that I bring based on the Mishna are met with responses, depending upon which Rabbi has made them. References to the fact that a person has the right to formulate his or her own opinion are left hanging in the air.
When we passed Reihan-Barta'a Checkpoint on the way back we saw that ten trucks were still waiting to be checked.
'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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