At the northern checkpoints the number of migrants increased greatly
15:00 – 16:10
15:00 – Barta’a Checkpoint
The last of the seamstresses from the sewing workshops in Barta’a and the first workers return via the long sleeve (the enclosed passage) to the terminal and then home to the West Bank. Some of them complain about the crowding and slowness of the passage in the morning. The checkpoint has become an integral part of Palestinian life and a female beggar already has a place in the shed. Many people pass through from the West Bank to Barta’a—men, women, and children; some return home with shopping bags and some are waiters who cross to work at weddings in Israeli towns in Wadi Ara. One of the guards at the vehicle checkpoint stops a worker who came down the sleeve in the direction of the terminal and through the fence and inspected him and the contents of his backpack. Why? Is that his job?
The parking lots next to the village of Zabde (in Area C, opposite the checkpoint) are going through renovations and expansion and one of the workers at the checkpoint told us that the work is a joint Israeli-Palestinian project.
Four trucks with merchandise pass through from the West Bank for inspection and afterward, continue to Barta’a.
Around 15:30, the stream of workers gets heavier, and many buses and cars arrive at the upper parking lot. One person requested the note with Sylvia’s telephone number on behalf of his neighbor, who is prohibited from crossing.
15:40 – Tura Checkpoint
Five women with shopping bags wait in the shed. They arrived from Jenin and passed through the checkpoint by foot with all their bundles and now wait for men who cross the checkpoint separately, with empty cars.
Workers return from their jobs in Israel and the Seamline Zone. Women and girls pass through to the West Bank to visit their families. Groups of young men leave for work as waiters in Israeli Ara village and Palestinian cars pass through in two directions. I am impressed that lately many more Palestinian workers and residents than in the past, pass through Tura Checkpoint to the Seamline Zone. At 16:00, soldiers change shifts and crossing the checkpoint stops for a few minutes creating a long line of cars and people requesting to cross in two directions.
We are told that the new seating boards for the benches in the shed were donated by a Palestinian resident.
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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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