‘Anin, Reihan, Shaked, Tayba-Rummana, Thu 7.7.11, Morning
Translator: Charles K.
06:10 A’anin checkpoint
People, tractors and a donkey wait in the middle of the checkpoint to cross; the checkpoint is only open twice a week, on Monday and Thursday. It’s an agricultural checkpoint and those going through are on their way to cultivate their lands in the seam zone, and elsewhere. If you have a valid crossing permit you’re not asked your destination, and you must return through this crossing in the afternoon of the same day. If you didn’t manage to reach the checkpoint in time (the computer knows everything), no explanation will be acceptable and you won’t get off. So we see P., who crosses here regularly, arguing with the soldiers and finally returning in despair to the village. Someone explains that he didn’t return to the village on Monday. Now he’ll have to go to the DCO to get a new permit.
Two young girls, students at the American University in Jenin, cross to the seam zone, accompanied by their mother. One speaks a little Hebrew. “I learned from your television children’s programs,” she says, surprising us. Their 16-year-old brother doesn’t have a permit for the seam zone, isn’t allowed to cross and goes back, as do a number of other youths and adults.
06:50 Shaked checkpoint
The soldiers open the checkpoint gates exactly at seven. They know exactly what they’re doing, and the Palestinians know their place exactly. 44 years, and the system keeps improving every day. Since there aren’t any pupils these days, crossing in both directions goes quickly. A moment with a little excitement: three military vehicles arrive at the checkpoint from various directions, khaki uniforms come out, go in, talk, return to the vehicles and evaporate.
07:30 Reihan checkpoint
The occupation operates here smoothly, like clockwork. Whoever arrives enters immediately. The parking lot fills. About ten trucks and pickups carrying produce wait calmly.
A Palestinian attorney, born on the West Bank, married an Israeli Arab woman and moved to live with her in her village Ar’ara in 2001 (he received a permit for family reunification). His ID card says he’s from western Barta’a, but he’s listed in the Jenin DCO as a resident of Ya’abed (on the West Bank). He has an office in Jenin. In the morning he goes out through the nearby Reihan checkpoint, and he must return through the distant Jalameh checkpoint in the evening. From there he must take a taxi, which is expensive. He isn’t able to solve this bureaucratic complication.
08:10 Tayibe Rummaneh checkpoint
Border Police soldiers at the checkpoint. “Ahh, Watch?” They’re not interested in talking with us. The right to cross
of a grandfather, father and grandson is under investigation. They let the grandfather through, but not the grandson. The father returns with him to the village. A gaunt old woman crosses by herself, walking slowly. A farmer crosses on a tractor. A tractor, driven by an Arab, drags chains back and forth to smooth the patrol track. We give the elderly couple a ride up to Umm el-Fahm. It’s hot; the road is long and winding through the town’s alleys.
'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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Tayba-Rummana
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Tayba-Rummana is an agricultural checkpoint. It is located in the separation fence in front of the eastern slopes of the Israeli city of Umm al-Fahm. The Palestinian villages next to the checkpoint are Khirbet Tayba and Rummana. Dozens of dunams of olive groves were removed from their owners, the residents of these villages on the western side of the separation fence. The Palestinian villages next to the checkpoint are Khirbet Tayba and Rumna. Dozens of olives dunams were removed from these villages' residents and swallowed up in a narrow strip of space, on the western side of the separation fence. The checkpoint allows the plantation owners who have permits to pass. Twice a week, the checkpoint opens for fifteen minutes in the morning and evening. During the harvest season, it opens every day for fifteen minutes in the morning (around 0630) and fifteen minutes in the afternoon (around 1530). (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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