‘Anin, Reihan, Shaked, Mon 31.12.07, Morning
06:00 – 09:30
06:00 Aanin Checkpoint
The checkpoint is still closed, it's very cold, and the voices of the waiting people can be heard from beyond the locked gates.
06:10 – the soldiers arrive and open the gates.
06:20 – the first ones are through. The pace is slow, we're told that 30-40 people are waiting at this time. Later they tell us 60. Seems that because of the cold they are arriving later than usual.
07:05 – a few score people have passed, including two tractors and a donkey. Two were not permitted. Our viewing conditions do not allow us to ascertain why…
07:30 – perhaps 20 people waiting between the gates, mostly youngsters and two women among them. We leave.
07:40 Shaked-Tura Checkpoint
We are greeted by a sign announcing "Romach Battalion – Golan." The temporary emplacement is almost emptied of caravans and even the garbage skiff has been emptied.
Three schoolchildren crossing at this time. The soldiers tell us that 20 passed earlier.
Perhaps 15 people are waiting on the Tura side to cross into the Seam Zone, a few of them on bikes. Almost no one is crossing to the West Bank right now.
One of the people going in to the Seam Zone tells us that he only has two more years of hard work. He has eight sons and daughters, six of whom have already finished university, and two still studying. When they finish, he can relax. Says proudly that all of them are good children, and the investment in studies is better than investment in a bank.
08:10 Reihan-Bartaa Checkpoint
On the Seam Zone side taxi drivers are waiting for passengers. Workers in East Bartaa arrive from the terminal and walk up the sleeve.
Three cars are waiting at the upper vehicle checkpoint to cross into the West Bank; four vehicles are being checked in the white tent; four pickup trucks are in the inspection compound. In the Palestinian lot there are only three loaded vans.
People working in Bartaa are still arriving by car and on foot.
Walid, the coffee boy "supervisor of the checkpoint" says that early this morning 70 workers crossed into the Seam Zone and more than 100 seamstresses.
They tell us that early this morning passage at Mevo Dotan – Amriha was orderly, but at 08:45 we get a phone call that 12 cars are waiting there.
08:55 – we leave. Seems that traffic today is thinner than usual. Everyone is cold.
09:20 Baka Checkpoint
A single car with an Israeli license plate crosses to West Baka. No traffic at this hour. A few crates of vegetables are waiting for someone to take them to a stand on the Israeli side of the wall.
A second lieutenant tells us that during the day only 40-odd people have passed through the checkpoint in both directions. The list has 120 names of people permitted to cross at Baka.
09:30 – we leave the last shift of 2007. [L]
'Anin checkpoint (214)
See all reports for this place-
'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
See all reports for this place-
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
-