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‘Anin, Reihan, Shaked, Mon 26.11.07, Morning

Place: 'Anin checkpoint (214) Barta’a-Reihan Checkpoint Tura-Shaked
Tags: Arbitrariness, e.g. an arbitrary decision
Observers: Anna NS, Netta G (reporting)
Nov-26-2007
| Morning

06:00 – 09:10

06:00 Aanin Checkpoint

The checkpoint gates are locked. We can hear the voices of the people waiting, but cannot see them because of the terrain. One of them told us by phone that 100-150 people are waiting. The DCO says that Aanin Checkpoint will not be opened. "Security reasons." No closure, Shaked and Reihan are functioning as usual. Only Aanin, which opens on Mondays and Thursdays, will not open today. People arose early, walked through the morning cold from their village to the checkpoint, but will not cross to their lands even on Mondays this week!

06:30 Reihan-Bartaa Checkpoint

In the upper parking lot, on the Seam Zone side, workers are waiting for transport. Our acquaintance, B., says that only he has passed. All his comrades are being checked in the inner rooms. According to him the checking procedures have hardened since the beginning of Ramadan.
06:40 – on the way to the lower (Palestinian) parking lot we see innovations. A large white tent has been put up for car inspections, various safety and gardening appliances have been painted fresh green.
In the lot they tell us that 60 men and 60 women arrived early in the morning. They were put in groups through the parking lot gate, but only entered the terminal one by one, irritatingly slowly. The women seamstresses were checked first. They say that yesterday and the day before there was pressure. Yesterday the women were also checked first and the men waited a long time.
At this hour the traffic is light. Six loaded pick up trucks are waiting to be inspected. Four cars are under the cover of the shaded white tent.
07:00 – on our way to Shaked Tura Checkpoint, we again stop by the upper parking lot. The last group of seamstresses emerges. People complain about crowding while waiting in the terminal, men and women together, before being separated into rooms. They say that the rooms are also very crowded. Pointing at the white tent, they claim that the dog that checks the cars has better conditions than do they.
07:10 Shaked-Tura Checkpoint
The gates are open. Everything "normal." The soldiers peek into the schoolchildren’s satchels, and some "win" a more in-depth poke into their bags. Few cars pass, people moving from the West Bank to the Seam Zone through the inspection hut. A farm worker thanks Anna for the agricultural permit that he received. A soldier politely asks us not to stand in the area of the gates. Something permissible to Palestinians, forbidden to us.

08:05 Reihan-Bartaa Checkpoint

Light but steady flow of traffic in both directions.
The drivers complain about MevoDotan-Amriha Checkpoint. Contrary to what K. at brigade said yesterday, apparently the soldiers do not have up to date lists of those permitted to pass. Owners of land by Amriha were again listed yesterday in Yaabed local council.
08:50 – Major B. from the DCO was observed driving to Amriha Checkpoint. Later our acquaintance M. updated us: Bassam told people that the lists would be transferred from the council to the DCO and within two or three days would reach the soldiers of the battalion on the spot. Till then they would be allowed to pass. We will see…
09:10 – eight cars waiting on the road, three loaded tenders in the parking lot. We leave the checkpoint.
In the upper parking lot, on the Seam Zone side, workers are waiting for transport. Our acquaintance, B., says that only he has passed. All his comrades are being checked in the inner rooms. According to him the checking procedures have hardened since the beginning of Ramadan.
06:40 – on the way to the lower (Palestinian) parking lot we see innovations. A large white tent has been put up for car inspections, various safety and gardening appliances have been painted fresh green.

  • '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

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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).

  • 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
      View the full album
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