Barta'a-Reihan, Tura-Shaked
Translation: Bracha Ben-Avraham
05:30 – Barta’a Reihan Checkpoint
The parking lot on the seamline zone side was completely filled with cars and workers waiting for rides. On the Palestinian side was empty and no one was waiting next to the turnstile. Anyone who arrived entered immediately.
The distant parking lot was filling up. Next to it is the new facility that appears to be finished but is not yet in use. All the cars were going in the direction of the new parking lot. The road to the new parking lot was blocked with boulders. The guard reported that the roadblock was put up before the Ramadan two months ago. There was a small opening for pedestrians to cross. It appeared that the asphalt parking lot is reserved for merchants and transport vehicles that would arrive later.
At 05:55 a line formed because the gate the gates closed to allow a vehicle to pass on the security road. When the turnstile opened a large number of workers began to enter and crossed within five minutes. Dogs could be heard barking from the vehicle inspection facility. Part of the truck parking lot was still empty.
06:25 – Tura – Shaked Checkpoint
At 06:30 a large new transport vehicle arrived carrying four soldiers, who refused to admit that the turquoise plastic bags scattered along the road belonged to them. The first car arrived at 06:20 but was ordered “Wara, wara” (Get back). The car was carrying a doctor hurrying to get to work at the hospital in Jenin and a little girl seated in back. At 06:32 the generator began working and at 06:34 the soldiers put on their flak jackets. At 06:37 a woman woldier went up to the observation point. I attempted to call her attention to the doctor hurrying to work, but a soldier approached me saying: “Get out of the checkpoint or I’ll handcuff you. Yalla, Wara!” (Come on, get back.)
06:41 – A group of workers walked from the turnstile towards the inspection booth. At 06:44 the first car from the West Bank crossed, and at 06:45 the doctor was allowed to cross. By 06:50 there was no one left next to the turnstile.
K. arrived at 06:50. We had arranged to meet so that he could tell me about the events that occurred one night this week in Tura. There were a lot of soldiers, there were explosions, and children were frightened. This time they did not enter anyone’s house.
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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