Barta'a checkpoint: quiet, in Jenin there is great tension
Because of ongoing works in the parking lots around the Barta’a checkpoint and the revoking of permits to those who park by the red-and-white curb, cars are parking a kilometer away.
15:10 Tura-Shaked checkpoint
There is almost no traffic at this time. A car crosses to the West Bank, another car, with an Israeli license plate, drops off a worker who crosses to the West Bank. A young mother, in a traditional outfit of course, but in high heels, arrives on foot with three elegantly dressed toddlers. They cross to the West Bank.
15:25 Hermesh checkpoint
Lots of flowering Sea Squills, columnar harbingers of fall, on the way. The gate on the road is wide open and the watchtower is unmanned. Little traffic in both directions.
15:40 Ya’abed-Dotan Checkpoint
On the way to the checkpoint, a military vehicle is parked next to the locked gate on the shortcut road to Ya’abed. Another car is parked next to the monument at the foot of the checkpoint. A third car comes to us when we are parked at the intersection leading up to the Mevo Dotan settlement. When we move, he moves too. These vehicles are, perhaps, the only sign of the recent deadly tension in the Jenin governorate.
The guard tower at the checkpoint is manned, traffic flows unhindered in both directions.
16:00 Barta’a-Reihan checkpoint
Cars park on the side of the road that is not painted red and white about a kilometer from the checkpoint, also under the “bridge”, in front of the village of Zabde.. People make sure to park only where it is allowed, lest they be denied their transit permits because of a parking violation. The earthworks in the parking lots up the road have not yet been completed. The lower parking lot is completely full and we also don’t want to park in red-and-white, so we park on the side of the seam area and go down the sleeve (fenced and covered path) to the terminal along with the masses of people returning from work in Israel and the seam area.
Nimble young people manage to jump over the fence and shorten the way. Then we thread our way back through the descending crowd.
16:30 Prayer mats are waiting for worshipers in the shed. On our way home we join the long line of vehicles that brought workers back from their place of work.
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).
-
Hermesh
See all reports for this place-
Hermesh
-
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
-
Ya'bed-Dotan
See all reports for this place-
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)
-