‘Anin, Reihan, Shaked, Thu 1.1.09, Morning
Translated by L.W
First shift of 2009, sixth day of the war in Gaza
06:05 Aanin Checkpoint
The gates are open. No one has yet passed. Very cold.
06:10 – The first pass. The rate is slow. The soldiers assign numbers, and each man is requested to remember his number in order to return in the afternoon. One man asks that we write the number on a piece of paper, so he doesn’t forget.
A woman is unable to pass with her son. The boy is tall, and the soldiers suspect that he is older than 18. The woman goes back to bring his birth certificate. He is 13 and truly very tall.
06:55 – we are told that more than fifty people are waiting. The soldiers keep order and push the people back.
A few of the people passing wish us a happy new year. No one mentions events in Gaza.
07:10 – the soldiers shut the gate on the Aanin side. Scores of people and four tractors are crowded between the fences.
07:20 – we leave before the passage ends.
07:25 Shaked-Tura Checkpoint
Light traffic. A friendly soldier tells us that only five cars have passed so far. The soldier doesn’t know about the Palestinian school holidays for the new civil year, and is surprised that schoolchildren and students haven’t appeared at the checkpoint this morning.
07:45 Reihan-Bartaa Checkpoint
Perhaps 20 people working in East Bartaa are waiting at the gate on the Palestinian side. They enter and wait again, this time in the hut before the terminal entrance. Apparently the terminal is blocked because of the incident. People continue to arrive, passing the gate in fives and waiting in the hut.
08:20 – most of the people waiting are already in the terminal. Four private cars and four tenders are being inspected. An additional three tenders are waiting in the parking lot.
Our friend the driver, A. tells us that there are no special problems at Mevo Dotan – Emricha Checkpoint, which was already open at 04:20 this morning.
08:30 – we descended the sleeve to the terminal opening on the Seam Zone side. People coming up tell us that transit is taking about an hour. Two positions are open.
08:50 – one position closes. The pressure is over. People coming through now say that transit is taking about 20 minutes.
08:55 – we leave. Seven private cars are waiting at this hour from the West Bank to the Seam Zone. One car is being checked on its way to the West Bank. The engine compartment is open and the female checker is inspecting the inside of the engine with a torch.
'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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