Barta’a-Reihan, Tura-Shaked, Wed 26.6.13, Morning
Translator: Charles K.
06:05-07:00 Barta’a-Reihan
13 cars wait on the road for inspection and three more wait in the parking lot which is still almost empty. Few people come from either direction. We go up to see what’s happening at the terminal exit. One person tells us people are going through quickly – 5 minutes (“thanks to you”) – but another, a young man, told us he was held for an hour in the inspection room. A young man has been detained and waits for permission to go through. He says it’s the same every day; he doesn’t know why. A guard comes over to tell us he’ll go through shortly, that there’s no problem.
07:05-07:35 Tura-Shaked
About 30 people wait on the Tura side. The gates are already open; everything’s going very slowly. A few cars go through in each direction. A man I always run into at A’anin is allowed to cross here, but not with his tractor (why?). His land is near the A’anin checkpoint, he’s an industrious farmer, trying to protect his olive grove from the herd of cows that’s now damaging the trees. What continues to impress me is his stubbornness and commitment, without anger but a kind of resignation. Anna’s trying to help him; let’s hope she succeeds.
07:45 Back to the Barta’a-Reihan checkpoint
We wait for Ali who has to go to Rambam Hospital for tests. More people are crossing now, all hurrying to work.
08:10 We leave.
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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