Barta’a-Reihan, Tayba-Rummana, Tura-Shaked
04:50 Barta’a-Reihan checkpoint (in the photos: crates of vegetable wrapped in plastic on their way to inspection by a scanner and sniffer dogs; a crowded line of people at the checkpoint entrance)
About 150 people, and maybe more, most of them young, crowd at the yellow gate, jammed together but not shouting or irritated. Older men wait off to the side; they decided to forgo the congestion, knowing in their wisdom that everyone will somehow get through in time. Women wait on a line to one side, keeping their distance from the men. Exactly at 05:00 we hear the security guards’ battle cry: “Good morning, start coming through,” and the pressure at the gate increases. The guards admit people in groups of five; someone trying to be the sixth or seventh is immediately sent back. Women go through in a continual flow. After passing through the revolving gate and obeying the commands of the unseen female security person, who observes them on a monitor in the booth (remove your hat, lift up the bag) they crowd together at the terminal entrance. The congestion eases 20 minutes later; from time to time a new group temporarily forms of people who’ve just arrived. Most of those coming through at this hour work at various locations in Israel and 
hurry to their rides waiting in the upper parking lot. Workers in the seam zone will start to arrive in another hour. That’s how they go through the terminal each morning, undergoing the regular, familiar humiliation (“the occupation routine”), exiting through fenced metal corridors through revolving gates and scanners, submissively obeying orders and rules. Keep out of trouble, don’t annoy the lords, let us get to work on time and make a living.
06:55 Tura-Shaked checkpoint
Until the occupation routine will start here, in five more minutes, we visit the solitary house adjoining the Shaked settlement. One of the two brothers living here with their families (a total of 17 people) watches over beds of young tobacco plants. Soon they’ll begin planting tobacco in the fields. The earth is steaming; we bravely refuse hot tea (it’s cold: 10 C) and return to the occupation routine that begins promptly at 07:00. Whoever goes through, goes (flows?) through; no one seems particularly pleased. Strange. A little girl smiles at us. Her sweet sister doesn’t. The other permanent members of the cast – the school principal, the bank clerk, the irate teacher, the shy teacher, the early-rising pupils – they’re already here. Each in turn advances, returns, gives, takes, plays their part in the routine.
We return to Zebda via the Barta’a checkpoint to bring clothes to Walid’s family. Sa’id, his younger brother, arrives on a donkey, takes the large bundles, loads them onto the animal. Sa’id’s routine is no less discouraging. He works a little on the family’s farm, almost never leaves the village. Friends? He goes to sleep early. Wakes early, tired. Thanks for the clothes.
08:00 Tayba-Rummana checkpoint
Surprise! The Border Police arrived before us; their jeep is already parked in its usual spot.
Another surprise! No one emerges from it.
Five minutes pass. Ten. Fifteen. The DCO doesn’t know why. At the brigade they say there’s an “incident” somewhere so they can’t find out why at the moment. At 08:30 a number of tired Border Police soldiers emerge from the jeep and let through two tractors and about eight people on foot who’ve been waiting since 07:30.
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).
-
Tayba-Rummana
See all reports for this place-
Tayba-Rummana is an agricultural checkpoint. It is located in the separation fence in front of the eastern slopes of the Israeli city of Umm al-Fahm. The Palestinian villages next to the checkpoint are Khirbet Tayba and Rummana. Dozens of dunams of olive groves were removed from their owners, the residents of these villages on the western side of the separation fence. The Palestinian villages next to the checkpoint are Khirbet Tayba and Rumna. Dozens of olives dunams were removed from these villages' residents and swallowed up in a narrow strip of space, on the western side of the separation fence. The checkpoint allows the plantation owners who have permits to pass. Twice a week, the checkpoint opens for fifteen minutes in the morning and evening. During the harvest season, it opens every day for fifteen minutes in the morning (around 0630) and fifteen minutes in the afternoon (around 1530). (February 2020).
-
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
-