Anin checkpoint: The wedding of the dead
5:55-7:50 Barta’a Checkpoint
Innovation: The Israeli occupation created a separate track for women in the crossing shed of the Barta’a Checkpoint. Perhaps this follows repeated requests by the northern MW members of the checkpoint management, according to the demands of the men who asked to prevent the women’s harassment. Please note the exclamation points in the sign !!
Passage flowed unhampered.
The town of Ya’abad wakes up. Good morning, we’re home
This town is spread upon a hill range overlooking the Dotan Valley. According to archeological findings the place has been populated continuously ever since the Iron Age (1200-586 BCE). In 1596 (426 years ago) there were 62 families here, paying the Ottoman rulers taxes for their crops of wheat and barley, olives, grapevines, goats and honey.
The colony of Mevo Dotan is built on the opposite hill. The main road to Jenin passes between the two, and guarded by the Ya’abad-Dotan Checkpoint. The colony was founded in 1980 upon 120 dunams of the village lands, confiscated for its sake.
People say that the growing population and the size of the advertisements attest to poor deals in real estate – or any other product. In addition, in the present reality there is an awakening of interest in colony construction and expansion following the bright Smutrichized future… Even the Lubavitcher Rebbe – King Messiah – is interested in the area.
The checkpoint is unmanned, traffic flows. Here and there we receive smiles and greetings, and perhaps that is the reason for our presence here on Wednesdays, early in the morning.
Anin Checkpoint (photo from the archive – only Mahmoud I. crosses the checkpoint gate, and the soldiers arrive only for his sake. All the rest of the people cross all day through breaches in the Separation Fence).
We were very moved to meet Mahmoud at the checkpoint today. He terminated his days of mourning for his son Ibrahim, and has returned to work. His son was an officer in the Drugs Squad of the Palestinian Authority Police, and was killed/murdered at a confrontation with drug dealers from Jenin. Four of the dealer gang were caught, the other two are hiding in Israel and Abu Mazen has submitted an extradition plea. Contact with us has existed ever since we began our shifts at this checkpoint, I no longer remember when. Long ago. We (MachsomWatchers of the north) buy his olive oil and olives, bring him clothes, and make phone calls when he tries to extricate himself from bureaucracy’s tentacles. Ever since his tragedy we did not see him, about a month, perhaps more. He does not look his usual self, has suddenly aged, but his regular smile is still there. He is ready and able to tell us about Ibrahim, his handsome successful son who studied for 4 years at the Cairo police academy, and shares with us an amazing story. Ibrahim reached the age of 27, and his parents began to speak of a wife, a wedding, ‘it’s high time’… Their son answered: In one month’s time I shall have a huge and fancy wedding, no wife. Just me. A month later he was murdered. His funeral and mourning shed were attended by 20,000 people.
'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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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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