‘Anin, Jalama, Reihan, Shaked, Thu 5.3.09, Afternoon
14:00: Jalameh Checkpoint
We drove Aya, a sick child who is undergoing dialysis, and her mother from Rambam Hospital to Jalameh and utilized the opportunity to stop there and observe. Since Jalameh is located near the green line it serves as a crossing for Israeli Arabs and Pedestrians, and as a point for transferring cargo from Israeli trucks to Palestinian ones and vise versa. Private vehicles are not allowed to cross. Israeli Arabs park their cars in the lot and passengers must transfer to Palestinian vehicles on the West Bank side. The checkpoint is operated by civilians. It was previously operated by the “Mikud” Company, and is now operated by the “Modi’in Ezrachi” Company. The terminal has two lanes, but only one of the two is being used for people going in both directions.
On the fence outside the entrance to the terminal is the most ironic of the many signs we see on this shift: a picture of a pistol with a diagonal line across it, signifying: No Weapons Allowed Here! There are only a few people in the terminal.
When we approached the turnstyle at the entrance to the terminal a member of the staff wearing a blue uniform approached us, showed us his I.D., and introduced himself as R. the shift manager. He and asked us politely what we wanted. We identified ourselves as members of Machsom Watch and he was pleasant and answered our questions. He also told us that we were not allowed to photograph anywhere within the area of the checkpoint.
Several hundred Palestinians pass through the checkpoint each day. It is open from 05:00 to 19:30. Palestinians can enter Israel until 14:00. Israeli Arabs can go from Israel to the West Bank from 08:30 until 14:00. Busloads of Palestinians visiting family members who are detained in Israeli prisons arrive at the checkpoint, and the passengers enter Israel and continue their way on Israeli busses. At 2:20 three such busses arrive returning people to the checkpoint where they enter the West Bank and transfer to Palestinian busses. We left for A’anin.
15:00 A’anin
Because of the recent difficulties in obtaining agricultural permits, there are fewer people passing through A’anin checkpoint. There are 5 soldiers on duty checking the dozen or so pedestrians and three tractors are passing through. Two soldiers approached us and we explained to them about Machsom Watch and exchanged opinions with us about the situation in the area. The ground near the gate is still littered with piles of old broken plastic chairs and debris (even a couch) that people were not allowed to take across. Two pieces of earth moving equipment are busy paving a road along the fence. 15:40 – Shaked-Tura CheckpointA group of 8 girls and young women pass through and eagerly speak to us, happily showing off their English. A car pulls up and they all pile in: 5 in the back seat and the other two in front and drive off in the direction of the seamline zone. Another car arrives from the seamline zone and the passengers get out. The car is checked faster than the passengers and pulls over to wait for them. We left for Reihan-Barta’a.
16:00 Reihan-Barta’a Checkpoint
Palestinians who approach us all complain bitterly about the terrible situation in Tibeh in the morning. “People are dying there!” they exclaim. We are rather alarmed at this, since the same words are repeated over and over by everyone. We are not sure what this means and whether this is an exaggerated statement or if anyone had, heaven forbid, actually been killed in the crush of thousands of people trying to get through. We hear the same complaints about Tibeh again and again from many people while we stand in the sleeve outside the turnstyle. Meanwhile things are not running smoothly at Reihan either.
A line of close to 50 people soon forms outside the entrance to the terminal. They wait and wait. The light is still red, the turnstyle does not move, there is only one window operating. People continue to arrive and the line grows longer and longer. At 16:55 Neta calls S. and asks him to open another window. After 5 minutes one opens and there are still close to 50 people outside, but the line begins to move.
We wonder why the staff could not take the initiative to make sure that there were two windows operating on Thursday afternoon when the checkpoint is busy with many people who have been away all week are coming home. But attempts at showing efficiency are evident.
The entire area near the entrance to the terminal is plastered with signs: Please keep the area clean. Smoking is forbidden inside the terminal. Use of cellular phones is forbidden. And (for us?) a new sign has been posted: a camera with a diagonal line across reads: Taking pictures is forbidden.
A young man tells me, “You’ve got to do something about the rooms in Tibeh.” I sit down on the ground next to him and ask him quietly what happens in the rooms. He explains: “There’s a machine there. You stand and raise your arms up to the sky and it goes around and around you.” “It scans you?” “Yes.”We see that the line is moving and decide to leave at 17:15. Instead of all the signs we saw today, I imagine another. It reads: “No Checkpoints Allowed Here!”
