Barta’a-Reihan, Tura-Shaked
A clear spring Saturday; someone who can forget momentarily the distress they confront daily may notice the almond trees and anemones in bloom.
07:55-08:20 Tura-Shaked checkpoint
It’s almost empty at this hour, a few pedestrians and families crossing from one side to the other, quickly, without delays.
08:30-09:00 Barta’a-Reihan checkpoint
We meet Amjad and his baby daughter Mari in the parking lot, and a few minutes later Miki arrives to give them a ride to the physiotherapist in Umm el Fahm.
The checkpoint, as usual, is crowded and full of life everywhere. The morning congestion is over, everyone’s hurrying on their way, polite and smiling. One man tells us, “It’s good you came; it makes things go quickly; come every day.” But it seems to us it’s just the time of day. Many are crossing in each direction; it appears that people are going through quickly but we weren’t able to time them.
This is the 10th (!) anniversary of my work in Machsom Watch. A huge difference from the exposed, unprotected checkpoints, the long lines in the rain and hamsin, people arriving without a permit, the arguments with the soldiers, the many detainees in plastic handcuffs blindfolded for hours on the roadside – compared to the revolving gates, fences, huge structures, fingerprints, shiny roads, the sparkling facilities operating like clockwork. What can I say – today it’s much more depressing. That all indicates it will be here forever. I see the little children going through the checkpoint to visit their grandmother, and those who crossed ten years ago are now grown, who’ve seen checkpoints their whole life and haven’t known any other reality. What despair!
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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