Northern Checkpoint: 50 kilograms of olives on the back
15:30 – Tura Shaked “Fabric of Life” Checkpoint
The checkpoint is quiet. Three soldiers are talking at the lookout position. A car approaches the stoplight and a woman soldier goes down, inspects it quickly, and lets it pass. Three people are waiting for a ride and don’t need to ride with us.
15:45 – A’anin Agricultural Checkpoint
The soldiers opened the checkpoint promptly on time. About 25 people are waiting at the gate that was only open a crack between its two sections. When we asked we were told that the people had decided to wait in line today in order to avoid disorder. Afterwards we understood why: they were called one by one to have their documents and belongings checked. One person remarked sardonically: “You would think that we are going to Tel Aviv! We are going back to our village!”
By 16:15 the slow routine of one by one is wearing on the patience of the people who are waiting and disorder begins next to the gate. A man and a teenager approach the soldiers together. The soldier shouts at the youth to get away, and the man explains that the teenager is his son but the soldier is not convinced so quickly. A resident of Tibeh, a village between A’anin and Romana, asks to cross at the checkpoint, but is refused. He has a permit to work in Israel.
At 16:40 the only tractor driver loses patience and begins to drive towards the checkpoint. The soldier shouts to him, “You can cross, but everybody else get back.” At 16:48 there were still six people waiting at the gate. We tried to talk to the soldiers. At Barta’a and Jalameh people return home without being checked. “So what if they are on their way home? They could come back with weapons or explosives to use against our soldiers,” the soldier answered. A friendly lieutenant explains: “I can’t use my own judgment. They are forbidden to cross here and that’s it.”
At 16:55 we left and drove to Barta’a Checkpoint with two people who were not permitted to cross at A’anin who had permits to cross into Israel.
17:10 – Barta’a Checkpoint, Palestinian Side
As usual the parking lot was completely full. A lot of workers, most of whom are construction workers at Harish who left for work before dawn, are returning home at sunset. At least they are earning a living. Elijah, who works with Sylvia, is recognized as someone who understands the ancient rich mother tongue of 110 million people who live in the East and helps in matters of work permits, is immediately surrounded by people who need her help. Stories of attorneys who are hired and do nothing are shocking. We drank coffee and sachleb and insisted on paying. At 17:50 we left to drive through rush hour traffic.
'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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