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‘Anin, Reihan, Shaked, Mon 17.3.08, Morning

Observers: Shula B. and Neta J. (reporting)
Mar-17-2008
| Morning

Translation: Devorah K.

06:05 A'anin CP
The gates are open and the first person goes through. About 50 people and five tractors are waiting. The tempo of the passage is very slow, as it has been on all the days when the A'anin CP is open during the last two months.
06:45 Two soldiers with their weapons drawn are going to close the gate in the direction of A'anin. No latecomers will be able to go through.
06:55 In the area between the fences there are still about thirty people and two tractors. We leave.

07:05 Shaked-Tura CP
Children are running to school in Tura. About 20 people are waiting to go through from the West Bank to the seamline zone. Some more pupils arrive and go through without undergoing inspection. Three children from the house that stands by itself (it belongs to East Tura on the West Bank, but is on the other side of the fence in the seamline zone) arrive in a wagon drawn by a donkey. Clerks from the Ministry of Education in Jenin go through to the West Bank after inspection in the pavilion, in a car that belongs to one of them. A resident of Hirbet Raadiyeh complains that the villages in the seamline zone, Dahar el Malek, Hirbet Raadiyeh, and Umm a-Reihan have not been connected to electricity, even though the village of Tura, which is on the other side of the fence, and even the isolated house have been.

07:30 Reihan-Barta'a CP
Those emerging from the terminal through the sleeve to the upper parking lot, on the side of the seamline zone, complain that the inspections in the interior rooms of the terminal take an hour to an hour and a half.
We went down the sleeve and found something new: a large part of it is now covered by a metal grill like that of the fence. Why? It is still not clear to us. We look forward to seeing how the work continues.
Two posts for inspecting documents are open. There is no crowding around them. One of those going through says that the occupation is hard (what a surprise!) and in the terminal people are in "cages like those for cats".

07:50
In the lower parking lot, the Palestinian lot, eight pickup trucks loaded with agricultural goods from the occupied territories, are waiting for inspection and for passage to the seamline zone. West Bank residents who work in East Barta'a arrive and are swallowed up into the terminal.
M. tells us that in the morning, they had to wait for a longer time than usual in order to enter the terminal, "because they have a holiday on the weekend." It seems that Purim is celebrated for a whole week in the CPs.

8:20
We left and drove to East Barta'a. Impressive construction is being done at the eastern entrance to the village: two lanes separated by a structure, roundabouts and street lights.
We visited A.'s nursery and also one of the sewing workshops. The seamstresses, whom we know from the CP, are busy working and barely take the time to smile and greet us. They are making bed linens for export.

We also visited the local council and there we heard about the procedures for granting Palestinian citizenship to people, especially to women who came from Jordan, got married to residents of East Barta'a, and over the years lost their Jordanian citizenship, but have not received any other citizenship. They are "transparent people." Of a list of about thirty people that the local council presented to the Palestinian Authority, only seven were approved. We wondered what part Israel (more specifically the civil administration – the bureaucratic apparatus of the occupation) plays in the process of granting Palestinian citizenship.
  • '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

    See all reports for this place
    • 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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