Mevo Dotan (Imriha), Reihan, Shaked, Tue 8.3.11, Morning
Translator: Charles K.
07:00 Shaked – Tura checkpoint
Soldiers are opening the checkpoint gates on both sides. About 15 people, on the West Bank side, wait at the revolving gate leading to the inspection building. Taxis and students going to Jenin and to schools in the area wait on the seam zone side. Cars drive to the middle of the checkpoint, the drivers get out and go over to the inspection building, return to the vehicles, open the hood, lift things, move things, show the soldiers they’re not hiding anything in their clothing, and then continue on their way. Or not.
The lines on both sides of the inspection building get longer. The soldiers say that the computer within is stuck. The Palestinians say that the same thing happened yesterday afternoon and delayed their crossing for half an hour. Pupils walk along a muddy path to the end of the concrete barriers, open their bags, the soldier looks in and sends them on. Everything is automatic, with no orders or explanations. Everyone knows what to do.
Dahar el Malak, the locality near the checkpoint, hasn’t yet been connected to the electric grid. The residents wait’and in the meantime continue to use charcoal for heating and cooking. The nearby settlements – Heinanit, Shaked, Tel Menashe and Reihan, established on stolen land, are definitely connected. Even residents of the solitary house located between the fences had their electricity disconnected recently; they don’t know why.
We met a family member who said that the inhabitants of Dahar el Malak hired a lawyer to demand an extension of the Tura checkpoint’s hours of operation. They say people can’t return from work and from errands before it closes at 7 PM, particularly those who work in banks and offices.
Barta’a-Reihan checkpoint
We cross the Reihan checkpoint through the VIP lane. The car in front of us has the appropriate license plate and, like us, continues without inspection. In the adjoining lane: a Palestine taxi and all its passengers – residents of Palestine – stand outside their vehicle in the cold until the Occupation representative does them the favor of permitting them to continue in their own country. Everything operates according the to Occupation laws. Politely, quietly, “no problems.” We’re almost done. Everything’s OK! Thanks, have a good trip. The occupation routine – silent, bleeding.
People arrive at the checkpoint and are immediately swallowed up in the terminal. Later they pass through the upper fenced corridor and come out on the seam zone side. At this hour, the Palestinian parking lot isn’t full yet. A few pickup trucks with produce from the West Bank are being inspected, four more wait on the road. Drivers tell us about delays for no reason at the Dothan checkpoint, about the soldiers’ rudeness and power games with drivers and people on foot.
08:30 – 08:50 Dothan checkpoint
Goats and cows graze by the roadside, everything green and clean. Pupils walk to school in Yabed. Bedouin women in black dresses pass by, on foot or riding donkeys. They wave to us.
A number of cars at the checkpoint, on both sides. Traffic flows without delays. On our way back to the car the soldiers, worried about us being in danger, suggest we remain in the car and watch from there. They remind us of the man who was shot a few weeks ago after threatening the soldiers with a weapon. We thank them and leave.
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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