‘Anin, Reihan, Shaked, Mon 8.2.10, Morning
Translation: Bracha B.A.
06:15 – A'anin Agricultural Checkpoint
We approached the checkpoint against the stunning background of an orange-colored sunrise breaking through shreds of clouds over the mountains and the houses of the sleeping town. In the olive grove among the piles of junk cyclamens, anemones, and other wildflowers are in bloom. It is a lovely sight to see. If only there was no fence.
06:20 – The soldiers are far away, at the center of the checkpoint, but no one has gone through yet. A soldier approaches us and says that we have passed the gate. He says that everyone who has valid permits will be permitted to cross regardless of the official opening hours. He claims that there are about 50 people waiting and some of their permits are expired. Finally people began to pass through at a maddeningly slow rate. They smile as they come through. 63 people received agricultural permits for three to six months and we join them in their small celebration, hoping that this is a sign of spring and that they will once again be permitted to go to their fields. We left before everyone had passed through.
07:00 – Reihan Barta'a Checkpoint
Groups of merchants and laborers arrive, going to Barta'a. There are not a lot of people but they arrive steadily. A van loaded with agricultural produce wrapped in plastic is waiting to be checked. The driver claims that eight vehicles have been in the inspection facility since 06:00. At the terminal near the yellow gate a metallic voice tells people to prepare their I.D. cards and have their bags ready for inspection. There are ten people waiting in front of the gate and when it opens with a buzz exactly five people enter. People enter holding their permits and ID cards in their left hand and pushing the gate open with their right. The gate slams with an annoying noise in the face of the sixth person. The people approach the X-ray machine and spill out the contents of their bags to be checked. The person sitting at the window responds apathetically in a metallic voice: "What's that? Take it out. Thank you."
07:25 – Shaked-Tura Checkpoint
School children who live in the seamline zone are waiting at the center of the checkpoint. They pass through the concrete barriers in an orderly fashion past the woman soldier, where they open their school bags and she peeks inside. A van filled with students arrives and the soldier recognizes them and greets them with "Good morning." She peeks inside and the van with its human cargo continues on its way to school in the West Bank.
High school students and university students usually pass through the inspection booth. A car with teachers who teach in Yaabed arrives and waits for one of the teachers who is detained for ten minutes. They claim that he is always detained and they don't know why.
We left at 07:45.
'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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