‘Anin, Reihan, Shaked, Mon 19.4.10, Morning
Translation: Bracha B.A.
There is a festive atmosphere at the checkpoints on Israeli Independence Day. The Israeli flag is flying over Palestinian soil. Some of the residents greet us and wish us a happy holiday.
06:05 A'anin Checkpoint
People are being checked at the lower part of the checkpoint and it is difficult for us to follow what is going on. At 06:40 the Bedouin children arrive on donkey and they send them back and wait for Yussuf to come with his car to take them to school.
People leave the checkpoint please and greet us wishing us a happy Independence Day…All in all about 30 people with tractors passed through. People complain that they can only renew their permits after they have expired at the Palestinian Liaison and Coordination Administration. Getting a new one can take months, if it is given at all. At 07:00 the last people pass through and the checkpoint closes. A young man comes back after having crossed and wants to return, since he does not feel well. After a short conference the soldiers don't let him back – it is late and they must move on to their next task. They tell him to go back through Reihan, but that will cost him trouble and money. We tried to convince them to change their minds, but the man finally gave up and left.
07:15 Shaked Checkpoint
On our way to the checkpoint we saw flags waving broadcasting "we are here." All that was missing was the national anthem playing on loudspeakers.
The children at the checkpoint are accustomed to the routine, and pass by the soldier and present their bags to be checked. The soldier sometimes puts his hand inside to check. A father drives his two children, aged 2 and 4, and they witness the car being checked and the trunk being opened, the mats being picked up, and wait quietly while everything is going on. The women students pass through the inspection booth.
08:00 – Reihan-Barta'a Checkpoint
The seamstresses have gone to work today, but those who work in the Shahak Industrial zone have the day off. We were told that the people who work in the carpet factory remained there all night. The army attempted to make them go back but the owners of the factory intervened.
A man is trying to cross through to Barta'a with a bag filled with upholstery material. He went through in the past but today with the bag of material he is not allowed. A lot of people are crossing at a reasonable rate.
08:30 – Mevo Dotan Checkpoint
Cars are moving in both directions, and everything was as usual.
We left at 08:50.
'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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