Barta'a-Reihan, Tura-Shaked
05.55. Barta’a checkpoint. The upper parking-lot is full of cars and workers, and many come out of the terminal. One tells us “today the checkpoint is fine.” A worker whose permit has not been renewed asks for help. As we give him the slip with Sylvia’s details, more and more hands reach out for copies. At the entrance to the terminal from the Palestinian parking lot there is no queue, and everyone enters immediately. Inside 5 windows are open and passage is quick. A young man from Arabah tells us that many young folk from his village do not have their permits renewed and they are not told the reason for the refusal.
06.45. Turah checkpoint. The gates are open but the checkpoint is not yet active. Two cars wait on the seamline-zone side, and at least 10 on the West Bank side. From the checkpoint area we hear shouting in Hebrew and sounds of weapons, mixed with music from the waiting cars.
06.50. The checkpoint starts working. All the (about) 40 people waiting are allowed in at one go, but the first emerges only at 7.05. They say there is a computer problem. The cars start moving in both directions at 7.10, quickly. 20 cars pass to the seamline zone. The people coming out tell us that the soldiers arrived only at 6.40, and complain that they will arrive late to work today and that we “don’t help them and they suffer.”
A merchant from Daher el Malec tells us that until 3 months ago he would transport to the Barta’a market pigeons and chickens that are not grown in coops. Now he is not permitted to do so and he has no income.
07.35. Not all the workers have passed, but we leave.
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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