14:00: Jalameh Checkpoint
We drove Aya, a sick child who is undergoing dialysis, and her mother from Rambam Hospital to Jalameh and utilized the opportunity to stop there and observe. Since Jalameh is located near the green line it serves as a crossing for Israeli Arabs and Pedestrians, and as a point for transferring cargo from Israeli trucks to Palestinian ones and vise versa. Private vehicles are not allowed to cross. Israeli Arabs park their cars in the lot and passengers must transfer to Palestinian vehicles on the West Bank side. The checkpoint is operated by civilians. It was previously operated by the “Mikud” Company, and is now operated by the “Modi’in Ezrachi” Company. The terminal has two lanes, but only one of the two is being used for people going in both directions.
On the fence outside the entrance to the terminal is the most ironic of the many signs we see on this shift: a picture of a pistol with a diagonal line across it, signifying: No Weapons Allowed Here! There are only a few people in the terminal.
When we approached the turnstyle at the entrance to the terminal a member of the staff wearing a blue uniform approached us, showed us his I.D., and introduced himself as R. the shift manager. He and asked us politely what we wanted. We identified ourselves as members of Machsom Watch and he was pleasant and answered our questions. He also told us that we were not allowed to photograph anywhere within the area of the checkpoint.
Several hundred Palestinians pass through the checkpoint each day. It is open from 05:00 to 19:30. Palestinians can enter Israel until 14:00. Israeli Arabs can go from Israel to the West Bank from 08:30 until 14:00. Busloads of Palestinians visiting family members who are detained in Israeli prisons arrive at the checkpoint, and the passengers enter Israel and continue their way on Israeli busses. At 2:20 three such busses arrive returning people to the checkpoint where they enter the West Bank and transfer to Palestinian busses. We left for A’anin.
15:00 A’anin
Because of the recent difficulties in obtaining agricultural permits, there are fewer people passing through A’anin checkpoint. There are 5 soldiers on duty checking the dozen or so pedestrians and three tractors are passing through. Two soldiers approached us and we explained to them about Machsom Watch and exchanged opinions with us about the situation in the area. The ground near the gate is still littered with piles of old broken plastic chairs and debris (even a couch) that people were not allowed to take across. Two pieces of earth moving equipment are busy paving a road along the fence. 15:40 – Shaked-Tura CheckpointA group of 8 girls and young women pass through and eagerly speak to us, happily showing off their English. A car pulls up and they all pile in: 5 in the back seat and the other two in front and drive off in the direction of the seamline zone. Another car arrives from the seamline zone and the passengers get out. The car is checked faster than the passengers and pulls over to wait for them. We left for Reihan-Barta’a.
16:00 Reihan-Barta’a Checkpoint
Palestinians who approach us all complain bitterly about the terrible situation in Tibeh in the morning. “People are dying there!” they exclaim. We are rather alarmed at this, since the same words are repeated over and over by everyone. We are not sure what this means and whether this is an exaggerated statement or if anyone had, heaven forbid, actually been killed in the crush of thousands of people trying to get through. We hear the same complaints about Tibeh again and again from many people while we stand in the sleeve outside the turnstyle. Meanwhile things are not running smoothly at Reihan either.
A line of close to 50 people soon forms outside the entrance to the terminal. They wait and wait. The light is still red, the turnstyle does not move, there is only one window operating. People continue to arrive and the line grows longer and longer. At 16:55 Neta calls S. and asks him to open another window. After 5 minutes one opens and there are still close to 50 people outside, but the line begins to move.
We wonder why the staff could not take the initiative to make sure that there were two windows operating on Thursday afternoon when the checkpoint is busy with many people who have been away all week are coming home. But attempts at showing efficiency are evident.
The entire area near the entrance to the terminal is plastered with signs: Please keep the area clean. Smoking is forbidden inside the terminal. Use of cellular phones is forbidden. And (for us?) a new sign has been posted: a camera with a diagonal line across reads: Taking pictures is forbidden.
A young man tells me, “You’ve got to do something about the rooms in Tibeh.” I sit down on the ground next to him and ask him quietly what happens in the rooms. He explains: “There’s a machine there. You stand and raise your arms up to the sky and it goes around and around you.” “It scans you?” “Yes.”We see that the line is moving and decide to leave at 17:15. Instead of all the signs we saw today, I imagine another. It reads: “No Checkpoints Allowed Here!”
'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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