‘Anin, Mevo Dotan (Imriha), Reihan, Shaked, Thu 3.3.11, Afternoon
Translator: Charles K.
14:50 A’anin checkpoint
Eight people, one youth, a donkey, a baby donkey and two tractors wait for the checkpoint to open. The soldiers are already on site. They open at 15:00 and in ten minute everyone goes through.
The soldiers check lists. It turns out that two people who crossed through here in the morning haven’t yet returned. At 15:15 they show up with a tractor and cross.
An elderly woman on a donkey arrives holding a bag in her hand. It contains cheese, which she wants to give to the tractor driver who’s just arrived. A female soldier tells her she’s allowed to bring in two kilograms of cheese; a soldier tries to find out. Meanwhile, another soldier inspects the bag on the ground. Permitted. The soldier hands the bag to the tractor driver. Yet another act in the checkpoints’ theatre of the absurd.
15:30 Shaked/Tura checkpoint
Very light traffic at this hour.
16:00 Dothan checkpoint
Continual light automobile traffic in both directions. A large yellow taxi coming from the direction of Jenin is chosen for inspection. Passengers get out and line up by the side of the road. IDs and bags are checked. The taxi is also inspected. Three soldiers approach us. They want to know who we are, about the organization, what we think. Very polite, two of them live in settlements. Their views are very different from ours, but they listen to what we have to say.
On our way to the Dothan checkpoint and back, we pass the locked gates on the bridge to Zabde. Cars are parked on both sides of the gates. Their passengers went to the Reihan checkpoint on foot or by taxi.
16:30 Reihan/Barta’a checkpoint
The seam zone entry to the terminal
Two open booths at the terminal and no line. Nor is there much delay in the other direction, from the West Bank to the seam zone. Eight detainees sit on the bench in the terminal. Five are released a few minutes later. One man says that when we arrive the crossing operates the way it should. It’s nice to hear, but the two booths were already open when we arrived.
16:55 There’s an announcement over the loudspeaker which we don’t understand and then the terminal doors and the revolving gates close. It turns out that a machine broke down (what machine?). A line of about 20 people immediately forms at the revolving gate.
17:00 The terminal opened and everyone entered.
17:15 Two female students wait at the far end of the fenced corridor, at the parking lot on the seam zone side. One is from the eastern half of Barta’a, waiting for her sister who’s car is being checked for a long time in the inspection area. The second, an Israeli citizen who lives in Umm el Fahm, is waiting for her sister to pick her up. She’s studying physiotherapy at the American University near Jenin and is doing an internship in Ramallah. We say goodbye and drive home.
'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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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)
Ruti TuvalMar-21-2022Anin Checkpoint: A magnificent breach in the center of the checkpoint
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Ya'bed-Dotan
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Ya’bed-Dotan
This checkpoint is located on road 585, at the crossroads of Mevo Dotan settler-colony / Jenin/ Ya’abad. It has an army watchtower (‘pillbox’ post) and concrete blocs that slow down vehicular traffic. It was erected when Barta’a Checkpoint, lying to the west on the Separation Fence, was privatized and its operation was passed over to civilian security personnel. Since December 2009 this checkpoint enables flow of Palestinian vehicular traffic towards the Barta’a Checkpoint. Seldom is it manned by soldiers sitting in the watchtower, who conduct random inspections of vehicles and passengers. (february 2020)
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