Barta’a-Reihan, Tura-Shaked
We drove two patients from Rambam Hospital to the Jalameh checkpoint. On our way to the Reihan – Barta'a Checkpoint we drove in back of a truck loaded with pipes that we were unable to overtake until we reached Tura, and were forced to shorten our shift. We therefore did not visit the Yaabed Dotan Checkpoint, where there are usually no soldiers at this hour of the day.
Tura Shaked Checkpoint, 15:30
This checkpoint is well equipped, with electric spikes, a stoplight, and even a crosswalk (which is faded). However, not many people are permitted to cross here. While we were there observing, 14 people crossed in both directions, as well as one donkey. On the way to the checkpoint there is a deep crack in the road and two concrete roadblocks are there to slow down traffic. It has been this way for several years. Is it not possible to mend the crack in the road? Who does the road belong to? To the IDF?
16:00 – Reihan Barta'a Checkpoint
Crowds of Palestinians are walking towards the turnstile on their way home from work in the seamline zone of in Israel. They are happy and cheerful, since people no longer have to cross through the terminal on their way home from work but simply walk through the turnstile outside straight to the taxis or cars. Come to Irtah in the morning, they say, there things are more difficult. Not everyone who works in Israel is permitted to cross here in the morning. People who live close by nevertheless have to cross at other checkpoints such as Irtah where thousands of people cross in crowded, inhuman conditions. They are only permitted to return home through this checkpoint. Here things move smoothly in the afternoon. Some people say that the limited number of people who are permitted to cross here stems from the pressure imposed by people who work in Barta'a, and who are not willing for there to be crowds here as there are at Irtah. Workers who work in the seamline zone have to be checked inside the terminal and it is often crowded. There are mechanical failures and people are held up, and people beat on the walls and shout. We are told that the mechanical failures are being dealt with, but are controlled from Tel Aviv.
I have been coming here for many years, and I still don't understand what goes on here or why.
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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