Barta'a checkpoint: The passage through the gaps in the fence reduced the pressure at the checkpoint
05:50, route 611 (opposite the village of Qequis on the eastern side of the separation barrier)
In a makeshift parking lot on the side of the road beside two large holes in the fence, some 20 cars and transit vans (Israeli and Palestinian) are parked, waiting to pick up the large number of workers who cross the quick way, where there’s no bureaucracy. We can see additional cars bringing more workers to the makeshift parking lot in the Palestinian village.
Reihan-Barta’a checkpoint
Dozens of workers are coming out through the checkpoint as well, some holding cups of coffee, and getting into buses and large transit vans. The morning chaos and crowding once typical of the place have disappeared now that crossing through holes in the fence has become “institutionalized.” We speak with one of the people there, a construction worker from Jenin who works in Hadera. He tells us that the checkpoint isn’t crowded now and you can get through quickly. Only on Fridays when the checkpoint is closed (for crossing into Israel), does he go to work through one of the holes in the fence. He says that on Fridays only residents of Barta’a can go through the checkpoint in both directions.
06:30 Tura Checkpoint
The checkpoint is still closed but the workers are crossing freely through a hole in the fence very close to the checkpoint. Some go on foot to the entrance of Dhaher al Malih, where their employers will pick them up, and some take the Palestinian shuttle, which during the daytime runs between Umm Reihan and the checkpoint. We were told that recently the checkpoint has been opening up between 7:00 and 7:15. An elderly man with a cane reaches the checkpoint from Umm Reihan and crosses into the West Bank through a hole in the fence. A student on his way to school crosses with him. If he waits for the official crossing to open, he’ll be late for school.
With more people now crossing through holes in the fence, there is less demand for Sylvia, who, with her team, helps people who have been refused entry to Israel for a variety of reasons to get things checked and resolved. But today we are approached by the brother of someone who has been refused entry into Israel by the GSS (General Security Services) for 11 years (a resident of Ya’abad). He recently received a special permit to bury his grandfather, who had lived in an isolated house near the Tura checkpoint.
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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