northern checkpoints: This is life under the occupation.
15:00 – Tibeh Romena Checkpoint
Crossing fees at the hole in the fence
On our way to the checkpoint next to the last house in Um El Fahem, we stopped next to some young people who asked what we were doing here. They explained that this was not a checkpoint, but when they understood that we were not workers trying to cross to the West Bank they left us alone. Evidently they were collecting NIS 50 form anyone attempting to cross the fence and was trying to reach Um El Fahem!
The gates of the checkpoint were closed and there were no soldiers and no farmers waiting to cross. A soldier at the District Coordination and Liaison Office said that only two people had crossed and would return in the afternoon through another checkpoint. (Did she mean through a hole in the fence?)
15:25 – A’anin Checkpoint
We arrived a bit early and saw men and women harvesting olives along the road leading to the checkpoint. M., the tractor driver, and his son were already waiting next to the gate with three other men and two women. M. reported that there was a small yield this year and complained that the checkpoint was not open at noon or on Fridays and Saturdays. The children are unable to help or to enjoy the experience of harvesting olives with the entire family. Three more people arrive with tractors and wagons carrying workers and sacks of olives. One of the wagons carried only women, including one woman wearing a veil, as well as several children.
At 15:45 the soldiers arrived on time, opened the checkpoint, and everyone crossed quickly without being checked.
16:00 – Tura – Shaked Checkpoint
A few cars crossed to the West Bank. Two men with rolled up carpets arrived in a car, got out, and approached the soldiers. The driver who brought them waited to see if they would be permitted to cross and they did.
A young man carrying a large electric saw walked to the lone house near the checkpoint. We were surprised to see Palestinians cleaning up the area of the checkpoint between the two fences. Would they also clean up outside the checkpoint near the shed where people waited?
16:20 – Reihan – Barta’a Checkpoint, Seamline Zone Side
Workers were returning in vehicles from work. It appeared that there were fewer workers than before the COVID-19 crisis began. We walked down the sleeve with them towards the turnstile through which people return to the West Bank. Next to the turnstile there was a sign in Hebrew stating that Israelis were not permitted to cross to the West bank because of Corona. The doors to the terminal were closed at this time of day. The few people who were crossing to the seamline zone have to cross through the vehicle checkpoint.
16:45 – We returned home via the city of Harish, which is being built for us by Palestinians. This is life under the occupation.
'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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Tayba-Rummana
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Tayba-Rummana is an agricultural checkpoint. It is located in the separation fence in front of the eastern slopes of the Israeli city of Umm al-Fahm. The Palestinian villages next to the checkpoint are Khirbet Tayba and Rummana. Dozens of dunams of olive groves were removed from their owners, the residents of these villages on the western side of the separation fence. The Palestinian villages next to the checkpoint are Khirbet Tayba and Rumna. Dozens of olives dunams were removed from these villages' residents and swallowed up in a narrow strip of space, on the western side of the separation fence. The checkpoint allows the plantation owners who have permits to pass. Twice a week, the checkpoint opens for fifteen minutes in the morning and evening. During the harvest season, it opens every day for fifteen minutes in the morning (around 0630) and fifteen minutes in the afternoon (around 1530). (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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