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‘Anin, Reihan, Shaked, Mon 7.1.08, Afternoon

Place: 'Anin checkpoint (214) Barta’a-Reihan Checkpoint Tura-Shaked
Tags: DCO (District Coordination Offices) Identification Cards (ID) Maltreatment
Observers: Lea R., Neta J. (reporting)
Jan-07-2008
| Afternoon

Translator: Devorah K.


14:00 Shaked-Tura CP
There is very little traffic at this time. One man goes through from the West Bank to Daher el Malik with a battery-operated radio and a kerosene lamp packed in a cardboard box. He shows us the lamp to illustrate the fact that Daher el Malik, Hirbed Raadiye and Umm el Reihan, all in the seamline zone, are not connected to the electricity network while their neighbors across the fence, like Tura, have already been connected.
Today there is no school because it is the Greek Orthodox Christmas. It is also Fatah Day, and they tell us that tomorrow there will be no school either.

14:25 Reihan-Barta'a CP
Only two pickup trucks are waiting for inspection. Workers are beginning to come back from picking oranges in Israel, carrying sacks of fruit. In the morning they were forced to go through the CP at Shaar-Efraim-Irtach, but they are allowed to return home from here as well. One man tells us that last night soldiers grabbed him in the olive grove close to his house in Ya'abed and they tore up his ID card. He shows us half of the green plastic cover and in it the most important page of the ID. They tore up the second page with the names of his children. He told us that he will get a new ID in the Palestinian Authority offices in Jenin. We did not understand whether he wants to file a complaint. We will try to find out about this.

14:45 A few men spread prayer rugs in the shed and pray.
A young fellow went through the terminal to the West Bank without a permit. His two friends have been detained inside for more than an hour. They also do not have permits – they are 'illegal sojourners.'
A woman wants to visit her children in East Barta'a. They did not let her go through. She says that she had a permit valid until the 15 of January, but they took it from her in the terminal. At the DCO they tell us on the phone that she has no permit.
A resident of Kafin wanted to change the agricultural permit for the Kafin CP to one for the Old Barta'a CP, which is nearer to his land, but at the DCO, they did not agree to do this.
The January 3 report said that the road from Kafin to Barta'a was open. As it  turns out, unfortunately, that information was wrong. It is possible to go through the agricultural CPs of Kafin and Barta'a, or the Reihan-Barta'a CP, but only with appropriate permits.

15:15  The seamstresses are beginning to come back from their jobs in East Barta'a to the West Bank. They look pretty and orderly just as they are in the morning when they go out to work. A man who went through the Shaar-Efraim-Irtach CP in the morning told us that they had a new piece of inspection equipment, "round and transparent". He worries that it is injurious to people's health. There was, he said, a similar thing at the Damia Bridge and it was taken away. Perhaps our colleagues who are doing observations in Irtach can find out what the story is.
A police car comes into the Palestinian parking lot. We do not know why.

15:30 A'anin CP
The gates are still open. One man stands near the soldiers. They say he did not go through this CP in the morning. An additional man arrives. The soldiers ask him to translate for them and afterwards he goes through.
The second lieutenant at the CP does not have the form for appropriating permits. They read the wording to him by phone and he writes out a form in longhand, takes away the man's permit and gives him the form, written in Hebrew of course.
According to the second lieutenant, the man has come from Israel, from the same road that we came on.
Near the gate there is a piece of cardboard with the names of those who go through at this CP written out in a neat list. Somebody has organized the queue. We counted 38 names.

15:50 Another man arrives. Luckily for him, the gates are still open. The man goes through and the second lieutenant tells him not to be late. The official opening hours are from 15:00 to 15:30, but according to the second lieutenant they change all the time.

15:55 We phone our friend A. at the Reihan-Barta'a CP. He tells us that there are no particular problems and that the police car has driven off. We also leave.

  • '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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