Back to reports search page

‘Anin, Reihan, Shaked, Mon 6.4.09, Morning

Observers: Lea R. and Anna N. S.
Apr-06-2009
| Morning

Translation: Devorah K.

6:05 A'anin (Agricultural) CP
Only about 20 people are standing opposite the middle gate. There, far from sight, the inspection is carried on. In the background, the Hummer is parked with its motor running — as always. We are reminded of other times when the CP was full of farmers who wanted to go out to their land, during the days of the olive-picking and after. Today the place is so empty and deserted. Again: The central reason for this, apparently, is that people are not being given permits. A man who tried to go through with a bag of clothes was forced to turn back. A bag of clothes is not a tractor.
Another man, who claimed that he had lost his permit, was also turned back even though the man from the DCO who was there could have found out whether that person is really allowed to go through to his farm.


6:30
Two women are accompanied by their sons aged about 16; the soldiers refuse to let the sons go through. One of the women refuses to go out without her son. She and he son sit on the ground. The soldiers are very angry and say this in loud voices. They are under pressure, want to close and go away. The argument goes on until 06:50. That was when the women agreed to go through without their sons. One of them shows us her son's birth certificate. He was born in 1994. We tried to talk to the officer at the Salem DCO. The soldier claims that the officers are asleep. A'., the DCO person who was there until 6:30 is no longer in the area and it is impossible to talk to him. Later we talked with the DCO officer, A. and he claimed that the soldiers made a mistake. They should have let the boys go out with their mothers if their age was under 16, especially since they had all the necessary documents. He promised to clarify the procedures in this matter, so that this kind of thing would not happen again.

07:15 Shaked (Tura) CP
Here too a Hummer is parked with its motor running. The soldiers claim that they have a hard time starting it again after they shut it off, and that is why they keep it running. The little matters of the waste of fuel and the air pollution do not concern them.
About 25 people on their way to the seamline zone, crowd together near the turnstile at the entrance to the pavilion. The passage is very slow. During the time we were there (more than half an hour) not all the people did get through.

07:30
The grade school pupils approach the soldiers with their schoolbags open. The high school pupils go through the pavilion. It is surprising how quickly the little ones adjust to the frequent changes in procedures at the CP.
Most of the cars now arriving are from the West Bank. There is a new procedure: The driver leaves his car, is inspected in the pavilion, returns to the vehicle, drives it to the center of the CP for an additional inspection. All the processes of inspection are cumbersome and cause a terrible waste of time. People are waiting for their friends who have not yet come out. They complain and are very angry. In the meantime, a blue (civilian) police van joins the inspection. A policeman inspects the documents of the young people after they emerge from the inspection in the pavilion, or after they went through a vehicle inspection by the soldiers. Especially the young people.
The man from the DCO, A., is here now. Our attempts to talk to him about the annoying matter of the boys in A'anin failed. Religious soldiers complain about the fact that in our report we wrote that inspection of the workers was halted because they stopped for prayers.
 
8:00 Reihan (New Barta'a) CP
This is the hour when the tradesmen who work in Barta'a go through. In the course of our short stay in this location, dozens of workers went through. We could observe pressure in the terminal but we did not go to the other opening to find out why. At this time a number of private cars on their way to the seamline zone are being inspected and from the other side – taxis on their way to the West Bank. Two pickup trucks loaded with food are waiting their turn.

8:20 We left on our way to Jalameh to pickup patients going to Rambam.
  • '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)
      מחסום עאנין:  פרצה מפוארת במרכז המחסום
      Mar-21-2022
      Anin Checkpoint: A magnificent breach in the center of the checkpoint
Donate

DIGITAL EXHIBITION

25 Years in the Field.

Images that show why we’re still here. 

Enter the exhibition