Northern checkpoints: Steal land and prevent passage
06:35 – We arrived at the old Barta’a Checkpoint from the direction of Harish.
There were three luxurious transport vehicles parked next to the embankment. Several people arrived from the West Bank through the hole in the fence. No one stopped them and the drivers waved to us.
At 06:45 we drove past the separation fence near the Palestinian village of Qeiqis. An improvised parking lot has developed near the village for people coming into Israel and the seamline zone from the West Bank who don’t wish to cross through the checkpoints. There were lots of cars parked on the side of the road and many people walking around. At the head of the line were two cars from the Samaria Regional Council. We got out to observe what was going on and a policeman ordered us to leave because we were interfering with traffic on the road. They are giving fines to everyone who is interfering with traffic – i.e., anyone who stops here. We didn’t manage to talk with the many drivers and workers who were gathered there, indeed in conditions that were unsafe.
A man named A. from Yaabed approached us in the northern parking lot of Reihan – Barta’a Checkpoint. He owns an olive grove that is located on the hill near the new road that the I.D.F. has paved to the settlement of Maoz Zvi and Mevo Dotan B. We were pleased to meet him because we have not yet learned how this new road has hindered the farmers of Yaabed. A. explained that he has a good relationship with people in the first settlement of Mevo Dotan, but the settlers from Maoz Zvi harass him and behave violently towards him.
“The chaos began last year,” he explained. He has difficulty making his way to his olive grove and asks that the army move the gate that the army installed (to which the settlers have the key) at least one kilometer away so that he can plow his land and prune his olive trees.
We hurried to Tura – Shaked checkpoint and arrived there at 07:20. It was quiet and there was little traffic. There sun was low in the sky and blinded us, and I fell down. Two soldiers came immediately and asked if I needed a medic to come. There was no need and nothing was broken but I had several bruises. We recuperated over a cup of coffee in Harish and returned to the traffic jam going north on Route 6.
Barta'a (old agricultural gate)
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Barta'a (old agricultural gate)
On the road from Barta'a to the West Bank.
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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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