‘Anin, Jalama, Reihan, Shaked, Mon 12.4.10, Afternoon
Bracha B.A. – Translation
14:05 – Jalameh Crossing
We brought the baby girl Aya and her grandmother here and stayed to observe the checkpoint. At this hour young and old women are returning from their work picking garlic in the nearby moshavim. They are gay and smiling, and carry bundles on their heads, pleased to meet us and their friends despite their hard workday in the hot sun. They are amazing women.
They pass through the checkpoint relatively quickly. In the morning they are asked to enter the inspection rooms but now they don't have to and soon they are waving to us from the other side of the sleeve.
15:00 A'anin Agricultural checkpoint
We were told that this morning the checkpoint opened at 07:00 instead of 06:00 and that 60 people crossed. The soldiers on this shift don't know the reason for the delay in the morning. Farmers pass through with tractors and wagons carrying people, farm equipment, and donkeys and a tractor loads sacks of sawdust that are waiting at the checkpoint. Documents and items are checked without much delay.
15:15 – Shaked – Tura Checkpoint
The checkpoint looks like an army camp on the eve of war: there are Israeli flags flying everywhere and sandbags around the concrete blocks on the road. People pass through relatively quickly but some tell us that there are delays and we learn from a soldier that there are some detainees. A woman student said that there is a red line under her name that means that she gets special attention. She is not the only one.
16:15 – Reihan Barta'a Checkpoint
Cars are double and triple-parked waiting for their owners to return from work.
-What do you have in your pocket?
-Take it out, open it.
-Hold it up, I can't see.
-Open it please.
-What's that?
-Open it, open it. Take it out.
-What's that, clothing?
-Put it on the table.
-OK, you can go through. Thank you.
We went up to the entrance to the sleeve. The entire path has a stone wall that hides everything from view. What are they trying to hide? On the other hand the garden is in full bloom.
People are passing relatively quickly through the sleeve towards Palestine. There are several youths being detained. They have been waiting for a long time. We are later told that they are allowed to detain them for three hours.
On our way out from the sleeve we see a long line of cars going in the direction of the West Bank. One driver tells us that he is held up every day coming and going, and he does not know why. What do they want from him? He is carrying two passengers. They get out and the driver puts his magnetic card into the machine, and is then told to pull his car over. Other cars behind him are told to go through while he has to wait. Obediently he follows orders and is led to a booth at the top of the checkpoint where he undoubtedly undergoes frisking and is questioned. We are told by the security guard that even if he goes through ten times a day he will still be delayed. This security precaution is for entering Israel but not for moving within the West bank or the seamline zone. He says he is only following orders. He was told to detain him and so he does so.
25 minutes later the man was released. We left at 17:40.
'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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Jalama
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North of Jenin, on the Green Line between Israel and the West Bank. A big terminal for the passage of Palestinians with permits allowing entrance into Israel and goods into Israel operates there. In the course of 2009 the terminal was opened for the passage of Israeli Arabic citizens into the West Bank. Since October 2009 they may pass in their cars.
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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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