Barta’a-Reihan, Tura-Shaked
15:00 Tura-Shaked checkpoint
Three military vehicles exit the checkoint. Traffic is very scarce in both directions.
An Israeli man arrives in his car; he is moving around nervously while speaking on the phone. One can see that he is in distress, but he does not want to get help or to talk with us. Later on we find out that he comes from the nearby Hinanit settlement to get a banister for his house. the bnaister was built for him in a metal workshop in Ya'abed (a big village on the west bank). The problem is that he has no permit to get it through this checkpoint. The lorry carrying the banister, wrapped in blue plastics, is waiting on the other side of the checkpoint, while the metalwoker, who had worked many years in Israel and speaks Hebrew, accompanied by two workers who are supposed to install the banister, stands near us and is negotiating with a soldier and a woman soldier. The woman soldier explains politely that she would have liked to help, but she is not allowed to let this merchandise go through. The solution – to get permit at the Salem DCOto let this through Barta'a checkpoint. A delay of two or three days.
The area at the entrance to the checkpoint is still littered with all kinds of garbage.
15:15 We left.
15:40 Barta'a Reihan checkoint
The place is empty. Quiet. There are no taxis, no cars. A few minutes later some workers arrive in transportation from work in the seam zoneor in Israel.
16:00 We descend the sleeve towards the terminal. With us there are many workers who are returning from work.
A family comes from the West Bank to the seam zone. The father speaks with us. He tells us that he had read in the newspaper about MachsomWatch and knows what we are doing. He thanks us. "You are helping", he says.
The many workers pass quickly. Most of them are in a good mood. Almost all of them greet us and smile.
A man arrives, carrying a small pink plastic table. It looks like a children's table. The table does not get through the turnstile. He tries different positions until he finds the way to get the table through. I look and think how much those people lack freedom. One cannot bring a present to one's daughter because there is a checkpoint, and it is narrow and it turns and prevents free movement, and this is the way one's whole life has been for decades.
We get back to the parking lot. One car exits checkup.
16:35 We left.
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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