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Reihan, Shaked, Sun 30.3.08, Morning

Place: Barta’a-Reihan Checkpoint Tura-Shaked
Tags: Crowding Slow passage Youngsters and students
Observers: Ruti T., Hana H. (reporting)
Mar-30-2008
| Morning

Translation; Yael Bassis-Student

06:00 Rihan-Barta'a checkpoint
The gate was opened at 05:40, and at the upper car park area we see workers, men and women, getting into vehicles that would drive them to their employment sites.
Those coming out of the terminal report: "Today all is well".
Inside the terminal there are two operational inspection posts. In front of the terminal and in front of the main gate, at the lower car park area, about 10 people are waiting but passage is rapid.
At the vehicle's inspection post, in the direction of the West Bank, the development work (environmental design) at the waiting area is accelerated; the last addition is a slide for children.
Four cars are under inspection at the shed at the vehicles' checkpoint going into the seam line zone.
At the lower car park area  there are 13  pickup trucks loaded with merchandise, waiting for the opening of the inspection area. In the meantime drivers are busy unloading and reloading vehicles.


07:05 – Shaked-Tura checkpoint

The gate is open. on the Tura side (the West Bank) about 20 people are waiting and passage is extremely slow. Average passage time per person is 5 minutes, but occasionally there are delays. People report of lists, held by soldiers, of individuals who had not returned on the same day (and are therefore considered suspicious for staying at the Seam Zone/Israel illegally). Those individuals are denied passage. People who go through inspection complain that the list is not updated. Those individuals had sorted out their problems with the DCO and obtained new permits.
People also ask that, in the morning, soldiers would allow all those going from the West Bank into the seam line zone to go first, before the students and the schoolchildren who cross over to the West Bank.
Vehicles cross over to both directions.  Passage into the West Bank goes smoothly. Passengers get off  the cars and go through inspection one by one. All school bags are being inspected while other enter the inspection rooms.
When we left at 07:40, many workers were still waiting on the side of the west bank.


07:55- Rihan-Barta'a checkpoint

Four pickup trucks are still under inspection, since 07:00. Two pickup trucks loaded with eggs had already gone through and seven more  are still waiting.
People who arrive at the checkpoint tell us that today there is a delay at the Dotan checkpoint.
08:15 The old Barta'a checkpoint (for farmers)

3 tractors go through and the gate closes.

  • 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).

  • 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)
      מחסום עאנין: פרצה מפוארת במרכז המחסום
      Mar-21-2022
      Anin Checkpoint: A magnificent breach in the center of the checkpoint
      View the full album
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