‘Anin, Barta’a-Reihan, Tura-Shaked, Ya’bed-Dotan, Thu 21.11.13, Morning
06:10 A’anin checkpoint
The DCO decided the olive harvest has ended and the checkpoint again opens only twice a week. Many youths cross first. Crossing seems to go relatively quickly, misleadingly so, as if there are no problems. But it only seems that way.
Don’t forget that the people crossing through the checkpoints are first of all, last of all, and over all, those who have permits. And a permit is either valid or not, or forged or not – period. The permits, to the great regret of the checkpoint authorities and the DCO, can’t cross by themselves. The people bringing them through are an invisible annoyance or a potential two-legged terror attack disguised (at A’anin) as a farmer. But we’re leaning against the concrete barriers, pen and paper in hand, ready to listen, and almost everyone who stops has a heartfelt story to tell.
*A lean man aged 40-50 from a village northeast of A’anin works in the seam zone for the meager amount of NIS 100/day (!). If he’d cross through the Barta’a/Reihan checkpoint the trip to the seam zone would cost less than NIS 50 (that he pays now) and he’d be able to go through more often than twice a week. He appealed to have his situation taken into consideration, but wasn’t successful – though they did manage to grant him a permit for A’anin…
*A widow and her son, tell us with the help of a relative who speak hebreo, they discovered at the end of the olive harvest that fifty olive trees had been cut down in their grove in the seam zone. They complained to a policeman at the Salem DCO who told them there’d be an investigation… letws hope so.
*A resident of A’anin says that a month and a half ago soldiers at the checkpoint confiscated his 18-year-old son’s new crossing permit. They went to the Salem DCO and obtained a new permit, which was also confiscated/
* Another resident of A’anin says his son went through the A’anin checkpoint last week without any problem but when he got to the junction soldiers came and tore up his permit/
*A young man from A’anin was late arriving at the checkpoint with a tractor (after six-thirty) and was punished – he crossed, the tractor didn’t, because (as we was more or less told by the DCO officer) he hadn’t internalized the instructions given to residents of A’anin regarding the importance of arriving at the checkpoint on time.
*A woman asked us for a ride to the Barta’a/Reihan checkpoint. She’s on her way to Jenin. Why not go there directly from the village (A’anin)?, we asked, and didn’t understand her reply. Only when we had dropped her off at the Barta’a checkpoint did we discover she’d left this morning through the A’anin checkpoint and wanted to return home immediately but the soldiers wouldn’t let her, so she decided to return via Jenin. Generally, when this happens, the soldiers allow people who want to return go back after everyone has crossed. Too bad we didn`t understand her on time to help her.
A polite officer (a major) in the DCO’s white Toyota, stops beside us and explain that the permits which were torn/confiscated were probably forged. And latecomers are in fact punished because the soldiers have to proceed to open the next checkpoint and can’t wait for them.
07:10 Tura/Shaked checkpoint
A group of men waits on the Tura side to go through the revolving gate to the inspection room. A group of pupils has just gone through the checkpoint. Teachers arrive in two cars from the seam zone; they’ve been crossing here daily for years. They get out for document inspection, return to the vehicles, go through after they’ve been inspected, continue to schools in the West Bank. There’s a rumor this checkpoint will be closed to anyone who doesn’t live in the seam zone. Residents of Tura, Nazlat Zayd, Yabed, etc. won’t be able to cross here; they’ll have to go to Barta’a. If it’s true, that’s very bad.
08:00 Yabed/Dothan checkpoint.
The side road to Yabed is blocked by a locked iron bar. Traffic flows unhindered through the checkpoint. We stand next to the concrete barriers; two soldiers approach us. Good morning, good morning. A terrifying D-9 Caterpillar tractor stands opposite the checkpoint. All the people in the passing cars wave hello to us happily; we feel we’ve become a permanent part of the landscape… Like the concrete barriers, Neta says.
08:20 Barta’a/Reihan checkpoint
Ten private cars and about 15 laden commercial vehicles waited on the road to go through the vehicle inspection station. Permits attached to people who wish us a warm good morning leave through the upper terminal exit. Do you have a permit to be here? someone asks, and laughs uproariously. A bulldozer works on some mysterious project on the hill at the upper entrance to the checkpoint area.
'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)
Ruti TuvalMar-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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