‘Anin, Jalama, Reihan, Shaked, Thu 31.12.09, Afternoon
Translation: Bracha B.A.
It is a beautiful spring-like day, with blue skies and white clouds, green fields and clear air. It would have been a delightful trip had it not been for the checkpoints we visited.Jalameh, 14:30
We brought little Aya and her mother from the hospital in Haifa to the checkpoint and observed the terminal, which looks like an international crossing. Many cars with Israeli license plates are waiting in line to be checked at the vehicle crossing. The cars are checked, the passengers stand next to them. Everything looks as if it is part of a calm routine. In the parking lot on the other side of the border, next to the gas station, we saw three buses from which families were getting out, returning from visiting Palestinian prisoners being held in Israel. They walked beyond the terminal to Palestinian buses waiting on the other side.
We drove through the lovely panorama of Wadi Ara and into the hills past Mei Ami to the A’anin agricultural checkpoint.
A’anin Checkpoint 15:10
The gates are wide open and soldiers are inside, just between the gates. They were waiting for the last two people on the list who had left in the morning to come back. Only eight people have gone out today. We drove on.
Shaked Checkpoint 15:15
Two high school students who live in Dahar el Malak returned from school. The grocery story has also been removed from the area of the army camp that has been cleared. Only a sofa remains there, abandoned. The parking lot next to the second camp that was supposed to have been returned to its Palestinian owner is still paved with asphalt and is still being used as a parking lot for people coming to the camp.
Reihan Checkpoint, 15:25
Cars are double- and triple-parked in the lower parking lot and there is no room to move. We are told that drivers have already been fined for double parking, but apparently it’s only a rumor. Since the yellow gate on the road from the checkpoint to Jenin at the top of the hill was removed and the “Bazel Road” was opened, there are many more cars that come to the parking lot and an additional parking lot has opened opposite the village of Zabda. This was apparently an initiative of one of the local residents. We are told that he takes “a few pennies” for parking. Neta brought several bags of used clothing and before she managed to get out of the car the men rushed to the trunk and either deliberately or by mistake took some of her private belongings, which she took back from their cars.
There is a problem that drivers remain in the parking lot for many hours, and there are no restrooms. The area next to the shed smells of urine. Sometimes women wait there as well; it is a serious problem. The security company (which runs the checkpoint) claims that it is the responsibility of the army to build restrooms there. (There used to be two smelly chemical toilets there, which were never cleaned). The army places the responsibility upon the company and they have no solution. Ironically they claim that the terminal at Reihan “serves the local population”!
'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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