Northern checkpoints: The stranglehold continues – shorter hours, fewer permits
15:05 – Agricultural Checkpoint, Anin
We arrived early and, until the checkpoint opened, spoke with those waiting. They told us that since opening hours were shortened (from 30 to 20 minutes), not everyone managed to arrive in time to pass through, and that “there is no one to turn to.” Likewise, they told that the authorities did not renew many permits, and, indeed, we met only 12 people, as well as two tractors, waiting to go back. One of the people told us about a member of his family, a resident of Anin, age 70, who is able to pass through with no permit (a privilege of his age). However, one day he left through Anin Checkpoint and returned early through the Barta’a checkpoint because he didn’t feel well. Since then they don’t let him go through Anin Checkpoint.
The soldiers are late, arriving at 15:20, and opening the checkpoint only at 15:25. People go through one by one. The checkpoint is closed at 15:35.
15:40 – Tura “Fabric of Life” Checkpoint
A row of green garbage bags decorate the road. The checkpoint is quiet. One woman, who comes from Jenin, passes through and waits for a vehicle to pick her up. On the West Bank side, cars are waiting. A worker returns from the seamline enclave and is swallowed up in the checkpoint. Next to the turnstile, at the entrance from the West Bank, people who do not enter the inspection room are crowded together. It appears that the checkpoint is not working. We asked one of the soldiers what was happening. He tells us that the inspection machine is broken and that “because a Jewish technician is coming to fix it, we cannot possibly endanger him. In the meantime, we are not allowing entry to the inspection room to anyone.”
We left at 16:00 and the checkpoint was still not functioning.
16:10 – Barta’a Checkpoint
We observe the routine of the checkpoint: Groups of construction workers arrive and go down into the sleeve (the enclosed passage to and from the checkpoint). The workers greet us with big smiles, individuals stop at the kiosk and buy cookies fresh from the oven. Everyone has already become accustomed to this terrible condition.
'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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