Northern Checkpoints, Barta’a: A gate blocking a major road was opened after years.
14:45 – Tura Shaked Checkpoint
The checkpoint was quiet and dirty as usual. Four young people crossed to the seamline zone. One of them walked towards the lone house outside the village of Tura near the settlement of Shaked. Two women arrived and waited under the shelter. One of them was carrying a child. They refused our offer of a ride. Evidently they were waiting for someone to give them a ride.
15:15 – A’anin Checkpoint
We arrived at the checkpoint just before the military police. There was only one tractor driver and his 12-year-old son and eight men waiting to cross. The tractor driver M. whom we know explained that some people who have a crossing permit prefer to cross to the seamline zone as Barta’a Checkpoint rather than here. The first person crossed at 15:25 and the rest of the people and three army vehicles crossed within a few minutes. One vehicle stopped and a woman soldier asked how we were doing and we wished each other a happy new year. The checkpoint closed at 15:35.
15:45 – A surprise on the bridge
We drove past Reihan-Barta’a Checkpoint where many people were already returning home from work. We continued south on road 596 where there was a surprise on the bridge on the road to Zabda. The western side that had been blocked with concrete blocks for years, was open! The concrete blocks had been moved and there was a steel gate in their place that was now open. It was now possible to drive on road 6115 westward to Dahar el Abed and to Kafin. The red sign warning not to enter and that this is Area A that belongs to the Palestinian Authority was partially erased. We asked one of the drivers when the road had been opened but he didn’t know. “It was opened suddenly.” The steel gate blocking the entrance to Zibda was closed. The gate to the shortcut to Yaabed was open but these were false hopes.
16:05 – Yaabed Dotan Checkpoint
The checkpoint was not manned. Traffic was moving between the concrete blocks that forced drivers to go slowly. There was a sign next to the checkpoint with a greeting wishing the residents of Samaria a happy new year as part of the elections for the regional authorities.
16:15 – Barta’a Reihan Checkpoint
There were a lot of cars and people. Crossing to the West Bank took place through the new metal crossing and looked horrible. One of the Palestinian security guards was standing inside holding a club and keeping order. Two men were selling snacks outside the shed and two boys aged about 8 and 10 were selling coffee in little paper cups for a Shekel.
16:30 – On our way to our car one of the people who worked in construction in the city of Harish in Israel told us that when he only had a permit for Barta’a which is in the seamline zone. He was caught and his permit for Barta’a was confiscated. We gave him Sylvia’s phone number in hopes that her team would be able to help him with the bureaucracy in arranging for his permit to be renewed.
'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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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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