‘Anin, Mevo Dotan (Imriha), Reihan, Shaked, Thu 5.5.11, Morning
Translator: Charles K.
06:05
A’anin checkpoint
The checkpoint gates are open. About 20 farmers from the village of A’anin cross to the seam zone on foot and by tractor. One shows us his son’s valid crossing permit, but the soldiers don’t let the son through because his photo doesn’t come up on the computer. The father went to the Salem DCO where they told him his son had to come too. He doesn’t want to miss a day of school. The children of the Bedouin family that lives in the wadi below the checkpoint arrive on their donkeys and wait for their ride to school in Umm Reihan.
06:30 As in the familiar children’s song, “Everyone crosses, everyone crosses – except the last one,” a resident of A’anin is the last one, his information checked and for some reason he has to return home.
The gates are locked.
06:35 – Shaked-Tura checkpoint
The checkpoint gates are locked and there still aren’t any soldiers on site. We understood, and the DCO confirmed, that the checkpoint’s hours reverted to 
what they were before – 07:00-10:00, 12:00-21:30.
06:45 On our way east we pass the Reihan-Barta’a checkpoint. Laborers are coming from the terminal to the upper parking lot. Their rides are waiting for them. Seven trucks and pickups, and one Transit, all loaded with produce, wait at the closed vehicle checkpoint on their way to the seam zone. About a dozen cars are parked south of Zabde in the locked parking lot, on the road to Qafin and Tulkarm. Another car is parked on the northern side, on the road to Zabde.
06:55 Dothan checkpoint is open and unmanned at this hour.
07:05 Reihan-Barta’a checkpoint
Laborers arrive in vehicles and on foot and enter the terminal in groups of five without anyone telling them to do so – they already know. A few cross to the West Bank.
Five cars have already gone through the vehicle checkpoint on their way to be inspected and then to the seam zone. The trucks and the pickups are still waiting at the closed checkpoint.
07:20 Shaked-Tura checkpoint
We arrived at the same time as the little children who go to school in Tura. They run to the checkpoint and stop to have their satchels inspected. One little girl runs happily in the opposite direction, to her grandfather who’d crossed from Tura to the seam zone. She gives him a big hug and he lifts her up into his arms.
One man complains about the change in the hours the checkpoint is open. The hours for the pupils again conflict with the hours for the farmers and other workers.
The herd of goats arrives from one side and the children from the isolated house come from the other. About twenty people wait at the inspection building to cross to the seam zone. The process is slow.
07:40 As we leave thegoats still haven’t crossed, and there’s still a long line at the entrance to the inspection building.
'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)
Mar-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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