Mevo Dotan (Imriha), Reihan, Shaked, Thu 5.7.12, Morning
Translator: Charles K.
A’anin checkpoint 06:10-06:30
This checkpoint, installed in the separation fence, opens twice a week for a limited number of residents and farmers from the village of A’anin who have been cut off from their lands by the fence. They cross with “agricultural” permits, while others succeeded in obtaining “employment” permits that allow them to work in the seam zone until 15:30, when they return. If they don’t come back in time and in the same day they’ll be considered illegally present in Israel and will lose their crossing permit.
M
azal Tov! Shafik’s jennet gave birth to a cute foal.
People on foot and tractors with permits flow through unusually quickly. One of those crossing this morning gave the soldiers at the checkpoint a “good” grade. Children cross with their fathers; one said that today his son was allowed to accompany him on his employment permit; last time the soldiers who refused to let his son to cross, told him he needed an agricultural permit for his son to cross with him.
Another father, crossing with three children, asked us for advice – his wife hasn’t received an agricultural permit for a long time – what can he do? We gave him the appropriate phone numbers.
Reihan-Barta’a checkpoint 06:45-07:15
This is the main checkpoint in the northwestern West Bank, with a large terminal, biometric identification stations (finger- and palm print), scanners and a number of document inspection booths. There’s also a large installation to examine truck loads. The IDF provides security and a private civilian security company manages the crossing. The place is well-kept, ostentatiously decorated in poor taste with an apparently unlimited budget.
The crossing flows smoothly at this hour, primarily from the West Bank to jobs in eastern Barta’a which is enclosed by the seam zone.
Hadi (aged 20), a genial guy who every morning opens a coffee and candy stand in the shed, collects garbage that has accumulated on the ground. He’s placed two shabby sofas and two shaky tables covered with table cloths next to his stand, energetically and cheerfully. Behind all this is a sad story. Half a year ago his father was badly injured in an accident and both his legs were paralyzed. Hadi, the eldest, was called on to take his place as the family’s breadwinner. Until then he’d worked in Israel, in Haifa, washing dishes in a restaurant and was satisfied. Here, on a good day, he makes NIS 100. Next year, God willing, he’ll marry his Israeli sweetheart and will continue to support his parents and brothers forever. We suggest he open a shop to sell second-hand clothing in Yabed (where he lives), and we’ll provide him with merchandise. He wasn’t enthusiastic about the idea, said he’d think about it.
Dothan-Yabed checkpoint 07:20-07:45
A checkpoint with a guard tower manned part of the day at the junction of Mavo Dothan and the road to Jenin. Most of the traffic it oversees is from the West Bank toward the seam zone, and back. The soldiers say that children sometimes throw here Molotov cocktails at them.
Vehicles traveling east to Jenin aren’t inspected, those in the opposite direction toward the Reihan checkpoint are stopped and drivers show documents. A taxi driver is detained for 15 minutes until they finish the phone calls about his situation.
Reihan checkpoint 07:50
Four loaded trucks wait to be inspected. A truck carrying two calves. A truck with two carts in tow, which crossed through Dothan/Yabed c.p without being inspected, is checked here carefully. Israeli license plates.
We forgot to observe the Shaked checkpoint…we were already on the way home when the penny dropped 🙂
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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