Reihan, Shaked, Tue 1.9.09, Morning
Irit L,. guest photographer
Translation: Bracha B.A.
Today is the first day of school. Irit came especially to photograph the students passing through from the seamline zone to the school in Tura in the West Bank.
06:30 Reihan Barta’a Checkpoint
ON the upper side in the seamline zone people are waiting for rides to work. People say that the passage through the checkpoint is “OK.” There is light traffic in the Palestinian parking lot. People arriving enter the terminal immediately..
07:00 Shaked-Tura Checkpoint
The gates to the checkpoint are open and about 25 people are waiting next to the turnstile at the entrance to the inspection booth on the Palestinian side. A white Liaison and Coordination Administration vehicle is parked next to the checkpoint.
07:05 – The first kindergartener arrives in her father’s car. It passes through within two minutes.
07:10 Four older students arrive, their bags are checked quickly and they don’t enter the inspection booth.
07:15 – A group of 15 small children and 5 older children arrives and pass through in five minutes. Follwing them, three others pass through quickly. A man from the Liaison and Coordination Administration checks their names from a list. The children are dressed up for the first day of school, especially the kindergarteners.
A polite second lieutenant comes up to us and asks is we came to photograph problems of the students passing through. He is pleased that there are no particular problems and notes that they (the army) are learning all the time and trying to improve things. He says that there are about 60 children whose names are on the list. Each child says his or her name and is checked against the list.
Children continue to arrive and pass through quickly. Cars also pass through in both directions and are checked without delay. Among the passengers in the cars are also teachers whom we know from previous years. The fact that the students do not have to enter the inspection booth allows people to cross from the West Bank to the seamline zone at the same time. The herd of goats also crosses through.
07:45 – Children from the “lone house” between the fence and the settlement of Shaked arrive via the security road that runs along the fence and pass through to the school in Tura. 08:00 No more children are arriving and there is no line next to the turnstile. We left.
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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