Barta’a-Reihan, Jalama, Tura-Shaked, Ya’bed-Dotan
Jalama checkpoint, 05:15
It has been a long time since we visited this checkpoint. We encounter a sign, "Welcome to the Gilboa Passage". Maybe that's because it is on the Green Line, and not in the occupied Palestinian territory.
The checkpoint was opened at 05:00 (04:45 on Sundays). Many people have already gone through it and are waiting for transportation. Among them are women agricultural workers. We approach the entrance to the terminal, and a stream of workers come towards us. There are three checking posts in the terminal. One of the people tells us that there is a problem with the turnstiles at the entrance to the terminal. There are two turnstiles: one for men, the other for women. There are a few dozens of women going through, and a lot of men. He thinks that after the women go through the two turnstiles should be open for men. The man tells us that he has been working in Israel since 1968 (!), all those years doing agricultural work in Beit She'an vValley.
One of the people responsible for the checkpoint comes over, his name is Itzik. We bring up the turnstile issue, and he says that the suggestion is not applicable, since every once in a while additional women come, and they cannot squeeze in between the men. According to him between 05:00 and 06:30 2200 people go through the checkpoint, workers and merchants. Merchants start passing at 06:00.
He sends warm regards to our friend Rachele Hayut, who for three years had been his beloved teacher in highschool, "despite our disagreements".
06:15 The flow of people is slowed down. we leave the place. We see the lorries that wait at the checkpoint back to back. We can hardly get out of the parking place, which is full of vehicles and of people waiting.
06:50 Tura – Shaked checkpoint
We arrived a few minutes too early. The soldiers are already marching towards the checkpoint, They open on time. The cute children pass as usual, a do all the others.
The day before our friend Anna had left a phone and a camera at the waiting shed by the checkpoint. A man living at Dahr El Malec had found them and contacted her. At her request we called the honest finder and he invited us to his house. we were warmly welcomed by his mother, his two brothers and himself. One of the brothers had studied law at Aman university. He did not find work in his field, has worked as a cook, and now he works as a builder. The brothers and their father had been born in Dahr El Malec. They told us that the grandfather was an inhabitant of Ein Sahala (an Israeli Arab village) but had moved to Dahr El Malec (today an occupied Palestinian village in area C, under Israeli control) since there was better pasture there. They emphasized that the move was before the 1948 war.
08:00 Barta'a-Reohan checkpoint, Palestinian side
We pass by the checkpoint. The parking lot is completely full. Small groups of people arrive by car and on foot. More than twelve vans are waiting to be checked.
08:15 Yabed – Mevo Dotan checkpoint
The checkpoint is not manned. We leave.
On our way back we see again the long line of vans waiting in Reihan 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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Jalama
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North of Jenin, on the Green Line between Israel and the West Bank. A big terminal for the passage of Palestinians with permits allowing entrance into Israel and goods into Israel operates there. In the course of 2009 the terminal was opened for the passage of Israeli Arabic citizens into the West Bank. Since October 2009 they may pass in their cars.
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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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Ya'bed-Dotan
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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)
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