Mevo Dotan (Imriha), Reihan, Shaked, Tue 28.12.10, Morning
Translator: Charles K.
06:00 Reihan checkpoint
The usual workers from the Shaked industrial area wait for their ride to work, others flow from the terminal to the upper parking lot where taxis await them. The area is full of life at this hour.
At the lower parking lot on the Palestinian side, taxis carrying passengers – most of them workers on their way to east Barta’a – come and go. T, the driver, arrives in a gleaming white car, proud of his recent acquisition: a 1983, but “drives like a dream.” He tells us about the new regulations on Palestinian roads – fines for speeding, for not wearing seatbelts, for talking on the phone while driving. The Palestinian Authority is making a lot of money from traffic violations. Two pickup trucks with agricultural produce wait for inspection; it will be conducted later.
06:40 Mavo Dothan checkpoint
On the way we pass Imreiha, the Bedouin village, and learn it contains three families, the largest of which is Abu Abed. Another is Turkman, some of whose members are taxi drivers at the Reihan checkpoint. Next to the Hermesh checkpoint, which is usually open, there’s a settlement of a small branch of the Turkman family which lives separately. Perhaps a village, perhaps just a Palestinian outpost.
We see dozens of school children on the road, on their way to the school in Yabed. They seldom come into contact with Jews, which may be why they respond to us hesitatingly.
The Dothan checkpoint is manned, but cars aren’t being allowed through yet. Supplies have come for the soldiers; the Palestinians wait from both directions until everything is unloaded from the army trucks to the building. The crossing is open day and night but is manned only part of the time, according to orders from higher up and specific circumstances.
07:30 Shaked (Tura) checkpoint (open, as of now, from 06:00 to 09:00)
The young pupils already crossed on their way to Tura from the seam zone – there are two mixed schools there (boys and girls together) – an elementary school with a kindergarten and a high school. Not like Yabed, where boys and girls learn separately. The teachers are now on their way to the seam zone. Those coming through the building report they had to wait a long time. We follow a group coming in our direction. People on their way to school wait 25 minutes. They tell us that the soldier in the building isn’t very adept and works slowly.
A mother arrives with her two daughters, who are younger than 16, without IDs, and it takes a long time to see whether they’re allowed to cross with their mother. Since the change in DCO staff we haven’t seen a DCO representative at the Tura checkpoint.
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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