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Reihan, Shaked, Sat 11.10.08, Morning

Observers: Noa L. and Ruthy T.
Oct-11-2008
| Morning

Translation: Devorah K.


7:30 Shaked-Tura CP

The CP is an unusual sight on Saturday morning. Many people are crowded near the turnstile and many more cars than usual are waiting near the gate. J. from Tura, whose olive groves are on the other side of the fence, greets us with the following monolog: "Today, there are new soldiers. They don't know anything. They do things as if we are in kindergarten and the many workers in the queue are actually fighting with one another, while the soldiers look on and do not do anything. Things are in disorder, nothing is working. Yesterday a soldier cursed me. I complained to the officer. He is here today, too, the one with the beard."

We talked to the bearded sergeant, who remembered J.'s complaint. The sergeant said that the soldier did yell and that he told him that this was unacceptable. His interest is for the people to go through the CP calmly. A driver, the owner of a new pickup truck, is sent back to where he came from. The vehicle "does not come up on the computer". People claim that the special permits for the whole family to go out for olive-picking have still not arrived. This is a matter that we must find out about. At 7:45, most of the workers have left and the crowd at the exit gate to the seamline zone has disappeared. At 8:00 two people arrive and go through quickly in the direction of the West Bank.

8:10 Reihan-Barta'a CP
Many people go up the sleeve from the terminal in the direction of the seamline zone. One claims that it took him more than an hour to go through. In the inspection shed, there are four cars. Two windows are in operation at the entrance to the terminal. A worker who comes out on the way to work asks for our help. On Wednesday, he forgot a bag with clothes on the x-ray machine. We ask for the person in charge to help him and the worker comes out smiling within a few minutes – he has found it. The people coming out now report that the passage takes about ten minutes. Somebody with computer equipment is waiting near the post. The guard who is posted above the heads of the people (only his voice is heard) is interested and expresses admiration for the man's vocation and his place of work. They have a lively conversation. Definitely an unusual sight in the area of the turnstile…..
At 8:35 a passenger car arrives at the CP from the seamline zone: the driver and three women get out of the car. They go through in exactly six minutes. At 8:38 the four cars that we saw in the inspection shed when we arrived, leave. At 8:40 five passenger cars enter for inspection; they are not in the shed that we can see, but in the compound at the back that usually serves for the inspection of pickup trucks with goods.
At 8:45 a group of women and children and an old man with a limp in a white cape, arrive at the entrance gate on the side of the West Bank. They are seen in the exit sleeve in 17 minutes. The five cars that entered for inspection at 8:40 leave at 9:05. From the direction of the entrance gate to the terminal we hear the loud voice of the CP woman: "Don't do that again! And one by one!"
A peaceful Sabbath to you!
  • 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).

  • 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)
      מחסום עאנין:  פרצה מפוארת במרכז המחסום
      Mar-21-2022
      Anin Checkpoint: A magnificent breach in the center of the checkpoint
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