‘Anin, Reihan, Shaked, Mon 18.7.11, Morning
Translator: Charles K.
06:05 A’anin checkpoint (agricultural checkpoint)
About 50 people wait in the middle of the checkpoint as well as a number of tractors and relatively many children. The crossing goes smoothly. Some people, mostly younger, aren’t allowed through. Either their permits aren’t valid or the parent they’re accompanying didn’t bring their children’s identifying documents.
A donkey foal escapes its owners – two youths – and runs across the checkpoint toward the descent into the wadi. People tell us it’s looking for its mother, who’s down there with the Bedouin. The two youths race after it and a soldier runs after them with his weapon. They catch the donkey and bring it back to the checkpoint. A few minutes later the donkey escapes again in the same direction, but this time the soldiers don’t allow the youths to go through the checkpoint after it. A donkey escaping without authorization, the locals joke.
The damage caused by Israeli cattle to the olive groves belonging to the farmers from A’anin in the seam zone continues. The owners of the herds carried out their threat to damage the trees of whoever reports them to the police, and the farmers are helpless. They can leave the village and go to their groves only twice a week; the groves are unguarded the rest of the time. We met one of the farmers who’d suffered damages; he said that representatives of the Israeli and Palestinian DCO were supposed to come today and inspect the damage to the trees caused by the cattle and the herdsmen. But no one showed up. M., from the DCO, said that it would be taken care of during the week, that they’re dealing with it seriously and will also involve the Israeli police.
07:00 Shaked-Tura checkpoint
The soldiers are busy opening the checkpoint gates on both sides. A few minutes later a line has formed at the revolving gate at the entrance to the inspection building (a soldier sits inside next to a scanner for belongings and a computer that registers those going through). A flock of goats follows in the rear. Inspection is rapid, without delays on either side. A numbers of female students and regulars cross to the West Bank.
07:30 Reihan-Barta’a checkpoint
A taxi going to the West Bank is being inspected, the passengers waiting outside the vehicle for the return of their documents. Israeli cars pass quickly on a separate road. Five trucks with agricultural produce in the parking lot, and two more wait for inspection on the road.
The yellow metal gates on the hill opposite the checkpoint leading to the road to Yabed and Kafin, are locked. Whoever wants to reach these two localities must make a big detour on the Jenin-Tulkarm road.
On our way back past the Reihan checkpoint, the trucks are now being inspected.
A group of mothers with children under five arrives; the children apparently are ill or handicapped. A taxi waits for them and all drive away together, apparently for treatment.
The people we meet here are tired and despairing, but they’ve stopped complaining. Perhaps it’s the heat that can already be felt at this hour, or perhaps it’s the exhausting and humiliating Occupation, whose operation is ostensibly “OK,” and even says good morning.
'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)
Mar-21-2022Anin Checkpoint: A magnificent breach in the center of the checkpoint
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