Barta’a-Reihan, Tura-Shaked
Reihan – Barta'a Checkpoint
05:55 – Workers are sitting on the curb among the cars, waiting for their rides to work. There is a steady stream of workers coming out of the upper end of the sleeve, who have come through the terminal from the West Bank. According to them, crossing takes anywhere from ten minutes to an hour. Leah asks to speak with the person in charge of the checkpoint, and he arrives with an armed security guard. Leah asks when they plan on placing benches and a shelter to provide shade, in the upper parking lot, for workers who wait for their rides. The person in charge explains that presently they have no budget, but when they do these will be the next things they will purchase.
There are fewer people crossing through the checkpoint after 06:30.
Shaked – Tura Checkpoint
07:08 The soldiers open the checkpoint.
07:20 The first car crosses from the seamline zone to the West Bank and a donkey, pulling a wagon, crosses in the same direction, the first of three who cross. We are told that they are going to harvest tobacco.
07:27– Two or three people come out after being checked. Those following do not come out until 07:39. People are coming out slowly and it takes about five minutes for each person. By the time we left at 08:00 only 15 people and six or seven vehicles have crossed.
There was a long line of people waiting on the Tura side of the checkpoint. Leah and I tried to ask the soldiers why things were so slow but received no answer.
The first person who crossed told us that he had been waiting to cross since 05:30. He usually crosses at Barta'a but did not receive a permit. He claimed that if anyone complained about things moving too slowly, his work permit would be confiscated.
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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