‘Anin, Jalama, Reihan, Shaked, Thu 28.1.10, Morning
|
Translated by L. Williams
06:05 Aanin Checkpoint
The gates are open. The first woman crosses, followed by other individuals and one tractor. People stand by the middle gate and after a while start back to Aanin. One tells us that these are people whose agricultural permits have expired and they did not get new ones. 06:35 – the gates are locked. The DCO representative leaves the checkpoint and we ask him why there are so few passing and so many turned away. According to him, 13 have crossed and about 60 were sent back for not having permits, for not being Aanin residents, or for holding permits for Reihan Checkpoint. According to him, four elderly men with lands in the Seam Zone held two-year permits which have expired. They submitted applications for renewal two weeks ago, and haven’t yet received new ones. He said that he would personally deal with their permits and would clarify how many agricultural permits there are in the season for Aanin residents. In the afternoon (by phone) he said there were about 80 agricultural permits as in every year, and repeated that there are permits for others – not only elderly owners of land. He doesn’t understand why so few are crossing.
06:50 Reihan-Bartaa Checkpoint
Light traffic at this hour. Workers in East Bartaa arrive in small groups and go straight into the terminal. There is no traffic towards the West Bank. Only two pickups loaded with vegetables are waiting for inspection.
07:20 Shaked-Tura Checkpoint
Few people and one car are waiting to enter the Seam Zone. Three men are waiting to enter the inspection hut on their way to the West Bank. Few people, but the passage is exceedingly slow. We enter the checkpoint area and see a detained young man. A soldier comes over to us and before we ask about the detention he asks us whether we know Edna Canetti. The commander (a 1st sergeant) demands that we leave and says that the man is detained because of something on the computer, and adds (to our surprise) that this is despite the detainee being a resident of Tura and therefore has, like every Tura resident, a permit to enter the Seam Zone because they have relatives (?) There. We couldn’t wait for the release of the detainee because we had to go to Jalame to collect Aya, the toddler for dialysis. E from the DCO told me on the phone in the afternoon that the youngster was released ten minutes after we left. He confirmed, in response to my question, that not every Tura resident has permits for the Seam Zone, but only land owners, workers and other functionaries in the Seam Zone.
08:30 Jalame Checkpoint
Aya and her mother were already waiting. Three buses were waiting for families of convicts going on prison visits at Shata and Gilboa Prison. Some of the visitors were already sitting in the buses. A Red Cross representative waited with them.
|
'Anin checkpoint (214)
See all reports for this place-
'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.
-
Barta’a-Reihan Checkpoint
See all reports for this place-
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).
-
Jalama
See all reports for this place-
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.
-
Tura-Shaked
See all reports for this place-
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
-