Barta’a-Reihan, Tura-Shaked, Ya’bed-Dotan
5:50 – 7:50
5:50 Barta’a-Reihan Checkpoint
The upper car park is nearly full. Many workers and transport vehicles crowd on the road, its margins and crossings. We cross the checkpoint compound and to our surprise – find a very short waiting line at the terminal entrance. We proceed to Yaabad Checkpoint.
6:05 Yaabad-Mevo Dotan Checkpoint
Yabed Dotan c.p 26/2/2017 photo Ruti Tuval
Passage is free of inspection but the cars must proceed in what seems a very clumsy dance among the deep cracks. They have to slow down to such an extent that occasionally waiting lines of vehicles are formed, especially those filled with passengers to Barta’a Checkpoint on their way to work, and empty vehicles returning from the checkpoint. Everyone complains of this trouble that delays them and damages their cars. A Palestinian ambulance arriving at high speed from Yaabad must also greatly slow down.
6:35 Barta’a Reihan Checkpoint
Batrta`a c.p 26/2/2017 photo Ruti Tuval
The Palestinian ambulance is now on its way back from the checkpoint. As usual we park on the road at the entrance to the car park. The curb is painted red-white. One of the responsible personnel, a Palestinian, asks us to move off, for our own good, because the police hands out parking tickets. For some reason there is a relatively large group of Palestinian watchmen at this car park, and at first they do not let us and others park there although there are vacancies. Finally we are allowed to do so for we are only to stay there for about 10 minutes. Workers are still arriving and entering right away. At 6:40 a small waiting line forms for some moments. Someone approaches us requesting we help him remove the ‘denied entry’ status forced on him 10 years ago. He doesn’t know the reason for it. He has never been arrested, and does not even have some distant relative sitting in prison. Eliya will look into this matter.
7:00 Toura-Shaked Checkpoint
Tura Shaked c.p 26/2/2017 photo Ruti Tuval
Several dozen people crowd near the turnstile. Shouts are heard. This morning the men exit holding their belts in their hands. They all complain that the inspection took a long time. We look for a closer observation point inside the olive tree grove. Loud shouts are heard in Hebrew: “We too are human beings. Get to work, let us pass”. We return to the gate, enter, and one of the soldiers tells us that there’s pressure today. That’s it. At least he doesn’t chase us off, as some other soldiers have in the past. An old acquaintance of ours comes out at 7:45. “It was I who shouted”, he says. “I’ve been here since 6:30”. The cars, on the other hand, cross swiftly, noted manually by the soldiers. Children, all ages, cross the checkpoint as usual on their way to school.
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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