Checkpoint in Barta`a: "Most of the inspectors are Arabs.."
14.40 Anin checkpoint
Five soldiers are “guardians of the fence”, are at the checkpoint 7/24. It’s not their job to open the gate at the checkpoint, nor do they have keys. So, the farmers and the workers who are already there will wait at least another hour and a half until the soldiers come to open it. A Palestinian who was somehow caught next to the fence is detained, handcuffed, and seated with the soldiers. Before he was taken in a car, his eyes were covered.
15:10 – Tura-Shaked Checkpoint
The checkpoint “naps” in the afternoon, amid the quiet, the filth, and the ugliness.
15:40 – We passed the Barta’a-Reihan Checkpoint. All the parking lots were full. There isn’t a place for even one car. We continued on and there we stopped to look at one of the dusty parking lots which will soon turn into a muddy and slippery area on a steep slope.
15;50 – Ya’abed-Dotan Checkpoint
We sat on a cement block and looked around. The traffic was conducted in a series, but at times it was a bit crowded around the cement blocks. Two soldiers from the Haruv (carob) patrol arrive and ask if we needed something. Yes, yes, of course, they are familiar with “I have a lover from the Haruv patrol.” (It rhymes in Hebrew: Yesh li ahuv mi sayeret Haruv.) They also heard of with Machsom Watch. Drivers wave hello to us and one yells “Hello friends.”
16:15 – Barta`a-Reihan Checkpoint
At the exit from Barta’a Checkpoint (on the way home), the grads were suddenly tough with us, surprisingly. They passed us through one gate but when we got to the second, they regretted it. We heard one of them ask his friend, “Don’t you know who they are?” They called us back to stand on the X; afterward we were sent for a thorough inspection of the trunk, including opening the hood and passing our luggage on for inspection on a conveyer belt as in any respectable border crossing. We asked what was happening; had they already receive their instructions from Itamar ben Gvir? One of the Palestinians who himself was being checked, said aloud: “Know that most of those inspected here are Arabs?,” And they all laughed, checking and checking together.
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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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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