‘Anin, Reihan, Shaked, Mon 13.10.08, Morning
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06:20 – 08:30
06:20 Aanin Checkpoint
On the road leading to the checkpoint we meet people who have already passed. The checkpoint opened at 05:30. We are told that 200 people are waiting. One of them says that his brother’s valid agricultural permit has been confiscated for an unclear reason, and he was told to be at Salem DCO at 10:00.
Uproar at the checkpoint. People who have arrived early are having difficulty keeping their patience and waiting in line. Two soldiers are checking IDs and permits, and a third is listing the last digits of the IDs. Lieutenant Colonel Adel (Head of Salem DCO) is there with another DCO lieutenant. Seems that they are helping to maintain quiet amid the uproar. Among the crowd is a relatively large number of women and children. We ask Adel about the confiscated permit. He contends that something is not right, and he has detained the man himself. Adel indicates the women, buckets in hand, and the elderly, saying they are going to pick olives, but many of the youngsters cross into Israel. According to him, it is early for picking olives – the season only starts in November. A tractor driver wants to cross into the Seam Zone with a wagon of furniture. Adel sends him back saying that transfer of furniture can be coordinated at Reihan. We commented that such a move costs a lot of money, but he did not care… Adel orders one of the soldiers to photograph the furniture wagon. When we ask why the crossing is taking so long, Adel responds that yesterday 100 people crossed and today it is more than 200. 07:25 – about 20 people remain, prevented from crossing. According to Adel, most do not have valid permits, and the others are underage, youths who borrowed their father’s IDs and permits. They are not allowed to pass without a parent.
An elderly woman and her son are returning to Aanin. The woman has a full bucket of olives. Adel says that she has finished her day’s work, and that the cropis now small to prepare pickled olives from it.
The soldiers lock the checkpoint gates.
07:35 Shaked-Tura Checkpoint
Heavier traffic than usual at this checkpoint. The last schoolchildren are crossing to Tura, beyond the fence. People complain about the slowness of the new soldiers. The DCO lieutenant is here, and after a few minutes Adel also arrives. We pass the complaints about slowness on to Adel and he answers that the lieutenant will stay there and assist.
08:05 – most of the waiting people, on foot or in vehicles, have passed. A new group enters the checking hut.
A taxi from Bartaa is being checked at the upper vehicle checkpoint. Its passengers are waiting on a bench in the over-tended plaza.
Five private cars are waiting at the lower checkpoint to enter the Seam Zone. Four others are being inspected. There are no loaded vans. It’s holiday eve (ours). People working in Bartaa arrive straight into the terminal.
A man from the Beduin community in Amriha, between Yaabed and the settlement of Mevo Dotan, complains about shortage of water. They bring water from Baka el Sharkiah in tankers. The short route is barred by a locked checkpoint next to Hermesh settlement. The tanker has to travel the long route through Kapin and Yaabed. Yaabed does not have enough water for Amriha. The long journey pushes up the price of the water. The man says that water is more expensive than diesel oil. They are asking that Hermesh checkpoint be opened once a day to let the tanker through, or – even better – that they should be connected to a water pipe. They are prepared to pay for the connection. Let’s not forget, this is 2008, and we aree about to celebrate Simhat Beit Hashoeva (the feast of the wells) – apart of the holiday of Tabernacles. |
'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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