checkpoints and loopholes standing side by side in the northern checkpoints
14:30 – Tura – Shaked Checkpoint
A few cars crossed to the West Bank and two youths crossed to the seamline zone and waited for their father to exit the checkpoint in a fancy car.
14:50 – Barta’a – Reihan Checkpoint
There were cars lined up at the vehicle checkpoint in both the Palestinian and the Israeli lanes that lead to the West Bank. We were surprised that the chain link fence blocked the road as well as the entrance to the vehicle inspection point through which Palestinian vehicles drive through to the seamline zone. We didn’t know why the gates were closed. After a short time the gates opened and we crossed through.
15:10 – Yaabed Dotan Checkpoint
Cars were crossing in both directions without delay. A few cars with Israeli license plates belonging to Arab Israeli citizens were driving through in the direction of Yaabed and towards Jenin. Next to the sign advertising “A Real Home” in the settlement of Mevo Dotan there is another sign with the emergency number of the Samaria (Shomron) Regional Council. Now we know who to call if there is an emergency.
15:20 – On the way to Hermesh we saw a pretty stone fence surrounding a farm. The checkpoint next to the settlement of Hermesh has been empty for years and traffic was flowing freely in both directions.
15:30 – Barta’a Reihan Checkpoint
The parking lot on the Palestinian side was too full, so we drove to the seamline zone side and walked down the sleeve that contains a fenced in covered walkway to the entrance to the terminal. The bougainvillea vines have grown through and decorated the roof. One man complained that in the morning it takes a long time to cross and people were subjected to an additional inspection in an inner room. We restrained ourselves from asking why he didn’t cross through one of the holes in the fence instead of crossing through the checkpoint. Some people greeted us and others bought boxes of cakes for the weekend from the kiosk belonging to the settler.
16:00 A’anin Checkpoint
We arrived at 16:00 which the District Coordination and Liaison Office announced this morning was the hour the checkpoint would open. There were no soldiers or farmers waiting to cross. Perhaps they had crossed earlier. Two youths crossed through a hole in the fence next to the main gate. A group of youths from A’anin came to the hole and crossed back and forth through it. A Palestinian car arrived from the seamline zone and parents and children got out and crossed through the hole on their way to A’anin with the other group of youths going to A’anin. Perhaps they were relatives or friends.
We left at 16:15 and pondered the checkpoints with the holes in the fence nearby, the permits that people long for, and the absurd situation.
'Anin checkpoint (214)
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'Anin checkpoint (214)
'Anin checkpoint is located on the Separation Fence east of the Israeli community Mei Ami and close to the village of Anin in the West Bank. It is opened twice a week, morning and afternoon, on days with shorter light time, for Anin farmers whose olive groves have been separated from the village by the fence it became difficult to cultivate their land. Transit permits are only issued to those who can produce ownership documents for their caged-in land, and sometimes only to the head of the family or his widow, eldest son, and children. Sometimes the inheritors lose their right to tend to the family’s land. The permits are eked out and are re-issued only with difficulty. 55-year-old persons may cross the checkpoint (into Israel) without special permits. During the olive harvest season (about one month around October) the checkpoint is open daily and more transit permits are issued. Names of persons eligible to cross are held in the soldiers’ computers. In July 2007, a sweeping instruction was issued, stating that whoever does not return to the village through this checkpoint in the afternoon will be stripped of his transit permit when he shows up there next time. Since 2019, the checkpoint has not been allways locked with the seam-line zone gate (1 of 3 gates), and the fence around it has been broken in several sites.
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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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