Barta'a checkpoint: Crossing in the morning is very difficult
15:00-16:40
On the roads and by the sides of the roads in the seamline zone, there is a strong presence of army vehicles and soldiers on an exercise.
At the Barta’a-Reihan checkpoint the parking lots on the Palestinian side are full of vehicles and the workers who have been working in Israel and the seamline zone are starting to come back to the cars and to their homes in the West Bank. We continue eastwards from Barta’a into the West Bank, to the Ya’abad-Dotan checkpoint. Beside the Havat el Neve settlement, two buses are waiting for a group of teenage girls who are returning from an organized trip to the settlement. On the road, traffic is lively in both directions (east-west). Crossing through the checkpoint goes fast. At the elevated post atop the watchtower, which overlooks the valley, we see military action. Parallel to the road leading to the checkpoint, we see extensive agricultural activity, and at the side of the road there are stalls selling fruit and flowers. To all appearances, “peaceful rural life”.
We return to the Barta’a checkpoint. Workers are returning home from work and everyone talks about the hassle of getting across in the morning. A contractor returning from Tel Aviv reports that in the morning they don’t always open up two transit lines at the entrance, which causes crowding and lots of delays. One person is even very angry with us for not coming in the morning to see what happens and do something about the congestion and difficulties getting through.
Another worker shows us a video he took in the morning. It’s crowded outside but at the entrance to the terminal, only five are allowed in at one time. But the toughest story we heard was from a resident of Anin who works in Ramat Hasharon. He has to make a very long detour from Anin (a village close to the separation fence) to the Barta’a checkpoint via Jenin (two long journeys, a waste of time and money). He has to get to the checkpoint at 5:00 in order to get to his work in Ramat Hasharon on time, and goes home in the afternoon via the same unnecessary route. Amazingly, he’s in a good mood, as is the owner of the peanut stall beside him “insh’alla (thanks God)”
Anin (agricultural) checkpoint: At the entrance to the checkpoint are three army vehicles and good-humored soldiers (from the exercise) who are drinking coffee and who greet us. It’s 4:10 p.m. and most of the workers have already gone across. Another five workers hurry to the checkpoint and are checked by two soldiers who are standing by the open gate. The checkpoint is closed and the soldier who mans the empty checkpoint 24/7 is the only one left.
Tura-Shaked checkpoint: Workers returning from work, mainly in the seamline zone, return to the West Bank. A number of cars also go across. Two residents of the seamline zone are returning from Jenin and wait for a ride. The gap in the fence has been firmly sealed.
'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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Ya'bed-Dotan
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Ya’bed-Dotan
This checkpoint is located on road 585, at the crossroads of Mevo Dotan settler-colony / Jenin/ Ya’abad. It has an army watchtower (‘pillbox’ post) and concrete blocs that slow down vehicular traffic. It was erected when Barta’a Checkpoint, lying to the west on the Separation Fence, was privatized and its operation was passed over to civilian security personnel. Since December 2009 this checkpoint enables flow of Palestinian vehicular traffic towards the Barta’a Checkpoint. Seldom is it manned by soldiers sitting in the watchtower, who conduct random inspections of vehicles and passengers. (february 2020)
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