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‘Anin, Reihan, Shaked, Mon 11.2.08, Morning

Place: 'Anin checkpoint (214) Barta’a-Reihan Checkpoint Tura-Shaked
Tags: Slow passage
Observers: Anna NS, Neta G (reporting)
Feb-11-2008
| Morning

05:55 – 09:30

05:55 Aanin Checkpoint

Soldiers are already in place and are opening the gates.
06:05 – the first one passes. After five minutes, a tractor passes. A few score waiting, among them women and some tractors. All are close to the middle gate. Transit is slow.
06:15 – another Hummer arrives. The soldiers debate among themselves and the Hummer leaves. One of the passers by reports thatr the confiscated passes have been returned.
06:30 – two soldiers go to close the gate on the Aanin side, and to organize the line.
06:40 – again the additional Hummer arrives. A soldier on guard slowly pulls on a "Hermonit" coverall and smokes a cigarette. There is an innovation in the method of listing: apart from the number allotted to permit holders and written on their ID cards, the soldiers are listing numbers according to the order of passing in the morning. Upon their return, the people will state their number and perhaps the afternoon transit will be faster.
06:55 – the fifteenth of this morning’s crowd now passes.
07:00 – Anna remains at the checkpoint and I drive to Shaked.

07:10 Shaked-Tura Checkpoint

The checkpoint opened at 07:00. People pass through the hut from the West Bank to the Seam Zone, adjusting their belts as they exit. Few cars pass in either direction.
07:15 – six very young schoolgirls and five boys of the same age arrive. A soldier peers into their satchels. The boys try to pass by him, but they are called back for the satchel inspection.
07:20 – a taxi arrives with women students and two mothers with toddlers. The students on their way to the Wst Bank are exempt from the check in the hut. The mothers enter. At Shaked, priority goes to students.
07:35 – a man arrives riding on a donkey, followed by a flock of sheep. His documents are checked while he stays on the donkey, and he leads the flock along the fence, apparently to the lone house.
07:45 – no schoolchildren or adults to the West Bank at this hour. Five men waiting to cross to the Seam Zone. I go back to Aanin.

07:55 Aanin Checkpoint

Still crossing. At 08:10 number 55 passes. At 08:15 a couple with a toddler. Where does the chilkd find the patience to wait like this? Six more people and a tractor are waiting. We leave together with number 62.

08:25 Reihan-Bartaa Checkpoint

In the upper ("Israeli") parking lot someone tells us that today is alright. Three women, one with covered face and gloves, arrive. In less than ten minutes they exit on the Palestinian side of the terminal.
08:35 – in the lower (Palestinian) parking lot nine loaded tenders wait to be checked. Ten cars waiting in front of the vehicle checkpoint on their way to the Seam Zone.
Walid of the coffee and halva, "supervisor of the checkpoint," tells us that thius morning they only opened at 05:50. Shows us the orderly list of people waiting, with 80 names. The seamstresses are not included in the list.
We are told about checkpoints in the areas of Tulkarm and Jenin. A man coming from Aatil relates that there is a checkpoint by Jerishia, between Aatil and Tulkarm.
A group of youngsters from Nablus crosses towards the West Bank. Their comrade doesn’t pass because he lost his ID card. We don’t know whether or how his problem was resolved.
09:30 – we leave. At this hour six tenders are waiting to be inspected, and seven cars are at the vehicle checkpoint waiting to enter the Seam Zone.
In the afternoon, I. tells us on the phone that there is a checkpoint manned by soldiers and Border Police near Arabe, and about blocks on the dirt paths in the area. He gave up on a trip to Nablus because any direction would take two hours.

  • '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
      View the full album
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