Reihan, Shaked, Sun 21.2.10, Afternoon
Translation: Bracha B.A.
Shaked-Tura Checkpoint 15:10
Six soldiers are chatting leisurely at the checkpoint. Two cars arrive from the West Bank and the passengers and drivers enter the inspection booth. All come out within 10 minutes. A car also arrives from the seamline zone and passes through quickly. A few people pass through in both directions without delay. The area around the checkpoint is clean because the shepherds are concerned that the goats will eat plastic bags and have cleaned up the area.
Reihan Checkpoint 15:45
The upper parking lot is quiet. Occasionally a vehicle comes and drops off men and women workers from Barta'a who descend through the sleeve to the terminal. Two vehicles pass through the vehicle checkpoint towards the West bank. The passengers put their magnetic cards through the machine and drive through within five minutes. The children stop to play in the playground at the checkpoint. Three cars from the west Bank are stopped in front of the vehicle checkpoint for 10 minutes and are checked in the closed facility for more than 20 minutes. There is moderate pedestrian traffic to and from the terminal.
16:00 – The lower parking lot is filled with private cars, taxis, and commercial vehicles and it is difficult to drive through. Vans loaded with agricultural goods are also there trying to secure passage through the checkpoint the next morning and are having trouble finding a place to park. People coming out of the terminal report that they came through quickly.
16:15 – We descended through the sleeve through an increasing crowd of workers who came in through Irtah in the morning. They reported that this was the second day in a row that the checkpoint there opened at 04:00 and all 8 inspection booths were operating.
There are now 20 people waiting outside the terminal and they are being let in in groups of five. Inside the terminal there is only one window open. There are four people who were in Israel illegally who are being detained waiting to be taken care of.
There is a shift change in the inspection booths at 16:35. People begin to pass through from the West Bank and therefore no one is admitted going back to the West Bank. There is now a line of 100 people waiting outside, including women with babies. It becomes more crowded and congested in front of the turnstile.
At 16:40 another window opens, but the flow of workers coming in continues and only five people are let in each time, so the line outside is still long. The congestion and commotion continues. We spoke with Sharon, the person in charge of security, and asked them to let more people into the terminal at once to relieve the congestion in front of the turnstile. The phone call did not help. Sharon thinks that the people have to learn to wait in line in an orderly manner. Six people returning from Jenin manage to squeeze through the turnstile with difficulty.
At 16:55 one of the workers begins to direct traffic in front of the turnstile and the commotion dies down a bit. Amir, another security guard comes out to help. We left, hoping that things would quiet down. . .
Barta’a-Reihan Checkpoint
See all reports for this place-
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
See all reports for this place-
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
-
