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Reihan, Shaked, Sat 23.2.08, Morning

Place: Barta’a-Reihan Checkpoint Tura-Shaked
Observers: Sarit A-P., Rachel C. (reporting)
Feb-23-2008
| Morning
07:00 Reihan Checkpoint
In the upper parking lot , vans are waiting. A garbage truck is waiting for permission to pass. In the flag square, planters rest on wooden stands.
In place of the garbage dumpster there is a sign: "Parking for Residents of Mevo Dotan and Hermesh." We learnt: the Crossings Authority (Checkpoints) grants (free?) parking to settlers from these two places.

07:10 – the yellow gate is open. Some 50 people are standing by the pedestrian gate leading to the terminal. A cold and unpleasant morning wind.

People enter in fives. Sometimes a sixth person tries to enter and is immediately sent back. People arrive in taxis and on foot. The seamstresses did not come this morning.
A man from Kapin, who cultivates what little is left of his land, chats with us about the difficulties of maintaining an olive grove and of transfering of the crop to Yabed. And in the Seam Zone everything is more expensive. Our companion invited us to tea at Walid’s stand. He will enter the terminal later. In any case they are now waiting in the rooms. Walid is sheltering himself from the wind. He is lying between the wall of the hut and his own table. Inside the hut ate three stacks of egg trays.

07:30 – nobody by the gate. Whoever comes goes straight in. We go to meet people coming out of the terminal

At the vehicle checkpoint, three vehicles are checked in parallel. The dogs can be heard whimpering.

07:45 – people begin to come out. By 08:00 most of those we've seen earlier by the gate are out.

Traffic in the opposite direction, from the Seam Zone to the West Bank, is as on every Saturday. Festively dressed people , children and packages, students.

08:15 – we leave for Shaked. We pick up two handymen who work in Shaked.

08:30 Shaked Checkpoint

"Control Point – Shaked" – wonderful (don’t worry, it’s only a sign)!!! After two years that this sign has faced the opposite direction, we now find it lying among the weeds.
Only one wing of the gate is open at the checkpoint. Only light traffic. Somebody scattered plastic bags full of sand by the gate, perhaps to slow down the trickle of traffic? Who drives fast through there?

08:45 – we leave, back to Reihan.

At Reihan, the pedestrian traffic is light. Six cars wait to be checked. Four are being checked.

09:00 – we leave. [L]

  • 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
      View the full album
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