Reihan, Shaked, Sun 17.7.11, Morning
Translation: Bracha B.A.
06:00 – Reihan Barta'a Checkpoint
The seamstresses greet us as we arrive. They are smiling and elegant as they sail off to work in Barta'a in their yellow taxicabs. Several workers follow them out. "We’ve been inside for an hour. How much longer? Until we die?" We hear shouting from inside the terminal. People are not coming out. We walked down to the Palestinian parking lot after one of the guards attempted to prevent us from doing so. A man we know says he was in the terminal for an hour. The guards urge us to move on and not talk to anyone. Nine trucks and vans are waiting to be checked. Workers are congregating at the entrance to the building.
07:00 – Shaked Tura Checkpoint
The gates are open. An archeologist is waiting for 20 workers who are working with him at the archeological site at Shahak. There are about 40 people in front of the turnstile.
At 07:06workers, a herd of goats, and a donkey arrive. The school principal arrives at 07:10. He brings a young man to the checkpoint, drops him off, and leaves. At 07:12 a Subaru arrives with two women, three children, and a driver. It passes through in 9 minutes. Cars coming from the West Bank pass through in a couple of minutes after the driver had gone through the inspection booth. Two students, a woman, and a girl pass through in 7minutes.
At 07:25 a minibus arrives with wheelbarrows on its roof. Suddenly it turns around and returns towards the West Bank. A group of workers leaves and makes room for a group of mothers with babies. It appears that they are rearranging themselves in front of the turnstile, and the minibus has turned around towards the seamline zone.
At 07:38 the archeologist walks up to the head of the checkpoint and declares, "This is idiotic. This country is shooting itself in the foot." He walks up to and peeks into the inspection booth and the soldiers follow him.
At 07:48 the minibus drives up to the checkpoint again. The driver gets up on the roof and begins to unload the packages, which look like sunshades, from underneath the wheelbarrows.
At 07:50 the archeologist’s workers begin to come out and two minutes later the minibus arrives. The driver says the soldiers are new and the archeologist claims that the policy at the checkpoint has changed since last week and they were previously able to leave by 07:30. During this time six girls and a teacher pass through on their way to a seminar in Ramallah, carrying large posters. The mother of one of the girls had to go back and retrieve the girls' ID cards and a boy who was with them collected the ID cards from the inspection room and returned them.
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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