‘Anin, Mevo Dotan (Imriha), Reihan, Shaked, Thu 4.3.10, Afternoon
Bracha B.A., Translation
15:00 A'anin Checkpoint
A few people, four tractors, and a donkey are waiting to pass through. People again tell us about the difficulties of obtaining permits.
Everyone had passed through by 15:20 and the gates of the checkpoint remained open until 15:30.
15:00 – Shaked-Tura Checkpoint
There are a more people here than usual. A woman from Dir al Malk arrives with four small children. One of the children runs ahead of her, obviously feeling at home at the checkpoint.
16:00 – Reihan Barta'a Checkpoint
The Palestinian parking lot is completely filled with cars belonging to merchants from Barta'a. There is another parking lot not far from the checkpoint. We did not even try to park, but drove on to the Dotan Checkpoint.
16:10 – Dotan Checkpoint
The pillbox near the checkpoint is not manned. The checkpoint is near Mevo Dotan on the road to Jenin. A car is being checked and the cover of a small truck is being removed. Other cars go through without being checked. The soldier says that the checkpoint is manned from morning to evening but is not willing to give us details regarding passage at night. The seamstresses who live in Jenin and work in Barta'a open the windows of the car and greet us happily. We are old friends.
16:40 Barta'a Checkpoint
The lower parking lot is still packed with cars. We park in the upper parking lot and go down the sleeve to the opening of the terminal. Students from the seamline zone who study in Jenin come up towards us and a lot of workers walk down with us. Only two windows are open and they are unable to keep up with the flow of workers who are arriving.
By 17:00 200 people were waiting outside. Sharon, the manager of the checkpoint, tells us that it is Thursday, and one of the workers tells us that this is the way it is on Thursdays. In another few minutes a third window opens and a supervisor arrives to put things in order. Occasionally women and children go through in the direction of Barta'a and people go through the same turnstile in both directions.
17:15 Workers continue to arrive but the line now moves more quickly. A worker who lives in Jenin and works in Tel Aviv complains about what is going on at the Jalameh Crossing in the morning and that the checkpoint only opens at 05:00. Another worker says that it is easier at Irtah in the morning since the checkpoint opens at 04:00.
17:30 – We left. Three cars are waiting to be checked on their way to the West Bank and three are waiting to go through to Barta'a. Children who are waiting with their mothers are playing in the playground. One of the drivers tells us about the difficulty of making a living. He explains that the increasing business in East Barta'a is benefitting residents of the West Bank who don't live in Barta'a. They employ members of their families in businesses and construction and the local residents are left without work. A permit to work in Israel is a difficult dream to fulfill.
'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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