‘Anin, Reihan, Shaked, Mon 16.6.08, Morning
Translation: Devorah K.
05:00 Reihan (Barta'a)
We came especially early because we were told that the CP would open at five – half an hour earlier than usual. And indeed it opened with a greeting of 'good morning to all' from the workers in the hut. About a hundred people crowded together at the entrance, but there was no tension and no pushing. They entered in fives, in alternating groups of men and women.
At 5:13 the first person came out of the terminal to the seamline zone. Within about 12 minutes, 25 people came out. Now that they have cancelled the inspection in the rooms, the passage is quicker, but since yesterday the x-ray machine has been out of order and that is why people are going through the rooms again. At this time: four private cars are being inspected; a few cars are in a queue; about seven pickup trucks loaded with foodstuffs wait until 7 o'clock; one is loaded with sheep, crowded together and bleating.
05:50 At the exit from the terminal a number of seamstresses are waiting. They say that about 200 seamstresses from Jenin and the surrounding area go through here every day. One of the cars that gives them a ride to work has left without waiting for all the women. Now, those who are left will have to get to work in the taxi that takes the men. The workers from Shahak are waiting at the curb for their lift which has not yet arrived.
The Reihan CP has a new look that appears surprisingly pleasant. The residents react with expressions such as: "Now everything is fine" to the abolition of inspections in the rooms at the sides and to the earlier opening hour. The garden is full of flowers and there are benches and a slide for the children of those who have to wait. It is as if everything is fine, and everything is organized with consideration and respect.
But this is after all a false presentation which hides the injustices of the occupation under a sweet illusory mask of justice and freedom. It is interesting that not a single woman will say that 'everything is fine'; they see the distorted reality that is dressed up as a day of leisure. 06:05 A'anin CP
50 people are waiting and there are also tractors loaded with workers. The inspection is being carried out far from our eyes; they inspect documents and the details are recorded. This procedure delays the passage and lengthens it a great deal. It takes about five minutes and more from person to person.
06:30 – the tempo of the passage quickens. At 07:00, about 20 people were still waiting and we left.
07:10 Shaked (Tura) CP
The pupils are on vacation. A young mother with her sick daughter (aged about 10) are on their way to Hadassah Hospital and a young man is accompanying them. A., the Israeli volunteer who will drive them to Jerusalem, receives them with a tremendous smile full of kindness. On the Tura side, there are about 25 people, most of them young, waiting quietly. It seems that all nine soldiers at the CP are only allowing vehicles through in both directions, and students going to Jenin. On the side of the seamline zone more and more people keep coming, and they also wait patiently. The x-ray machine in the compound is out of order and that is why the passage is so slow. For almost an hour, people are kept from getting to work on time, delayed because of one stupid piece of equipment. The nine soldiers at the CP cannot find a way to solve the problem.
08:15, Major M. arrives and tells the soldiers that they can inspect the people just as they did before the days of the machine. In a short time the queue disappears and all of them go through. He tells us that it is impossible to give this kind of instruction by phone. Why? A man from the West Bank goes through and yells: "All the Jews are shit!"
08:30 Reihan (Barta'a) CP
The routine of the occupation is depressing. A few people go through from here to there. Our friend, A., says that there are no new CPs on the road to Jenin or to TulKarem. Nine pickup trucks and a number of private cars are waiting for inspection.
Everything "is fine".
09:10 We left.
'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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