‘Anin, Reihan, Shaked, Thu 12.11.09, Morning
06:15 Aanin Checkpoint
Many have already passed. Three were not allowed even though they had permits. Valid. From our place of observation we could not know why…
06:30 – the checkpoint empties. All told about 100 people and a few tractors crossed.
06:40 Reihan-Bartaa Checkpoint
Men coming out of the terminal to the upper parking lot on their way to work in the Seam Zone. Shula photographs and a security guard, Sergei, notices and says it is forbidden. The letter from the IDF Spokesman, confirming that photography is permited at checkpoints, convinces him and his supervisor, and they leave us alone.
06:55 –relatively large numbers of people reach the lower parking lot from the West Bank – all owners of businesses in East Bartaa. They come in private vehicles, taxis and on foot, and are swallowed up into the terminal. A resident of Tura who works in Bartaa comes to the lower lot. He is not allowed to cross at Shaked-Tura, next to his home, and he has to make a circuit of an hour paying 15 shekels each way.
07:15 – three pickups are waiting for inspection. Three private cars are also waiting to enter the West Bank, and one to the Seam Zone. According to E., the driver, in recent afternoons, the crossing of people returning to the West Bank is being delayed in the terminal until, finally, all emerge together – some 300 people at once, causing chaos in the parking lot and with transport.
07:45 Shaked-Tura Checkpoint
As we arrive all the schoolchildren have already crossed – eager and up early. Perhaps 30 men jostling by the entry turnstile on the Tura side.
Four cars already waiting for them on the Seam Zone side, and three more waiting to cross. This morning two young men tried to pass without permits. One of them bolted back to the West Bank, but his ID remained in the soldiers’ hands. The second is meanwhile being held at the checkpoint.
A man complains about the behaviour of the shift officer, contending that he curses the transients. Others complain about disorganised lists that complicate matters for them. For example, the woman soldier at the examination hut is too lazy to list people returning to the West Bank, and when they want to cross to the Seam Zone the next day, they are suspected of having entered the West Bank other than by the proper procedure. Another mistake: a resident of East Tura in the West Bank holds a permanent farm worker’s permit for the Seam Zone. In the morning when he enters the Zone he is listed as a farmer, but when he returns they look at the "permanent" and list nothing because permanent residents in the Seam Zone are exempted from listing. As a result of this slipshod process, it appears that the farmer did not return… In his place a resident who isn’t listed crosses! Madhouse. Now the man has received a green slip saying that if he does not return according to his permit, he will not be allowed to cross again!
We met the father of the bride from Um el Reihan, whose fiancé (from Jenin) was not allowed to come to the betrothal party in her parents’ home two weeks ago (reported 29/10). The father, Marvah Zaid, the mukhtar of Um el Reihan, said that the groom was also not allowed to come to her house, as is the custom, to take his bride to the wedding in Jenin. The parents brought her there. During the period of the engagement, they did allow him to visit a few times, but now he cannot accompany her on visits to the family.
08:10 – we again met the resident from Tura who is not allowed to cross at Shaked Checkpoint. His house is right next to the checkpoint but he has to travel across the West Bank to reach Reihan Checkpoint. Why? Because his lands are in Bartaa. But he also has lands close to home in Tura, but neither he nor his wife can get a permit to cross there. Now he has come to Shaked Checkpoint (from Reihan, this time across the Seam Zone) to get his work tools, which someone will bring across the checkpoint from his home – because he did not want to drag them along in a taxi. Madhouse, madhouse, madhouse….
'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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