Reihan, Shaked, Sun 9.8.09, Morning
06:30 – Reihan Barta’a
About 50 men and women are already waiting in the upper parking lot for their rides to work. 35 people come out of the terminal within five minutes.
At 05:45 the terminal is almost empty.
At 5:50 a caravan of tenders with merchandise arrives at the inspection facility. A tender going towards the West Bank goes through within a minute. Two cars are waiting to be checked.
At 06:05 the entrance gate to the terminal from the lower parking lot is empty. 12 people who arrive on foot going towards the checkpoint leave within 12 minutes. A., the driver, tells us that the Dotan Checkpoint opened this morning at 05:30 (one hour late) and that everyone who arrived at the Barta’a Checkpoint at 05:00 had walked there.
06:45 – Shaked-Tura Checkpoint
06:50 – Two soldiers arrive and open the gate. Within 5 minutes 4 others arrive, including two military police. At 06:58 all the gates are open and about 35 people approach the turnstile. At 07:01 the first person comes out of the inspection room. People going towards the West Bank get through within 4 minutes. A herd of goats goes obediently through the concrete roadblock.
At 07:11 the first car arrives from the West Bank.
At 07:15 a woman and four small children arrive from the direction of the West Bank and enter the inspection room without waiting and come out immediately.
At 07:20 it appears that the turnstile is stuck and people coming through the inspection room are delayed. The car in which the mother and children arrived willpick them up [on the other side of the checkpoint] at 07:26.
At 07:24 a yellow car arrives going in the direction of the West Bank carrying 11 young women – apparently students. The car continued on its way at 017:33.
At 07:35 there are about 8 people waiting in front of the turnstile, and cars pass through within a minute or two. We returned to Reihan to pick up Ali and his mother to bring them to Rambam Hospital. The first tender with merchandise leaves at 07:40 8 vans are waiting to pick up workers.
A young man at the gas station near Kibbutz Hazorea recognizes my Machsom Watch tag and smiles. During his military service his commander, whom he admires very much, punished him for being insolent to women from Machsom Watch.
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
-