Barta’a-Reihan, Tura-Shaked
Reihan-Barta'a 5:55
Due to the elections, today is holiday, and fewer laborers are crossing into Israel. The upper parking is full with people and vehicles. The crossing is fast (10 minutes) and quiet. 2 windows are open in the terminal.
Shaked-Tura 6:55
Soldiers from the military police have opened a few gates at the checkpoint, but the main gate to the West Bank is still locked. This having been the situation in the last few days, at 7:05 when the school principal and two female teachers arrive, they don't wait but drive on to the checkpoint at Reihan. About 40 children enter the checkpoint where they start playing. There are also 5 students on their way to the university in Jenin. Both we and the soldiers from the military police call the DCO a few times, getting the answer: "They will open".
7:30 The big children try to organize a demonstration and send the children home but without success. The children are running around all over the checkpoint.
7:35 At last, two soldiers with the key to the main gate, arrive. They open it and all the children cross.
7:40 The teachers are the first to pass through into the seamline zone. Two of them are coming with us to Um-Reihan and will reach school just in time. Vehicles start crossing in both directions. Workers pass through the check posts and enter the seamline zone at a very slow pace: "The computer is tired".
Yesterday the checkpoint also opened very late. We are told that the person in charge from the DCO has been replaced and the rules have changed.
Every day, next to the gate, a man from Um-Reihan prepares sandwiches for the school children. In order to pass the required amount of pita breads (24) across, he has to get renewed permission from the DCO every day or he can ask each one of a number of people to bring a single pita bread through .
8:00 Two more soldiers arrive and we hope that the crossing will be faster.
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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