‘Anin, Reihan, Shaked, Mon 26.7.10, Morning
Translator: Charles K.
05:05 Reihan-Barta’a checkpoint
The first laborers go through the fenced corridor towards the parking lot next to the seam zone. Only one transport vehicle waits at this hour.
Pickup trucks loaded with merchandise are arranging themselves in the parking lot on the Palestinian side. About 20 seamstresses sit on the curb, waiting for their co-workers. They say they begin work at the sewing workshops on the eastern side of Barta’a between 06:00 – 06:30, and finish at 14:30. More seamstresses arrive in a transport vehicle. All are attractive and proud, even at this early hour. They enter the terminal in groups of five.
Male laborers also arrive; they also enter in groups of five. The terminal swallows all of them up. No line, no crowding. “Very good,” but why place a terminal here, between the Jenin sub-district, which is Palestinian, and the Barta’a salient that’s also Palestinian.
One of the drivers tells us that in the village of Khirbet Munter, which is a neighborhood in Zabde, four houses were separated from the others by the fence. They’re located in the seam zone; an old man lives by himself in one of them. His brothers and their families, who live on the other side of the fence, sent one of their sons to live with him. The son isn’t recognized as “a permanent resident of the seam zone,” and is forbidden to live with his uncle. They said that a relative from Jordan came to visit the village. The tourist/relative visited the villagers living on the other side of the fence but wasn’t allowed to visit the relatives living in the seam zone. A., from the DCO, explained to us later that “Jordanians are a problem. They don’t have Palestinian ID cards.”
05:40 The seven pickup trucks that lined up in the parking lot enter the vehicle checkpoint to have their documents inspected.
05:50 The pickup trucks approach the inspection point. Two cars enter the vehicle checkpoint. Seamstresses and other laborers wait with their colleagues for rides in the parking lot next to the seam zone.
06:00 A’anin checkpoint
About 35 people, a few children, one woman, two donkeys and four tractors wait to cross. Three people are turned back. Their permits have expired. The people crossing tell us that permits aren’t being renewed. They say that sometimes they’re allowed to bring in used clothing, and sometimes they aren’t. When they’re not, they call the residents of the Bedouin village in the seam zone to the outskirts of the checkpoint to collect the clothing bundles.
06:50 The soldiers lock the checkpoint gates.
07:00 Shaked-Tura checkpoint
A few cars and about a dozen people wait beyond the fence. The elegant banker from the Yabed bank branch and another man arrive from Dahr al Malq, in the seam zone. A taxi arrives, among its passengers a woman with a baby in her arms. Three male and two female soldiers are attending to her. After about 15 minutes the problem seems to have been solved, the woman and the baby enter the inspection room and cross to the West Bank. A., from the DCO, explains to us that the woman lost her “Seam Zone Permanent Resident” card. She and the baby were sent to the Salem DCO to obtain a new permit.
07:30 We left the land of permits.
'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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