Barta’a-Reihan, Tura-Shaked, Ya’bed-Dotan
The occupation routine. Everything’s ok. Have we grown accustomed to it? No way. We find it strange that others, including Palestinians (perhaps only seemingly) and also soldiers view what goes on as normal.
06:55 Tura (Shaked)
The soldiers slowly come up the road. They open the checkpoint and work efficiently. The first car goes through in seven minutes; the school principal’s car enters a few minutes later. People on foot come through much more slowly. They’re always delayed by the computer. The checkpoint area is dirty again. Schoolchildren arrive on foot from Dahar el Malak; laborers get into cars serving as taxis.
07:50 Yabed (Dothan)
The checkpoint is already manned at this hour, which is unusual. But, as usual, the checkpoint area is very filthy. Who’s in charge? Who’s supposed to keep it clean – the village of Yabed, which the checkpoint blocks? The local council, including the Dothan settlement on the hilltop, which the checkpoint protects, together with its access road? Traffic flows with no delays. Some drivers have their documents inspected, others go through almost without stopping. The soldier’s wave sends vehicles through toward Jenin.
08:15 Yabed (Reihan)
Some 16 loaded trucks wait wherever there’s space – in the small parking area assigned to them, by the roadside and at the entrance to the large parking area – the turmoil of its renovation has resulted in paving two sections, eliminating the prayer corner from the canopied area and also removing the small kiosk from which H. made a living in addition to his cleaning the checkpoint, supporting an entire family whose father is ill and can’t work. The “café” belonging to a resident of Hermesh is open.
It’s crowded – difficult to enter, and even harder to exit.
We went to the upper section of the checkpoint, near the seam zone. Taxis wait, laborers come up through the sleeve, “everything’s ok” and the world keeps turning.
That’s all.
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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Ya'bed-Dotan
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Ya’bed-Dotan
This checkpoint is located on road 585, at the crossroads of Mevo Dotan settler-colony / Jenin/ Ya’abad. It has an army watchtower (‘pillbox’ post) and concrete blocs that slow down vehicular traffic. It was erected when Barta’a Checkpoint, lying to the west on the Separation Fence, was privatized and its operation was passed over to civilian security personnel. Since December 2009 this checkpoint enables flow of Palestinian vehicular traffic towards the Barta’a Checkpoint. Seldom is it manned by soldiers sitting in the watchtower, who conduct random inspections of vehicles and passengers. (february 2020)
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