'Anin, Reihan, Shaked, Sun 23.3.08, Afternoon - machsomwatch
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‘Anin, Reihan, Shaked, Sun 23.3.08, Afternoon

Observers: Riki, Ruti T. (reporting)
Mar-23-2008
| Afternoon
14:25 Aanin Checkpoint

We were very early. The gates will only open at 15:00.
Fifteen people wait in the shade of some olive trees. We park behind a short line of tractors, pondering for a moment whether to make a quick visit to Shaked, but the waiting people are already approaching to present their harsh complaints.
Mahmoud from Aanin cultivates an olive grove south of the gate. He leads us down the slope to the young trees, which a herd of cows, belonging to an Israeli Arab from Ein Sahle, had chewed upon, and now he has no option but to uproot them and replant. The owner of the herd threatens that if he complains, the whole grove will be burnt. If the gate were open every day, Mahmoud contends, the family would get rally to protect the grove against the herds. This request is repeated frequently: Open the gate for us every day. We cannot work this way. Mahmoud also has a grove beyond the checkpoint, on the hill to the north, ostensibly requiring no permit to pass, but the Border Police drive him away and his small children are afraid to go there with him. He has 17 children and the living conditiond are too hard to bear.
The checkpoint gate opens at 15:00. The soldiers call the tractors first, but the people insist that passage should be according to the line that they had formed, and this is what happens. The passage is very fast and within half an hour we are left alone with the soldiers, who show us their lists: some 20 people listed in the morning – have not returned.
15:30 – the gate is locked.

15:45 Shaked-Tura Checkpoint

The gates are devoid of people. The soldiers tell us a little about their shifts. At 15:50 a youth in a donkey cart arrives from the direction of the isolated house . He gets off and rushes over to greet us. Within three minutes he is through.

16:05 Reihan-Bartaa Checkpoint

The lower parking lot is full of vehicles. Many taxi drivers wait for passengers. One private car presently waiting to cross into the Seam Zone. Four vans are in the inspection compound.
16:30 – many harvest workers arrive in the upper sleeve from workplaces in Israel, sacks of oranges on their backs. They come through to the lower parking lot within seven minutes, climb into cars, taxis or vans – and drive away. A taxi driver coming from Yabed announces, "there are many problems."
17:00 – one private car in the inspection compound. Three cars wait to cross into the Seam Zone. One of the drivers hoots and shouts that he has been waiting for half an hour. The lower parking lot empties out.
17:15 – we 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
      Ruti Tuval
      Mar-21-2022
      Anin Checkpoint: A magnificent breach in the center of the checkpoint
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