Barta’a-Reihan, Tura-Shaked, Sun 14.4.13, Morning
Translation: Bracha B.A.
7:00-8:50
Photo: Children waiting for the sleeve to open to cross the checkpoint
07:00 – Shaked – Tura Checkpoint
We arrive together with the soldiers who approach slowly on foot. The gate for vehicles is wide open and children Um Reihan and Dahar Al Malk who go to school in Tura or Yaabed are already waiting next to the pedestrian gate at the entrance to the sleeve. The gate opens at 07:03 and the school principal from the Yaabed School and students cross together with them. The principal of the school in Um Reihan and his secretary arrive from the other side. People tell us that they have been recently forbidden to cross. One person tells us that he was allowed to cross anyway in order to make arrangements.
A young officer offers us drinks and tells us that he admires us – not for what we represent, but because we older women are willing to continue to come out and stand at the checkpoints when they open early in the morning. He wants to learn more about the organization that we represent when we come to the checkpoints. Like all soldiers whom we talk with, he does not know that the fence and the checkpoint are standing on land that does not belong to Israel and that the military activities in which he is taking part here at this "daily life" checkpoint where he is in direct contact with a civilian non-Israeli population, is actually occupation. Like all the other soldiers, he refuses to believe us. What more is this than intentional indoctrination?
08:30 – Reihan – Barta'a Checkpoint
We drive down to the Palestinian parking lot that is filled with cars. There N. is waiting for us – a man with heart problems who is cared for by six disabled children. He receives a lot of financial aid and many packages of used clothing. Unfortunately he is very needy – repairing the wheelchair of one of his children costs more than 13,000 Shekels. He delivers a number of colorful curses against the Palestinian Authority who has not offered him any help at all.
Ten loaded trucks are waiting on the road to be checked. One truck is loaded with fresh green pods of chick peas with delicious seeds inside.
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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