Reihan, Shaked, Sat 3.1.09, Morning
Translator: Bracha Ben-AvrahamReihan Checkpoint: 06:55
The upper parking lot is empty. The dogs are barking. Four cars are waiting on the other side of the gate on the road.
07:05: A loudspeaker announces: “Good morning. Passage may begin.”
07:10: The gate to the road rattles and opens. We are forbidden to walk through. “Only with your car! It was always that way, how long have you been here? You’re new, eh??” The speaker refused to identify himself. “I’m a security guard here and I’m not sure that I’m permitted to give you my name.”
We got the message. We gave up going down to the lower parking area (we observed it from the sleeve), and we met people going in and out at the upper entrance to the terminal. After about 10 minutes people began to come out. One of the seamstresses said that her palm print examination had “not worked” and she was told that that she could not pass through unless she was checked at the District Coordination Office (DCO) at Salem. There is no problem with her palm print at Salem. She shows us a new card and talks about the expense of traveling to Salem each week. Some of the seamstresses are waiting for their friends. They are not dressed warmly enough for such a cold day. Two of them sound as if they have a severe hearing disability. All of us try to hold a conversation with the small amount that we spoke of each other’s languages. A man from Kfar Kara is permitted to accompany his daughter who is carrying a lot of suitcases to the lower parking lot. The daughter is leaving for a week of exams in the American University near Jenin.
07:45 The last seamstresses are leaving. There is a long line in front of the window, and another window opens. At 08:00 the partition opens and a third window opens. At about 08:10 all the windows close except one.
We were pleased to meet W. He came out with two friends, each of whom was carrying a jug of olive oil (Is that another way they make a living?) It appeared that he was also pleased to see us. He looks good and is well-dressed. At 08:00 three children with knapsacks arrived from A’anin and want to go through. Someone from A’anin came out of the terminal who knows them and agreed to call one of their parents. We understood that the father was not pleased at the announcement. The children consented to enter the terminal and waited a bit. A security guard arrived and let them out. The examiner at the window did not look pleased at the arrangement.
Three transits were waiting in the tent at the upper parking lot. The dogs checked and sniffed the three vehicles, while four others waited on the road for their turn.
Shaked Checkpoint – 08:40
Very little traffic.
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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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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