Northern checkpoints: The hallucinatory dimension of the occupation
06:00 East Barta’a Junction on road 611
No trace of the action that went on here a few months ago. Less and less workers congregate here for many of them wait for their transport to worksites along road 611 after having crossed the holes in the Separation Fence. While driving this road one can see several West Bank villages (Daher Al Abed, Laksur) whose back yards have turned into car-parks for those coming from the West Bank to work inside Israel. A week ago, our friend Hanna reported that Border Policemen detained several Palestinians who crossed a whole in the fence around here and released them with a reprimand. The entire checkpoint project collapses vis a vis the holes in the fence and the occupation gets another surreal, shocking, crazy dimension – as you wish. An extra bit along the way, words written on an Israel flag without David’s Star: No one but HIM…
06:30 Toura-Shaked Checkpoint
A small checkpoint, filled with enforcement, surveillance and directing mechanisms. This is opening time but no soldiers are to be seen. On the Palestinian side at elalst one car waits. The checkpoint compound is locked with a metal gate and yellow chain, fomr and behind the locked gate a green eye peeps and never blinks. No one crosses now. Whoever wants and needs to do so crosses whenever he wishes and has to, through the nearby hole about 100 meters from the checkpoint.
06:45 Anin checkpoint
This checkpoint has three gates and a large hole. One on the Seam Zone side, another on the Area A side, both wide open – for years no one has bothered to lock them. The middle gate is hand-locked with a heavy lock that has undergone various security designs and now looks somewhat sophisticated, but it is not. About 2 months ago it was sawed and the gate was opened wide to pass stolen vehicles from Israel into the West Bank. That’s the rumor. In order to make crossing more difficult for the stolen vehicles, obstacles were produced: a large hole was dug and filled with dirt by the side of the checkpoint, but the hole was not touched. Finally heavy yellow metal rods were stuck in the ground, to block vehicular passage. The checkpoint is opened twice a week for two tractors (usually one), and the soldiers come and for their sake move one of the blocking posts. Apparently, there is no problem imitating this act. For months we have seen no pedestrians at the checkpoint. They cross when soldiers are not there.
07:20 Dotan and Yaabad checkpoint
Autumny weather, touching landscape. At this checkpoint nothing really happens, it would seem. Last week on the news we heard that the Israeli army chased suspects of hostile activity in the region. When we came we saw no soldiers at all. When we left, an army vehicle arrived, perhaps bringing soldiers.
'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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East Barta'a Junction
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East Barta'a Junction
The main station at the eastern Barta'a junction (Roads 611/6115).
A junction without special activities became about April 2020 a bustling center of transportation to workplaces in Israel, following the free passage through loopholes in the nearby separation fence.
Palestinian workers from all over the West Bank gather here every morning, without transit permits and often without masks. The army is turning a blind eye and the occupation is losing control.
There is also no shortage of coffee and pastry stalls.
Hagar DrorSep-26-2023Barta'a: rapid construction of the separation fence
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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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