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‘Anin, Reihan, Thu 8.11.07, Morning

Place: 'Anin checkpoint (214) Barta’a-Reihan Checkpoint
Tags: Children Family Connections Identification Cards (ID) Passage Restrictions Slow passage Women
Observers: Leah R, Raya Z
Nov-08-2007
| Morning

06:00 – 07:15 Aanin Checkpoint
Open, light rain, people tell us that there are many waiting at the lower gate, standing in the rain. The soldiers are nice this time, for a change. Among the ordinary requests to us for help in getting permits, they tell us the following story: A. married to a Jordanian woman, has four children, the youngest is six.; he hasn’t seen his wife or children for five years. They do not have a permit to come and visit him in Aanin. Recently, among the gestures, they got a permit for family reunification and Palestinian IDs, but to get the green ID the wife must come to the Territories – and they will not let her in.
P. passes with tractor: even though he got a permit in advance from the DCO to transfer a few gallonbs of oil, the check takes a long time.

07:30 – 09:00 Reihan (Bartaa) Checkpoint

In the lower (Palestinian) parking lot, we meet a number of women with children and a month old baby, waiting for the taxi from which they descended at the entrance to the terminal. They told us that they were held in the inner rooms, with the children and baby, for a thorough check.
At 08:15 there are nine private cars and taxis waiting on the road. The drivers are angry and claim that they have been waiting since 07:30, after having passed two checkpoints on the way from Jenin, at Arava and Mevo Dotan. According to them, to reach Bartaa by 10:00 they have to leave Jenin at 06:00. Five minutes after I approached them, with pen and notebook in hand, four cars are taken in together for checking. I watched the check (dogs, etc.) which lasted till 08:35. After that, four pick up trucks with agricultural produce were brought in from the parking lot.
At 08:45 the pick ups were moved into the closed checking compound, and four more cars were brought from the road. Meanwhile more cars arrived so that there are now six waiting.
(I think that the check speeded up because I was standing watching with notebook in hand, facing the gate.)
The pick up drivers complain that they are allowed to pass with only 50 cartons of eggs per car, in place of a hundred that used to be. Sharon, from the company that operatres the terminal, says "what, they don’t even transfer 50…"

  • '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).

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