Reihan, Shaked, Sun 27.7.08, Morning
05:00 Reihan-Barta'a CP
The CP opened a few minutes before five. The first of those inspected are leaving the terminal in the direction of the seamline zone. Their rides are already waiting in the upper parking lot. A slide and a swing have been installed near the geranium flower bed at the side of the parking lot. It is quite strange. We have not seen children waiting there and it does not seem reasonable that the workers of the Shahak industrial zone will be using this equipment designed for little children.
Those arriving in the lower parking lot, the Palestinian one, enter the terminal immediately. Three cars requesting to go through to the seamline zone are being inspected. Eight loaded pickup trucks are waiting for inspection which will begin at 06:00. Everything looks 'fine' and we decide to drive to the Baka CP for once.
05:50 Baka CP
The CP is still closed. Soldiers arrive in a Hummer to inspect the area. They wake up the soldiers of the CP, who are sleeping inside the inspection pavilion. There are no people waiting. The CP is open from 06:00 to 24:00; those with permits from Nazlat Issa and from Baka are allowed to go through this CP, according to the list that the soldiers have on hand. In special cases, such as a wedding or a funeral, people can get one-time permits. A soldier told us that the day before yesterday a woman from the West Bank came to her sister's funeral in Baka el Garbiyeh and received a permit in ten minutes.
06:55 Shaked-Tura CP
07:00 The soldiers open the gates. This morning the traffic of pedestrians and of cars in both directions is livelier than usual in this CP. Those going through are required to enter the inspection pavilion. Only students going through to the West Bank are exempt. A soldier peeks out from the inspection pavilion and asks in a loud voice if the children of farmers are allowed to go through. The answer is yes, with their parents. Two adolescent boys who arrived without parents were not allowed through. The tempo of the passage is reasonable.
07:30 It is drizzling. At that very minute, a Hummer brought a watermelon for the soldiers. They take pieces of it and eat it – a picture that underlines the strangeness of rain at the end of July.
08:00 Reihan-Barta'a CP
Just now it is very crowded. Dozens of people are crowded in the sleeve at the entrance to the terminal and about 20 people are waiting in the Palestinian parking lot, in front of the locked gate. There is a light summer rain.
08:55 From a phone call to the DCO we learn that they are aware of the problem. The workers are allowed to enter before the prisoners' families.
09:05 We go over to the sleeve that leads to the terminal of the seamline zone. Only one inspection post for examining documents is operating. A few people, those who want to go through to the West Bank, are forced to wait at the side. Perhaps thanks to a phone call to Sharon, the person put in charge by the Passage Administration of the Ministry of Security, an additional post is manned. Sharon says that he knew about the problem at Jalameh at 06:00 a.m. and responded to the DCO's request for help.
The representative from the Red Cross who is accompanying the prisoners' families tells us that the passengers on the buses that remained in Jalameh will be visiting the Shata Prison and the one in Ashkelon. A permit for visiting a prisoner is given to a member of the family. Recently, they have been given permits for six months. In the military prisons it is possible to visit prisoners once a month and in the prisons of the Prison Service, twice a month. The visit lasts for 45 minutes. Visitors are only allowed to bring the prisoner cigarettes and money; once in three months they can bring clothes. The trip is funded by the Red Cross. In the three buses that came to Reihan, there were 133 people on their way to visit 50 prisoners in K'tsiyot.
09:45 We left the CP. We did not see children playing on the slide or on the swing. A few of the prisoners' children, who've gone through, were waiting near the Israeli buses in the upper parking lot.
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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