checkpoint ya`abed open to traffic
The North, 26.08.2021
15:20 – Tura-Shaked Checkpoint
There is little traffic in either direction. Amidst the usual filth, we saw a shiny Yale lock. We didn’t find the key . . . a symbol?
On our way to the Ya’bed-Dotan Checkpoint, we stopped at the minimarket of our friend, F. Her young daughter sat beside her, behind the counter. We bought (a charger for the car, NIS 15), we drank (a bottle of soda for NIS 3) and we conversed a bit, although limited by language.
On the way, above one pillbox, a white balloon was flying. An innocent balloon or perhaps a communication and/or photograph balloon? At the bottom of the second pillbox, behind the cement blockade, two soldiers sat with their rifles pointed at the cars that passed on the road.
16:20 – Ya’bed-Dotan Checkpoint
The checkpoint itself isn’t staffed and the vehicle traffic streamed in two directions.
16:40 – Barta’a-Reihan Checkpoint, the Palestinian Side
Many people are returning from work in Israel and the Seamline Zone, but the parking lot is still full of cars. Among those returning—all men–a young woman stood out, bareheaded and wearing a mask. Her partner is waiting for her in a car.
The red buffet car is improving. In front of it they installed a large shed and concrete flooring covers the artificial green grass. The nut seller is also stationed at the shed. Others wait at the entrance of the transit shed (for transportation or for passengers). One of the workers asks for help with dismissing his prohibition, and we give him Sylvia’s note. We wonder why he doesn’t cross at one of the breaches in the Separation Fence. Perhaps he observes the law and perhaps he is a bit old, and the traffic is heavy.
17:00 – Barta’a-Reihan Checkpoint, the Seamline Zone side
One man spread out a rug on a mat and prays in the large shed next to the parking lot. The others hurry to go down the long sleeve (the enclosed, roofed passage to and from the terminal) on their way home in the West Bank. We walk with the stream of people, among them, only two women, an older woman who greets us cordially and a young woman with a baby. Most of the people are young. A few stop to buy rugalach for the weekend at the settler’s buffet. Obviously, there are no rugalach at the buffet car on the Palestinian side.
17:20 – On our way home we crawl in a convoy of cars that are returning to Israel after they transport Palestinian workers to the checkpoint.
Barta’a-Reihan Checkpoint
See all reports for this place-
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).
-
Tura-Shaked
See all reports for this place-
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
-