‘Anin, Reihan, Shaked, Mon 12.5.08, Morning
05:30 Riehan-Barta'a checkpoint
We gave a lift to a man whose son is hospitalized in Rambam. We let him off at the entrance to the terminal on the seamline zone side and met him a few minutes later in the Palestinian parking lot. He introduced us to his sister who works as a seamstress in East Barta'a and was waiting with dozens of colleagues and about a hundred labourers to cross to the seamline zone.
Men and women are queuing separately and entering the terminal alternately in groups of five. The men are impatient. One climbs over the heads of his compatriots and another tells us "the company [that manages the checkpoint] is alright, people are not alright". Embarrassing to hear.
05:50 – it looks as if the terminal is congested. People are waiting at the entrance to the terminal on the West Bank side.06:15 – Everybody has disappeared in the terminal. In the parking lot there remains a neat list of 94 names of men who arrived very early in the morning. As we leave we see labourers and seamstresses coming out of the terminal.
Our friend B' who works at Shahak industrial site entered the terminal at about 06:00 and emerged at 07:10.
06:25, Anin checkpoint
On the road leading to the checkpoint we meet farmers who have already crossed. One of them tells us that today "everything is great" [tov la'allah]. On Thursday a new group of soldiers arrived and the pace of the passage has improved since then.
06:50 – A soldier approaches us to make sure we don't pass the gate. He and the rest are on squad commanders and officers' training courses and have been sent here on checkpoint duty. He told us fifty people waited to cross that morning and ten are still waiting. Five were turned back because their permits were out of date. We were told those five applied for new permits to the DCO but were rejected.
07:05, Shaked-Tura checkpoint
The gates are open. Pupils cross over to the West Bank without checks. A DCO vehicle is parked between the gates and we are told that that's the reason all is well today, unlike yesterday that the gates were opened late.
There's little traffic, on foot and by car, in both directions.
07:40 Reihan-Barta'a checkpoint
People working in East Barta'a are beginning to arrive in small groups from the West Bank.
At 08:10 the terminal is congested and people are queuing at the entrance.A hammer armed with BP moves from the Palestinian parking lot to the security road, navigating with difficulty between the parked cars and the drivers waiting for fare. He is being polite and not blowing his horn.
08:30 – as we leave four passenger cars and four vans are being checked. Eight vans packed with merchandise and seven passenger cars are waiting.
'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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