Barta`a checkpoint: It is not clear what the criterion is for distributing work permits
Barta’a, Tura, and A’anin Checkpoints, 06:15-07:30
We went to the checkpoints this morning with a sense that we needed to continue to show our presence despite the fact that our activities in this part of the West Bank and the occupied territories are no longer of any significance. The two agricultural checkpoints of Tibeh-Romena and A’anin are stucked in a huge, intimidating concrete wall that violently separates farmers from their fields that have been forcibly taken from them. The farmers beg in vain to be allowed to return to their olive groves to prune and weed. The Palestinian DCO has not represented them to the Civil authorities or done anything for them to find a solution. At their request, the Center for Defense of the Individual (An organization of Israeli volunteers) approached the Israeli court to receive permission for farmers to visit their groves in the seamline zone but the courts refused. In June the center will present again a new request. The courts can be approached only once a month.
We stopped at the upper parking lot at Barta’a Checkpoint where lucky people who have work and a crossing permit, were being picked up for work. We spoke to a woman resident of Yaabed – a town that has roots going back to the iron age. Yaabed is located opposite the settlement of Mevo Dotan on the road to Jenin, who works in the Shahak Industrial zone. She was waiting for her ride to work and asked us to try and get the checkpoint to open at 05:00 – which has been requested by many people at the checkpoints. “All of us want peace,” she said. “We all want peace and simply to live.” We spoke to Mohammed, a resident of Kabatiya who is about 60 years old. He has a rare permit to enter Israel as a merchant – in his case to distribute electronic devices manufactured in Alon Tavor near Afula (Israel) where he works. Dozens of workers – most of whom are young people aged less than 35 are in the parking lot. Previous regulations would have prevented this age from receiving work permits.
Tura Checkpoint opens at 07:00 and there was light traffic in both directions. Two young men approached us and, like in better days, asked us whether we could help them with a police prevention order. Neta gave them Sylvia’s phone number and for a moment we felt as we had for many years that we could actually help.
Aanin Checkpoint was closed and locked. As we were leaving an army Toyota arrived and a polite woman soldier told us that we were not allowed to drive on the road leading to the checkpoint. We informed her that we had been driving on that road since before she was born. There is no sign saying that it is forbidden, and if so, show us an order from the army. She insisted that now it is forbidden, and drove off.
The olive groves on the sides of the road to the checkpoint in the seamline zone are very neglected. Their owners from A’anin are prevented from reaching them from beyond the concrete wall. Further, on the groves belonging to residents of Um a Reihan who live in the seamline zone, the olive groves are well-tended.
We returned home sad and weary.
'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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