‘Anin, Reihan, Shaked, Thu 21.2.13, Afternoon
Translator: Charles K.
A’anin checkpoint
The soldiers opened the checkpoint a few minutes early. Six tractors and about 20 people cross without delay with all their belongings of whatever kind. All went through by 15:10. A pleasant sergeant and second lieutenant approach us. They’re pretty new at the checkpoint, have been here about a month, and the second lieutenant has just become an officer. We leave. The janitor, a resident of Tura who makes his living cleaning checkpoints, also leaves. The soldiers must wait until 15:30 in case anyone else comes.
15:25 Shaked-Tura checkpoint
It’s quiet. Very light traffic in both directions. We wonder for whom they built this checkpoint and filled it with so many traffic signs. The checkpoint janitor is now cleaning here.
We drive through the Shahak industrial area in the seam zone. As we drove we saw two picnic tables outside the army base and six classrooms and an administration building being added to the Tlalei Orot school for the settlements’ children. The school at Umm a-Reihan is also expanding.
Vehicles with Israeli license plates coexist wonderfully with Palestinian vehicles at the Shahak industrial area. The Palestinian vehicles belong to Palestinian residents of the seam zone. Palestinian residents of the West Bank can’t come here in their cars, “of course.”
16:15 Reihan-Barta’a checkpoint, seam zone side
We descend the fenced corridor to the terminal along with laborers returning from work. Only one inspection window is open. A few female students are returning from the West Bank; a line of 50 people immediately forms.
16:25 The second revolving gate opens; only Israeli work permit holders are allowed to cross. The line disappears in a few minutes. Two inspection windows open at 16:30 and there’s no line. Nor are people delayed crossing from the West Bank to the seam zone. One tells us, “It will be like this every day if you’re here.” It’s not easy to see the men coming out of the terminal holding their belts after removing them before going through the scanner.
They’re cleaning here also. Two Palestinians are doing the work.
Two little children run to the terminal in front of their parents. They play at the revolving gate and the water cooler at the entrance. Checkpoint games.
17:00 We leave; there’s no line. We hope it stays that way. A car stands at the vehicle checkpoint, its doors, trunk and hood open. The driver sits on a bench in the garden, waiting. Every corner of the car is inspected with the help of a mirror; finally the car and driver are released. Another car goes through immediately; only the driver’s documents are checked.
'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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