Barta’a-Reihan, Tura-Shaked
05:40 – Barta’a Reihan Checkpoint
Several vehicles are waiting for workers to come out of the terminal. People are moving through relatively quickly and it is not as crowded as on other days. I walked down to the lower parking lot because Israeli Arab drivers are not allowed to cross this checkpoint. On the way I passed the kiosk belonging to the settler and watched the usual sight that makes me so angry: a long line of Palestinians sitting on the concrete benches drinking coffee while the owners of the kiosk are busy. Hadi, the Palestinian kiosk owner, the disabled man with the motorbike, and others who attempted to sell drinks and snacks were all evicted from the checkpoint so that the settlers could make a living here instead.
There are six windows open inside the terminal and people are passing through at a reasonably rapid rate. Some of the people exit as they fasten their belts, with lit cigarettes dangling from their lips. On my way to the parking lot I walk beside a young man returning to his home in the West Bank. This morning he left for work as usual, but when he got to work where he works as a painter his boss told him there was no work today. I asked: Why couldn’t he have called to tell you not to come? The young man gave a vague answer and continued on his way.
Hundreds of people are waiting in a very long line in the parking lot and cars were parking in an orderly fashion under the watchful eye of two Palestinian attendants. Several Palestinians are praying under the awning before joining the line. According to what people say about 2500 men and women come through this checkpoint.
At 06:40 I attempted to go back the way I had come by the route that bypasses the terminal, but the security guards did not understand what I was doing there and tried to clarify unsuccessfully. In the end I returned along the road despite the fact that other security guards forbid me to go that way.
06:55 – Tura Shaked Checkpoint
Most of the people crossed here after 07:00. Vehicles crossed from the West Bank to the seamline zone. At 07:10 the first students arrived on their way to school. Some of the people entering the seamline zone continue on their way to Shaked to build houses in the settlement. A young man arrives on a bicycle and tells about his 6-week-old son in fluent Hebrew. The child was born with a heart defect and is being treated at Tel HaShomer Hospital in Israel. He has proper permits and wants to arrange a ride to the hospital to bring his son for a checkup before he undergoes surgery. The matter has been brought to the attention of Yuval, a special and generous person who runs “The Road to Recovery” organization.
We left at 07:35.
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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