Reihan, Shaked, Sun 24.5.09, Morning
Translation: Bracha B.A.
6:00 Reihan Barta’a Checkpoint
About 15 people are waiting for rides in the upper parking lot. Vegetables wrapped in blue plastic are visible in the new inspection facility. One tender is waiting at the document checkpoint (the old inspection site). Until 06:05 there is constant traffic of workers from the terminal going towards the seamline zone. Between 6:05 to 06:13 no one comes out. Two young women are sitting in the only inspection booth that is in operation, and one is teaching the other the secrets of their profession. From 6:16 to 6:20 10 people pass through. At 6:25 a large group of young women comes out. At 06:30 they are picked up at 06:30 in a white van coming from the seamline zone. There is a lot of traffic around the new inspection facility. It appears that it is now running and being tested. A new garden is also being planted next to it. There are 4 trucks with merchandise in the lower parking lot and two vans loaded with eggs. The drivers report that at 05:30 trucks with merchandise were already being let in to be checked. At 6:40 a van with eggs drives up to the document inspection point. The driver gets out, shows his documents, and returns to wait next to the vehicle. Meanwhile a truck arriving from the direction of the seamline zone loaded with empty pallets passes through within a minute. 3 cars emerge from the vehicle inspection facility and pick up passengers.At 6:50 the van with the eggs moves forward together with a garbage truck to stand in the waiting area in front of the gate to the inspection facility. It appears that the procedure takes longer for regular cars but it must be checked.
7:00 Shaked-Tura Checkpoint
The gate from the direction of the seamline zone is wide open. The gate from the other side opens precisely at 7:00. About 20 men are standing next to the turnstile and two cars are waiting. At 7:05 they are still waiting for the turnstile to open. Two women and the owner of the donkey who is already tied up who are heading towards the seamline zone enter the inspection room accompanied by a soldier from this side. At 7:08 the first car arrives to be checked after its driver got out. 8 people are standing next to the turnstile. At 7:11 the car leaves and the herd of goats follows. At 7:12 the students arrive. The soldiers check their IDs while they stand obediently in a line.
At 7:15 some small children arrive. They go through near the soldiers but are asked to go back. They are stopped for a minutes and then continue on their way. The students pass through at 7:18 but the transit that brought them will only get through at 7:32. Someone who approaches us from the direction of the checkpoint declares: “Today things are OK. Only today! Every day everyone has to go through the [inspection] room! Only today they don’t have to!”
8:10 – Two girls and their mothers are waiting for us at Jalameh Crossing for us to take them to Rambam Hospital for treatment.
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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