Northern checkpoint: Why have I been going to the checkpoints for 17 years?
Ramadan 2019
I woke up very early before dawn to a familiar thought: Why have I been going to the checkpoints for 17 years? I know exactly what I will see there: barbed wire fences, electronic gates, supervision facilities with or without beeping warning lights, bored and apathetic soldiers and security guards, the third generation of the only army in the world required to constantly harass the civilian Palestinian population who are occupied and have no civilian or human rights whatsoever. If they are asked, they don’t believe they are harassing anyone. This is the extent to which the army deliberately isolates them from information or understanding so that they will be able to carry out their “job” like robots. It is an extremely limited algorithm.
However, I got up and drove to the gas station at Arara, where I met Neta and we drove to Barta’a Checkpoint. At 06:00 AM, which is usually a very busy hour, there were a few people and groups going quickly into the new inspection facility that leads to the terminal. There was no crowding or waiting line. This was not because the workers from the Ministry of Security were working more quickly, but rather because many Palestinians have had their work permits taken away and because many have been sent to other checkpoints to cross into Israel or into Area C. What about the millions [of Shekels] that were invested in this major checkpoint?
We met a Palestinian at the checkpoint who related his story. He was picking hyssop in a field in the West Bank for his own use when he has the misfortune of meeting a Jewish inspector from the Nature Preservation Society. He had a bag of dried hyssop. He had never heard that it was forbidden to pick hyssop: his ancestors who have lived in the same village near Nablus had been doing so for hundreds of years at the end of spring. His punishment was that the bag of hyssop was confiscated, his car was impounded, and he had to pay a fine of NIS 3000. He has to stand trial for this serious crime, and until than his car will not be returned. He will then have to pay thousands of Shekels to get his car back and pay the attorney that he was forced to hire. He has a 16-year-old son who must undergo dialysis three times a week at the hospital in Jenin. He must now take his son in a taxi because he is unable to walk. Each trip costs him NIS 150. We gave him money from an emergency fund that was donated by Jewish friends.
From Barta’a we drove quickly to A’anin Agricultural Checkpoint where farmers who have been cut off from their fields by the separation barrier cross from the village of A’anin to their fields. The checkpoint is only open two days a week. We arrived on time. The soldiers also arrived on time, but took their time listening to music and waited 20 minutes, after which they finally opened the gate. A woman soldier said they were waiting from a representative from the District Coordination and Liaison, who did not arrive. About 20 people and one tractor crossed to the seamline zone. These 30 people are among the few lucky ones who obtained permits. Five or six people were sent home because they were dressed too nicely. Why? Because people who have permits to cross at an agricultural checkpoint should not be dressed in clean clothes. They must be headed for some coffee house or to blow up Tel Aviv. This excuse is now being used again by the soldiers as a pretense of security. You can relax, Tel Aviv, because “terrorists” from A’anin Checkpoint did not cross today. There are clothes scattered around the checkpoint that were brought by members of Machsom Watch for the people in the village. People accuse each other of throwing the clothes away, but nevertheless continue to ask us to bring them.
Before the crossing at A’anin Checkpoint ended we drove to Tibeh Romene Checkpoint, another agricultural checkpoint located on the separation barrier east of Um al Fahem. About 25 people and one tractor crossed. The bakery in Um al Fahem was closed because of Ramadan, so unfortunately we had to return home without pita with hyssop and coffee.
'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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Tayba-Rummana
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Tayba-Rummana is an agricultural checkpoint. It is located in the separation fence in front of the eastern slopes of the Israeli city of Umm al-Fahm. The Palestinian villages next to the checkpoint are Khirbet Tayba and Rummana. Dozens of dunams of olive groves were removed from their owners, the residents of these villages on the western side of the separation fence. The Palestinian villages next to the checkpoint are Khirbet Tayba and Rumna. Dozens of olives dunams were removed from these villages' residents and swallowed up in a narrow strip of space, on the western side of the separation fence. The checkpoint allows the plantation owners who have permits to pass. Twice a week, the checkpoint opens for fifteen minutes in the morning and evening. During the harvest season, it opens every day for fifteen minutes in the morning (around 0630) and fifteen minutes in the afternoon (around 1530). (February 2020).
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