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‘Anin, Reihan, Shaked, יום ג’ 30.10.07, בוקר

Observers: Tami S, Shula B (reporting)
Oct-30-2007
| Morning
Aanin, Rihan, Shaked  checkpoints

05:50 – 07:45

05:50 Aanin Checkpoint
Only men coming out of the checkpoint, the minority turning to olive groves and the others going wherever. This year`s olive crop is thin and it`s very sad.
A man asks help in organizing an olive picking permit for his brother – a little late for that, but we directed him to the DCO.
N. tells us about a clan dispute that began in a brawl between youngsters and ended with people wounded. The family that did the beating was required to leave the village for three months, but not before they paid the beaten family 5,000 dinars in compensation.

06:15 Rihan Checkpoint

As usual for this hour, the adults come out of the terminal in the direction of the transports, more relaxed than the youngsters, and they hasten to wish us a good morning. The youngsters are furious. No one forgoes their double inspection. The seamstresses complain that they were delayed a long time inside, this time not in the side rooms but in the document check.

Seems that they take everyone into the terminal, and there`s no trace of a line outside, but inside the line is long and crowded, and the inspections are prolonged, taking precious time. They are all rushing to their transports to get to work.

In the lower Palestinian parking lot, scores of egg trays are stacked under the roof since yesterday. Because of the restriction of the amount allowed on a vehicle, it cannot all be transferred in one day. The hut begins to look like an egg warehouse.

Eight pick up trucks are waiting with agricultural produce. At the vehicle checkpoint, three vehicles are being inspected in parallel together with a private car. All the car doors are open, the drivers sitting on a side, the guards check without interference.


Personal note: in my eyes the abundant gardening at Rihan Checkpoint reflects the ugly Occupation more than any soldier’s drawn rifle. The exaggerated investment in decorating the place is hypocritical and insufferably patronising. A line of cypresses, climbing plants, large urns with flowers and shrubs, mixed coloured gravel and the rest of Feng Shui creations within barbed wire fences, iron mesh, creaky gates and concrete walls. Veritable Garden of Eden. And the last word is not yet said. What about waterfalls? Maybe a fountain? Rape and decoration…


07:10 Shaked Checkpoint On the Tura side (West Bank) a group of men is waiting. It seems that the soldiers are giving priority this morning to people coming from the Seam Zone, most of whom are schoolchildren and teachers.
A year ago, the small children would run towards us happily, the youths would willingly answer a "good morning," the girls would smile shyly. Today, from large to small, all demonstrate deliberate ignoring that cannot be mistaken.
07:25 they begin to pass from the West Bank to the Seam Zone. Each in turn enters the hut and comes out after five minutes with trouser belt in hand, and shoes unlaced.
  • '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.

  • 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).

  • 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)
      מחסום עאנין:  פרצה מפוארת במרכז המחסום
      Mar-21-2022
      Anin Checkpoint: A magnificent breach in the center of the checkpoint
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