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Mevo Dotan (Imriha), Reihan, Shaked, Sun 15.1.12, Afternoon

Place: Barta’a-Reihan Checkpoint Tura-Shaked Ya'bed-Dotan
Tags: Children Detainees Soldiers at checkpoints
Observers: Ruthi T., Yochi A., (Reporting)
Jan-15-2012
| Afternoon

 

Translation: Bracha B.A.
 
15:10 – Shaked-Tura Checkpoint
Two soldiers approached us and told us not to get any closer to the checkpoint. There is little traffic. A few people cross from the West Bank to the seamline zone: one with a bag of pita bread, a student with a book, and three men are carrying new chairs. A heavy military vehicle with a shovel crosses the checkpoint and returns with a shovel full of good black earth. When we looked for it later we saw that at the checkpoint they are preparing a garden. A tractor loaded with plastic strips crosses to the West Bank with almost no inspection. The driver goes through the inspection facility.
 
We left at 15:40.
 
15:50 – Reihan Barta'a Checkpoint
There is a new bucket hanging above the well at the entrance which is very decorative. 12 trucks are waiting to be checked.
We continued towards the Dotan Checkpoint. The charcoal factories in the area are not working and there is no smoke and no smell. (There was an order given to close the charcoal factories.) A soldier informs us that the charcoal factories were closed because of the carcinogenic materials they were exuding and because the trees being used were stolen. We remind him that many families had been earning their living for hundreds of years from the work in the charcoal factories and now have no jobs. We asked him how he felt about that and his reply was, "very good."
16:15 – Dotan Checkpoint – the checkpoint is manned and cars are undergoing a quick inspection. There is a brief exchange with the drivers and a quick peep inside each car. On back at the exit from the Barta'a checkpoint we are delayed for a long time. The clerk confers with someone on the phone. Finally she checks the trunk of the car and lets us through. At 16:20 an armed guard leaves the inspection facility, walks into the middle of the road, and looks at the workers coming back. Four cars leave the inspection facility. Two are driven by women.
There are a lot of people going into the sleeve. Workers are being dropped off by Israeli and Palestinian employers. Two windows are open in the terminal and people are going through quickly. A woman who speaks Hebrew with an Israeli passport crosses from the West Bank to her home in West Barta'a (on the Israeli side) with her three children. She is waiting for her husband who is still being checked. Everyone speaks Hebrew. She is a little nervous and explains that this is the first time she has going through the checkpoint. There is one detainee sitting on the bench.
We left at 17:00.

  • 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).

  • 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)
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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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