Barta’a-Reihan, Tura-Shaked
We thought the A'anin checkpoint has opened at 06:00 and arrived at that hour to a deserted checkpoint. It turned out that after the olive harvest ended it opened at 06:30.
06:15 Barta’a-Reihan checkpoint
Many people and cars wait outside the checkpoint. We’re told the crossing goes relatively quickly today. We enter the fenced corridor leading to the terminal where the Palestinians are being inspected. Many people emerge, hurrying on their way. All confirm it takes only 20 minutes inside; there are three fast inspectors which improves the entire atmosphere.
06:40 The flow of people slackens a bit but reports are that many still wait to cross.
Construction laborers who work at Harish complained that on Friday the checkpoint opened only at 07:00, making them late for work which was supposed to begin at that hour. They say many laborers work at Harish in construction. They spoke to the checkpoint manager to request that it open earlier but were refused. Chana suggested they ask the contractor who employs them to write to the checkpoint manager. Any other ideas? Other laborers complain about long lines at the Ya’bed-Dothan checkpoint and long delays.
If the purpose of that checkpoint is to protect Mevo Dothan why isn’t it located on the road to the settlement?
06:57 Tura-Shaked checkpoint
Although soldiers are already at the checkpoint, the gates aren’t open yet. A lone soldier arrives from the direction of the base and disappears into the checkpoint.
07:15 The soldiers haven’t yet begun to let people through. There’s a DCL car inside the checkpoint. A jeep rushes up and rushes away and nothing happens. It turns out there’s no key to the gate between the checkpoint (which is located in the seam zone) and Palestine.
Many students arrive on their way to schools in Tura and to the university in Jenin. The principal who crosses daily arrives and so do female teachers who work in schools in the Palestinian Authority. Laborers also wait to cross. The checkpoint is designated “quality of life” and is intended to reduce the hardships caused by the fence that separates Palestinian villages and the schools their children attend, all of which form a single community. About 50 people wait for the key that will save them. The DCL tells us, “We’re aware of the problem.” A jeep arrives, departs…no key… We see many people waiting on the Palestinian side of the checkpoint, the Tura village side.
07:30 Some people decided to drive to the Barta’a checkpoint – a very long detour. The soldiers seem to be trying to force open the lock because we hear banging on metal. Meanwhile a side gate has been opened for the children. Adults aren’t allowed through and they’re now standing in line next to the inspection room.
07:40 No one has yet crossed in any direction. Great congestion on the Palestinian side, shouts and quarrels, the soldiers standing at the locked gate with weapons drawn.
07:50 The first school principal who has been inspected now sits in his car waiting for it to be checked. The first car crosses from the Palestinian side, a few children and teachers come through.
08:00 The principal’s car is finally inspected and he drives off, an hour late.
08:10 Loud shouts are heard again and the crossing stops. After a few minutes some more people come through. Someone says the soldiers hit a boy. And the crossing stops again. There are no pedestrians now on our side, only cars and drivers waiting for laborers and teachers who haven’t yet been inspected. We enter the empty fenced corridor to be better able to see what’s happening; a female MP arrives immediately, accompanied by a soldier with drawn weapon. She yells at us to leave hercheckpoint right away, we’re interfering with her job.
08:30 Inspection us very slow and people are still waiting, but the process is working more or less smoothly.
Did we say “quality of life”? This is how today has begun at the Tura-Shaked checkpoint…
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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