Barta’a-Reihan, Tura-Shaked
05:50 Barta’a Reichan Checkpoint
Many cars and workers are already in the car-park at the exit from the checkpoint. Many trucks loaded with well-packed produce are standing there.
There is a long queue of workers at the entrance to the terminal on the Palestinian side. One can feel tension among the workers, because if one of them is late for his employer’s transport he will lose a day’s work, and therefore many try to jump the queue. Even Iyad, the volunteer queue organizer, who is usually calm, looks stressed today. The queue advances quite quickly, but more people arrive and the queue doesn’t shorten. On the contrary – the turnstile suddenly stops turning, and the last man in the group, who can’t pass through it, is caught by surprise. We speak to one of the checkpoint staff, who tells us that they are aware of the problem, and it is also hard for them to work under this increased pressure. Iyad tells us that he was not there last Friday or Saturday but he heard that there was also disorder then.
07:00 Tura-Shaked checkpoint
We are told that although the checkpoint was opened at 06:30, the workers started to cross only a quarter of an hour later. An elderly man says, “there are good soldiers and also not-so-good”. He also tells us that there are soldiers who hold their firearms pointed at children, and this frightens them. I tell him that the soldiers are also frightened sometimes.
There are only a few people and little traffic.
07:20 We phone Iyad to check the situation in the queue at Barta’a. Everyone has passed through the 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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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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