Reihan, Shaked, Sun 28.8.11, Morning
6:00 Reihan-Barta'a CP
Three taxis and two Transit vans are waiting in the parking lot on the side of the seamline zone. M. says that everything is ok in the terminal. We hear yelling and barking from the vehicle inspection pavilion. In front of us, on the road, a truck with two big carts is being inspected by means of a dog and a mirror. When we reach the turnstiles, we find out that a number of the seamstresses, apparently two of them, are not allowed to go through. The head of the workshop is called out, and tries to convince the soldier to allow them go through – but he does not succeed. Afterwards, he tells us that their permits became invalid on the 26 of August and they already have new permits which, for some reason, will be valid from the 30 of August. Somebody forced a vacation on them, almost certainly without pay.
We walk down to the parking lot on the side of the West Bank. A guard delays us; he does not allow us to go through, and a woman who is stationed at the post uses a loudspeaker to order him not to talk to us. In the end the person in charge of the CP allows us to go ahead. The parking lot is almost empty. A pickup truck with goods is waiting on the road and another three are in the parking lot. A few people come to the terminal. Hannah is waiting for someone who needs forms signed for getting a permit and I travel with our driver, Huri, to the Shaked/Tura CP.
7:10 Shaked-Tura CP
The gate at the front is open while the inside gate and the gate at the back are being opened only now. There is a new piece of equipment to beautify the CP: there is a barbed wire fence the length of the road, almost from the entry gate and over the concrete hut beyond which there is a path for pedestrians. Soon, when the school children will go back to their studies in Tura – they will be walking on a narrower path; they will have to be careful not to tear their clothes or to get hurt.
A woman from Daher el Malek – who intends to go through to the West Bank with her children – tells us that her husband, who grows tobacco on the other side of the fence, asked to transport a few sacks of tobacco to the seamline zone – and was punished by the soldiers at the CP who took away his documents. Now he cannot accompany his family who are going to visit relatives on the West Bank.
A teacher who wishes to transport two boxes full of books for the school at Umm-el Reihan arrives from the other side. He is not allowed to do this without having arranged for this in advance. At 7:40 a herd of goats goes through and after that all is quiet in the CP.
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)
Mar-21-2022Anin Checkpoint: A magnificent breach in the center of the checkpoint
-