Barta'a-Reihan, Tura-Shaked, Ya'bed-Dotan
14:40 – Tura-Shaked Checkpoint
The Settlement of Shaked is Expanding. It is cold and stormy. A mother with two children, four cheerful youngsters, a red tractor – all pass through to the West Bank. A car is waiting for a family to come from the West Bank. A boy in red Crocs, with no socks, maneuvers a bike without a tire. He collects discarded plastic bottles from all around the checkpoint, hoping to earn a few shekels in return. In the waiting shed, a bench is broken, and there is a lot of garbage under it.
From here we see the expansion and construction in the settlement of Shaked. A large Israeli flag waves above it. We bypass Barta’a Checkpoint and stop at the Bedouin village of Emricha. It is pouring and mud flows to the road. A small digger is trying to remove the mud from the sides of the road. We enter a grocery store and the friendly owner, a mother of eight, welcomes us with coffee.
A few children enter and enjoy eating wieners in rolls. The language barrier makes our conversation difficult, but still, there’s a smile and a greeting for Shuli.
15:15 – Ya’bed-Dotan Checkpoint
A Fight for Life, Caution on the Roads – The checkpoint isn’t manned and the few cars pass in two directions. A sign says to avoid crossing the white separation line in the road, because “We Fighting for our Lives,” also in Arabic. But there are aspects of life other than caution on the road. The sign next to it points to the settlement of Sa-Nur, which has been evacuated with the Disengagement in August 2005. Someone took pains to erase the name in Arabic.
15:35 – Barta’a-Reihan Checkpoint (the Palestinian Side)
The New Shed is Saturated by Rain The rain penetrates the new shed through the perforated metal walls. A lot of water accumulates on the floor. A group of seamstresses, who work in the sewing shops in Barta’a, return from work. Smiling as always, they enter a minibus that will take them home to Jenin and the surrounding areas.
16:00 – Barta’a-Reihan Checkpoint (the Seamline Zone Side) Workers, many of them older, arrive in transport vehicles. They go down the enclosed sleeve (the fenced path to the terminal). On the side of the entrance to the terminal, there is a turnstile and from there they pass quickly to the Palestinian side. The kiosk run by a settler is closed. People will have to return home without packages of rugelach for the weekend. 16:15 – In the parking lot, a transport vehicle next to us is packed with young, laughing girls. They are students at An-Najah University. They are returning home to Barta’a for the weekend. We too return home.
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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