Barta'a-Reihan, Tura-Shaked
05:55 – Barta’a Checkpoint
The upper parking lot is filled with workers and vehicles. Workers come up from the terminal on their way to work. People arrive all the time but the line to enter the terminal is not long. At 06:10, an announcement is heard over the loudspeaker, three armed security guards run to the terminal and yell down the whole length of the sleeve (the enclosed area leading to and from the terminal). They stop movement to the outside, the entrance gate is closed and all activity at the checkpoint stops. Someone passed through without a permit!!!! How did this happen??
The line to the entrance grows and stretches to the road. After 10 minutes the gate is opened again. Now about 110 people enter the turnstile but the activity in the terminal begins slowly. It is crowded there and noisy. Only at 06:25 all five inspection windows work again and people can go outside. Most of them are complaining: “What a situation this is . . .” “Today is not good at all and there is chaos.” There are veterans who do not complain; for them, “this is the usual condition.”
06:40 – The line at the entrance is still long. Large groups enter the terminal but the delays are substantial.
The workers turn to us with two problems: they are prohibited from passing through the checkpoint with bottles of water larger than 2 liters it is impossible to fill a large bottle at the water fountain in the sleeve, because of the shape of the faucet. The second problem is that there is only one turnstile for both entering and and exiting from the checkpoint. Because of this, and because of the military vehicles’ traffic on the road next to the turnstile, passage through the terminal is stopped. In the afternoon it gets very crowded. The workers ask to be allowed to pass also via the road. Anyway there is no inspection there.
06:50 – Tura Checkpoint
Quiet. It looks like the checkpoint isn’t yet open for passage. Inside the checkpoint there are soldiers and 3 vehicles arrive with additional armed soldiers (and a stretcher). On the West Bank Side there are many vehicles and workers waiting for passage. It turns out that there is a military exercise that had to be carried out exactly at the time of the opening of the checkpoint.
At 07:10, the checkpoint begins to function. There is loud noise from inside the crowded turnstile and the passage of people begins. At 07:20, most of the soldiers leave and the passage of cars in two directions begins.
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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