As usual, the checkpoints make life difficult for the Palestinians even when there are permits
Vera (photographer), Yochi (reporting)
15:10 Tura-Shaked checkpoint
A pleasant day. The overflowing waste container and the filth all around ruin the view.
The military checkpoint is upholstered in trash.
Traffic is very light. Only two cars, in one small children are waiting for the driver to return from inspection. One car arrives from the direction of the West Bank.
A Jeep with soldiers arrives and goes back.
One man waits for a friend from Um-el-Fachem.
Two women who appear to be exams supervisors, or students, go through quickly.
Passage is swift and smooth.
A donkey arrives, harnessed to a buggy, carrying a woman and four children; the gate opens and they all go through without inspection, towards the second gate on the Tura side.
15:35 We leave.
15:40 Dotan-Ya'abed checkpoint
The checkpoint is unmanned and traffic streams along without delays. A few people wave at us.
We see a soldier at the top of the guard tower.
16:00 We leave.
16:15 Rihan-Barta'a checkpoint.
The trunk of our car is being inspected, despite the fact that the female guard knows us.
We go down the sleeve with many workers who return home at this time. One of them tells us that he must rise at 03:00, gets to Israel through the Taibe checkpoint, which is very busy, and returns home through Rihan. A very long day of driving in circles.
There are two inspection posts, one by the turnstile and the second is around the corner.
People go through quickly. The drinking water facility is working.
16:45 We left.
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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