Barta'a-Reihan: Pondering the settler dynamic
15:00-16:30
It’s three pm. We pass by the Barta’a-Reihan checkpoint. Many labourers are already hurrying home to the West bank. There’s a lot of space in the parking lots.
On the way to the Ya’abed-dotan checkpoint we notice cars traveling in new dirt roads that circumvent checkpoints and shorten the way to Ya’abed. In the checkpoint itself – much traffic that sometimes adds up to a line of more than ten vehicles. A settler who comes from Mevoh-Dotan suggests we go observe in the Yitzhar settlement: “They have problems there (Serious long-term abuse and criminal acts towards the Palestininas). We here live in peace with our neighbors”. We promised him that our members observe everywhere and that our agenda is to observe the checkpoints. That seemed to satisfy him.
Returning to the Barta’a-Reihan checkpoint we entered the Palestinian parking lot. Many service cars are picking up the labourers. Most are builders at Harish. A car with the blue license plate of the EU in back and no plate in front piques our curiosity. Its owner, a young man, tells us he brought it from Germany (we weren’t sure how) and shows us a Palestinian license plate in his car that he hadn’t had time to install yet.
On the way to the Tura-Shaked checkpoint we turned towards the Reihan settlement (the Seam area) to check out the huge new building that sprouted by it. The road that was created for it isn’t yet paved but there are embankment stones and sidewalks. Turns out it’s a warehouse for storing and delivery of different products, probably for supermarkets. In the meantime all we see are signs directing truck drivers for loading and unloading. We drove in back of a tour-bus that continued driving beyond the warehouse and parked by a lone trailer overlooking a stunning view. A large group of people disembarked and crowded around the guy who lives there who said he plans to plant a large vineyard and build a restaurant there, adding that he’s only short a few permits and a few “zuzim” (Arameic monetary term). He spoke proudly about the large number of volunteers who came from Tal-Menashe after Ester Horgan’s murder in order to break-out new roads and show their presence. When we asked someone from the tour-bus group who they were and what they were doing there, he described himself and his friends as “right-wing intellectuals” who belong to the “Cafe Shapira Forum” (details on the group can be found online). We noticed Daniella Weiss as she went towards her 4×4 vehicle. We approached her and asked what she was doing here, to which she replied that she is involved with starting mini-hotels in the settlements and one of them will, according to her, be here. We left pondering the settler dynamic occurring right in front of us.
In the Tura-Shaked checkpoint all is the same: Dirty and quiet. The soldiers treat the checkpoint passers with unusual respect, asking them how they are doing, perhaps because of the Ramadan fast, and passage is swift.
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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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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