Northern checkpoints: Because of the intense heat people leave earlier for work and return earlier as well.
15:15 Hersmesh and Ya’abad Checkpoints
We crossed Barta’a Checkpoints on our way to Hermesh checkpoint. A car with an Israeli license plate was ahead of us, with Arab citizens of Israel inside. Generally there are many more Israeli cars crossing over into Area A. The checkpoint is unmanned. Some cars cross unhampered. We drive to Ya’abad Checkpoint and see the same there. We do not see soldiers at the checkpoint, only Paratrooper unit banners at every post on the way as well as the checkpoint. Some infrastructure works are carried out near the checkpoint.
15:45 Barta’a Checkpoint
We disembarked on the Palestinian side, filled with workers and vehicles. We had the feeling that because of the intense heat people leave earlier for work and return earlier as well.
We are approached again with the request to arrange for a shade to be put up for people waiting for their transport vehicles. Some months ago we approached the director of this checkpoint and now promised to do so again. As if by plan, we ran into R. as we were leaving the checkpoint, and asked him again to look into this.
16:10 Toura-Shaked Checkpoint
The checkpoint was very quiet, as usual. There is no dumpster and all the trash is scattered around. This too is the normal situation here. We met a man from Dahr al Malih who is being bureaucratically harassed. He lives here in the village. His mother, resident of Ya’abad, is ill with cancer and he must stay with her and take care of her. Because he stays overnight in Ya’abad he was denied permission to go back and live in his home in Dahr al Malih. He has to rent a flat in Ya’abad, even though he lacks the resources for this. Lately the permit to go back to his village was returned for a few months, but he is fearful of the future. We gave him the phone number of the Centre for the Defense of the Individual, took him home and left.
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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Hermesh
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Hermesh
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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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