Barta'a checkpoint: dozens of buses leading to Ramadan prayers on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem
15:00 Anin (agricultural) checkpoint
Because it is Ramadan, non-agricultural workers who have a permit to cross here are also returning home early. By the barrier gate, some 50 people and four tractors are waiting for the military police officers who usually operate this checkpoint. Some of them tell us with feeling that before the checkpoint was opened at 7:00, four residents of the West Bank were caught beside the gate trying to get across (through a breach?). They are still being detained (blindfolded and handcuffed) and are sitting in a building in the checkpoint until someone comes to take them away. One of them was able to contact us by phone and told us that among them is a sick older person who needs to take medication towards the end of the fast. I spoke to the soldier responsible and she promised me that the matter would be taken care of and they would be taken immediately (destination unknown). Workers continue to arrive and the checkpoint is open only at 3:50 p.m. Everyone passes and the four tractors go through as well.
15:30 Barta’a-Reihan checkpoint
Hundreds of workers are coming down the sleeve towards the West Bank, but it seems that the great majority had already come back earlier. We are told that since they started opening the checkpoint earlier at 4:00 o’clock with all the positions operating, the situation has improved. Someone asks if this will continue after Ramadan. Let’s hope so.
A lot of women are sitting in the huts in the upper parking lot (in the Seamline Zone). They are joined by more women with baskets and men in festive clothing – all of them residents of Barta’a and the West Bank who have transit permits. They are waiting for three buses that will take them to the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem for Ramadan prayers.
One of the drivers tells us that this year, the buses leave Barta’a checkpoint on Monday, Thursday and Friday and travel through Israel.
Tura-Shaked checkpoint
Four young people from Tura are leaving for the second shift of work in the Seamline Zone. Other than that, there’s just a little vehicular traffic.
'Anin checkpoint (214)
See all reports for this place-
'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
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).
-