‘Anin, Reihan, Shaked, Mon 9.11.09, Morning
06:10 Aanin Checkpoint
People crossing without delays. We cannot follow up because of the distance. The soldiers identify and enter info on the computer – perhaps that speeds the process.
06:30 – a few scores have passed since 05:30, when the checkpoint opened, and a few still remain as we leave.
In the upper parking lot, workers are waiting for their employers and comrades who haven’t yet arrived.
In the lower parking lot, three pick-ups waiting for examination of vehicle and cargo at 07:00.A number of bored drivers ignore our questions: "Everything is okay."
Men entering the sleeve leading to the terminal in groups of five. The sleeve is jammed – appears that the pace inside the installation is very slow.
07:20 Shaked-Tura Checkpoint
Many waiting on the West Bank side, in line to the turnstile and the examination room. Those coming out say that the pace is not regular – depends on the soldier and computer.
As usual children arrive and go through – large like the small. The little ones are led, hand in hand, by older brothers, cut enough to be hugged. They are shy and don’t rush to talk to us. A group of cute little girls wave to us and call a greeting. If only for these little ones, radiating optimism and hope that one day it will be good, it was worth coming. Secondary school kids go through the examination room.
07:50 Reihan-Bartaa Checkpoint
Workers continue to pass at a regular and brisk pace.
A resident of Yaabed says that he was at the DCO to clariify the meaning of his prevention of entry into Israel for the last seven years. After waiting many hours, he "won" a magnetic card, which grants him nothing. Again he was told that he is blacklisted – as though he didn’t know. He says that his family live in East Bartaa and he hasn’t visited them for seven years. Another routine story to add to the hundreds we have already heard.
"For that you delay four men?"
"But our oil is more expensive, isn’t it?"
One of the men tells of the good days when he worked as a plasterer "from Haifa to Eilat," of his connections with Israelis, and that two years ago he was caught as an "illegal" working in the harvest. He was detained in Hadera detention centre for two weeks, and interrogated, hauled every day to court and back, while his father at home was on his death bed. When brought for trial, he complained about the detention, and was told by the judge: "You could have stayed home and watched television…" He told us about his son in university, and paying for his tuition with gritted teeth because "I don’t want him to be a simple labourer like me."
08:45 – the brother still hasn’t emerged. We take a phone number from the man in order to check later on what time he was released, but when we called his phone was off.
'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
-