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Reihan, Shaked, Sun 4.5.08, Morning

Place: Barta’a-Reihan Checkpoint Tura-Shaked
Tags: Closure Crowding Slow passage Youngsters and students
Observers: Havi G. and Hanna H. (reporting)
May-04-2008
| Morning

Translation: Devorah K.

06:00 – 08:00
06:00 Reihan CP (upper parking lot and upper entrance to the terminal)
The CP opened half an hour ago, at 05:30, but until now only a very few people have come out and they complain that there is a long queue in front of the new x-ray machine. The first two seamstresses come out only at 06:10. According to the testimony of those coming out there are a few stops they have to make in order to get through the passage and in front of each of these places there is a separate long queue (about 15 minutes of waiting): 1 – the main gate; 2 – the gate to the terminal, 3 – first turnstile; 4 – the machine; 5 – second turnstile; 6 – the exit post, and today two such posts are manned.
By 06:30 about 60 people came out while, according to Sharon, the person in charge of the CP, 250 people should be able to come out in an hour.
One man tells us that last month he broke a leg going through the turnstile and he lost more than a month's work. We have to ask: Is there insurance for the people going through the CP?
Last week there was a general closure from Wednesday to Friday; the passage to the seamline zone was also closed. The reason for the closure is unknown. The workers complain that no notice of closures is made in advance – only on the morning of the closure after they have made the trek to the CP.

06:30 – Lower parking lot near the entrance to the CP
25 people are waiting near the gate which is closed and the queue is getting longer and longer. At the entrance to the terminal inside the CP compound, there are more people waiting and from time to time we hear shouting from inside the terminal.
At 6:55 people begin to go inside – 12 of them, and at 7:10, and another 12, but the queue outside does not get shorter.
A merchant gives up on the effort to go out to work, comes out of the terminal and tells us that inside there is still a queue of 60 people. We phoned Sharon to find out what was happening and why. But he was not in around and did not know what was going on. He promised to come down to check. Those who came out of the CP 30 minutes later told us that he still had not arrived, and there was indeed no change for the better in the number of people coming out of the terminal.  At the main gate, people were now entering at a slightly faster pace. The people also told us that when Sharon was there, the passage was quicker.
Cars to the seamline zone with passengers are inspected as usual – in fours. Ten pickup trucks with goods have been waiting for inspection since 7:00. A number of workers going from the seamline zone to the West Bank is still small. The workers from the rug factory went out to work from the upper parking lot only at 7:15. That is to say, an hour and three quarters after the opening of the CP.

Shaked CP – 7:45
The last of the farmers are going through to the seamline zone. People going to the West Bank are allowed through only after the pupils and the farmers. One taxi with students on the way to Jenin was delayed at the CP until now, and considering that there are additional CPs awaiting them they will be late to their classes today.

  • 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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