At the Anin checkpoint: loopholes in the fence and unlocked gates
We left Yokne’am at 06:00 but encountered a traffic jam on Route 6 and turned off at Mei Ami. We decided to go to A’anin Checkpoint despite the fact that it is not open today. It was completely empty and we were able to observe things from close up. There are four gates at this checkpoint. Three are open and one that is closest to the security road is locked with a padlock and chain. There were rods stuck in the locks. Nearby there are already several holes in the fence that scorn the locked gates. Next to the holes are several dirt embankments that block vehicles from crossing. At 08:00 we reached Tura Shaked Checkpoint and a driver coming from the West bank asked what we were doing there. He told us that he was a businessman who owned a sewing factory and was also a money changer. He agreed to try and help the disabled student from Yamun whom we are trying to support from a distance. She called us the same afternoon and said that he had contacted her and promised to help.
On our way to Barta’a – Reihan Checkpoint three police vehicles passed us by quickly going towards Harish. We followed them to a hole in the fence near Luxor. A few vehicles were parked here and there along the road. The wide parking area was covered with piles of earth. Many people continued to come through the hole in the fence from the West Bank. Drivers told us that the Border Patrol and the military police disrupted things by attempting to send them away and throwing smoke grenades, forcing workers to walk all the way to the Barta’a Reihan Checkpoint. They also confiscated 18 transport vehicles to a camp near Reihan – Barta’a Checkpoint. In order to reclaim them the drivers will have to pay an attorney NIS 1000. We drove to see the vehicles and attempted to talk to someone about the vehicles, which are the property and livelihood of their owners. A young soldier told us that unfortunately the commander could not come now and that there was no one to talk to.
We passed Reihan – Barta’a Checkpoint at about 09:00. 8 trucks and 5 cars were on the way to the inspection facility. The sleeve for pedestrians was empty. There was still room in the parking lots. The bushes on the traffic islands were pruned and everything was clean and orderly and the security guards looked bored.
We drove as far as the bridge where the road runs underneath to Kafin to the west and Zibda to the east. There is now an junction between the upper road 596 and the lower road 6115 but it is blocked and cannot be entered from the main road.
The thistles along the road continue to flower.
Barta’a-Reihan Checkpoint
See all reports for this place-
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).
-
Tura-Shaked
See all reports for this place-
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
-