Occupation routine: overcrowding, late opening, long queues
We gladly welcomed Irit, a new volunteer who is joining us
0600 – 0830
At Barta’a Checkpoing there was the usual morning crowd of workers who had exited the terminal and were waiting for their rides to work in Israel and the seamline zone.
In the lower Palestinian parking lot at the entrance to the terminal the line was growing longer because the turnstiles were not working and the terminal was full. By the time we left the line had diminished.
Tibeh Romena Agricultural Checkpoint (Gate 154) – The checkpoint opened a half hour late at 07:00. The woman officer told us that they had arrived late because they had been busy with the fire at Kfar Mokaibleh (in Israel).
A’anin Agricultural Checkpoint (Gate 214) The checkpoint opened at 07:00 but we were not there in time to see the checkpoint open.
Tura Checkpoint opened late at 07:00, and there were only a few people crossing.
Amira Hass wrote some very bad news about the future of A’anin Checkpoint in Haaretz today. A’anin is an agricultural checkpoint that opens twice a week so that people can get to their olive groves on the other side of the separation barrier. In the past before the barrier was built in 2006 farmers were able to grow vegetables for home consumption in the groves. Today the separation barrier prevents them from keeping invading herds of cows from the village of Ein Salah, and they can no longer grow vegetables. The army discovered by areal photography that the farmers were not growing vegetables any more or going to their fields and consequently decided that if the farmers were only growing olives, they need to get to their fields only twice a year to plow and harvest, and the checkpoint will now open only twice a year. This is a harsh blow to the farmers, who are now being deprived of their right to tend their land. This is harassment. The farmers appealed to the High Court in 2022 to attempt to keep the checkpoint open, but the chances of changing the decision are slim.
There is no limit to evil and cruelty.
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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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)
Ruti TuvalMar-21-2022Anin Checkpoint: A magnificent breach in the center of the checkpoint
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