Barta`a checkpoint: Who closed the private parking lot
07.40 -06.00
We saw more army and police vehicles than usual on the roads in the seamline zone. This was evidently due to the shooting incident that took place last night.
Barta’a Checkpoint 016:00
There were many transport vehicles carrying workers from the West bank to their jobs in Israel on the road from the checkpoint to Harish. It was difficult to reach the checkpoint because the road was crowded with large yellow taxis, transit vehicles from the Reem Company, and busses belonging to Yonat Hashalom [“The Peace Dove”]. There were also private transit vehicles and cars making their way through and we also saw an emergency care ambulance from the Medical Corps.
People were praying under the shed in the upper parking lot and an army vehicle with soldiers aiming their weapons was parked at the vehicle checkpoint near the sleeve. People were walking up the sleeve with cups of coffee from the busy kiosk and greeted us. The turnstile at the exit from the terminal was clicking rapidly, attesting to the thousands of people who were crossing the checkpoint. Some paused to buckle their belts that they had unbuckled during inspection. They reported that the checks had been quick and that two lanes were open. There were also several women who crossing who worked as cleaners.
The closing of the private parking lots near the village of Zubeida had aroused rumors. One person told us that the owner of the land had been fined because the parking lot was “illegal”. The shortage of parking space has forced people arriving in the morning to park along the sides of the road far from the checkpoint. A security guard informed us that checkpoint management has limited the amount of parking lots within the area of the checkpoint.
A’anin Agricultural Checkpoint – 07:00 – Today two women soldiers were in charge of the checkpoint and took an interest in what we were doing. Two loaded wagons carrying junk were parked in back of the checkpoint, even after it was not allowed to bring junk into the village. The checkpoint opened at 07:00 and five tractors crossed followed by about 200 people. Crossing took place quickly. A soldier in the middle of the checkpoint checked everyone’s documents, even those of the older people. Two farmers were unloading junk from the wagons after not being permitted to bring them into the village yesterday. Today they need their wagons for work. They hoped that today they would be permitted to bring the junk home.
Beginning October 16th the olive harvest began, and the checkpoint will be open every day from 07:00 – 07:30 and from 16:00 – 16:30 in the afternoon. A resident of A’anin told us that his wife has a permit to cross that is valid for two years, but he only received a permit for three months and only for the olive harvest. Recently we have had difficulty phoning the District Coordination and Liaison Office. They refuse to answer, claiming that it is only for emergencies. We referred him to Nihaya at the hotline for Defense of Individuals. Another person expressed his anxiety regarding his olive grove that is bordered by the security fence. The checkpoint closed at 07:35 after everyone had crossed.
Since the holes in the fence near this checkpoint were closed many people cross here and the junction near the checkpoint has become a busy site with workers and transport vehicles.
Tura Checkpoint, 07:40 – Most of the people had already crossed and only a tractor and a few workers crossed to the seamline zone. Four teachers crossed to the school in Dahar al Malik and a woman from Tura crossed to harvest olives in the seamline zone, and several high school students crossed to the school in Tura
'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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