‘Anin, Jalama, Reihan, Shaked, Sun 8.11.09, Morning
The inspection of documents is being done on the other side of the gate, in the middle, far from where we are standing. No one goes through, but we hear the voices and that is why we try to get a bit nearer. The commander sends a soldier to threaten us: "Tell them to get out or I'll …" "Or he'll what?" we ask the young soldier who is new to the area and is interested in us. "Or he'll blow you up," he answers smiling sweetly. Just kidding …. A few minutes later a donkey and rider go through and report to us that the computer is not working. The passage of people now is conducted at the rate of one minute per person. Somebody tells us that twenty people are still waiting. The famous rubbish dump in the olive grove has been flattened somewhat. The plastic armchairs and chairs have disappeared.
6:30 – Reihan-Barta'a CP
About twenty people are waiting in the upper parking lot for rides to work. They report on a lot of pressure on Saturday morning, when workers and tradesmen go through together because the terminal opens late. It seems that there are some who work seven days a week. The law of a day of rest does not apply to them because in the seamline zone, Jordanian law is applicable. There is no special compensation for work on Saturday and no special compensation for overtime. No pay for vacations and no pay for illness. The workers do not complain because they are afraid that they will be fired with no compensation. Someone tells us with wonder that a worker who was made redundant in Barkan did get full compensation thanks to his lawyer.
At the gate where vehicles enter, women students "iron" their magnetic id cards. In the post opposite them, there is a guard dressed in black pointing his rifle at them. The passage of people through the terminal was delayed for about ten minutes because of the inspection of the electric work tools of the tile-layers. From 6:45 on the passage goes ahead steadily. Somebody who is in a big hurry, begs his employer by phone to wait for him for another two minutes. Empty pickup trucks on their way to the West Bank go through quickly. From the other side no vehicles are waiting for inspection. In the inspection compound, hidden from us, it is possible to get a glimpse of dogs scanning goods.
7:03 Shaked-Tura CP
A herd of goats goes through just as we arrive. About tweny people are standing at the turnstile. Four cars are waiting on the other side of the gate. The children's schoolbags are inspected at random, apparently because the soldiers are free from the inspection of cars. A Transit full of little children – about 15 – arrives and the children jump out, go through to the other side of the CP in a bunch and are collected by the Transit again after three minutes. They go to school in Ya'abed.
Shortly after 8:00, we pick up the baby Maya and her mother at the Jalameh CP, taking them to Rambam for the little one's dialysis. Again we read the big red sign that warns not to enter Area A (under control of the Palestinian Authority). The sign is worded peculiarly: Israelis are forbidden to go through, but we know that Israeli Arabs go there frequently. Apart from this, the warning is phrased as dangerous and life-threatening in Area A (the Authority). But the Palestinian Authority does not forbid us to go through. Whether or not to go there should be the responsibility of the person who chooses to do so, don't you think?
'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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