Barta’a-Reihan, Tura-Shaked
Barta`a checkpoint (all photos are from this checkpoint
)
It’s Rosh Hashana Eve. Crossing at the checkpoint begins at 7 a.m. exactly (on Fridays and eve of holidays the checkpoint opens at 7 rather than 5 a.m.. That way the workday becomes even shorter). In all of my 8 years as a member of Machsomwatch monitoring the northern checkpoints, I have not seen the kind of sights one hears about monitored at the tougher checkpoints such as Qalandiya and Irtach. This time, hundreds of people crowded at the two turnstiles located at the Palestinian entrance to the checkpoint. In the left-hand turnstile (usually for people returning from 
Israel into the West Bank) 5 people were crowded into the space that is meant for a single person! At the right-hand 
turnstile to which a short and narrow “sleeve” is connected – youngsters climbed an jumped over the heads of the people crushed in the line. On the loudspeaker a female voice literally barked-shouted: “Don’t run!” Idit and I were in shock. We called Ron, deputy manager of the checkpoint, but he was not present at the site, and unlike him he was not willing to help. Our friend B., gentle and smiling, a veteran employee at the carpet factory in the Shahak industrial zone, was watching the chaos from the side. As I returned to the checkpoint at 9 a.m. (after taking leave of Idit at Kfar Kar’a as she hurried off to work), I met B. waiting on a bench at the end of the sleeve. We shared some experiences from the opening of this checkpoint, and then his ride came to pick him up.\
8:30 Tura-Shaked Checkpoint
Here everything was smoothly. A hitchhiker carrying bags, whom I picked up near Umm Reihan, crossed the checkpoint including the inspection room within 5 minutes, and even got another ride on the other side. Several cars crossed swiftly. At Barta’a Checkpoint it takes a Palestinian driver at least 20 minutes to cross into the very same “seam-line zone”. From here I proceeded to Umm Riha, a small, impoverished hamlet located on both sides of the main road leaving to Ya’abad and Jenin, in order to deliver a load of clothing (thanks to Idit and a friend from Kibbutz Yagur).
9:00 Barta’a-Reihan Checkpoint
All the parking lots are full, the turnstiles empty, and I met B. on the other side.
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).
-
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
-