Anin Checkpoint: The Theater of the Absurd
14:50 – Anin Checkpoint – Two female soldiers, two male soldiers, and one Palestinian woman
We arrived early. No one was there. The opening is at a15:15 and usually, people come early. We waited a while and called our acquaintance, M. He evidently did not cross this morning; he had work next to his home. He didn’t know if other people crossed. After a time, one woman arrived who came up from a Bedouin encampment on the slope of olives. She sat down on a stone to rest in the shade of an olive tree. She said, with the help of hand gestures, that she is a resident of Anin and she is the only one who crossed the checkpoint this morning. She showed us, with her fingers, that 10 others crossed via the breach in the fence. The opening hour arrived, and no soldiers came. We suspected that no one would come, so we phoned the District Coordination Office. A female soldier told us she would check with the brigade. At the request of M., we asked if the checkpoint would be open on Monday. The soldier said that as yet there were no instructions. After about 15 minutes, a jeep came; two female soldiers and two male soldiers got out. The two female soldiers and the one male soldier who protected them, wore helmets. The second soldier got out to check the area around the waiting shed. The two female soldiers inspected the identity papers of the woman and accompanied her to the additional gates in the middle of the checkpoint. Theater of the absurd.
15:40 – Tura-Shaked Checkpoint
On the side of the road that leads to the checkpoint, a young olive grove was planted. There are only soldiers at the checkpoint. There are no people crossing.
16:00 – Barta’a-Reihan Checkpoint, the upper parking lot.
Various vehicles enter the parking lot and let out their passengers at the opening of the long sleeve (the enclosed, passage to and from the terminal). Our guest, a former dairywoman, said the appearance is humiliating and is appropriate for leading cows to the pen.
16:15 – We crossed the Barta’a checkpoint and stopped for ice cream with our friend, F., at Amricha. The store is orderly, the garden is blooming, and F. is especially pretty today, in a traditional dress with matching maroon-colored hijab.
16:30 – Ya’bed-Dotan
The traffic, most of it in the direction of Ya’bed and Jenin flows without disruption.
16:45 – On the way back to Barta’a Checkpoint, our trunk was inspected, and we travel home.
'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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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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