Reihan, Shaked, Tue 10.8.10, Morning
Translator: Charles K.
06:00 Reihan-Barta’a
The seamstresses arrive at the gate to the terminal on their way to the seam zone, and are subjected there to a rigorous “hamsa” (five-at-a-time) process. If a sixth person should enter, the inner revolving gate locks until she is goes back and closse the main gate behind her. Even so, however, people cross quickly, 25 entering in less than five minutes.
Pickup trucks transporting merchandise are already visible in the inspection area, and two cars are also waiting to enter.
Many people can be seen hurrying to work through the exit corridor of the terminal. We’re told that yesterday afternoon, when returning from work, the laborers were detained at the entrance to the terminal for about an hour and a half. Apparently our presence is particularly required here during that time, especially during Ramadan which supposedly begins tomorrow.
07:00 Shaked–Tura
The gate on this side of the checkpoint is already open, but there are no people yet next to the revolving gate near the inspection room. A. arrives in the DCO pickup truck, stops in the middle of the checkpoint where people approach him from time to time with their ID’s and documents. Y., whose white Transit has no passengers, says that they haven’t made any problems for him recently when he returns from the West Bank. He entered the inspection area at 7:07 and drove on at 7:17. The banker follows him in and exits six minutes later after repeatedly presenting his green ID, apparently because of his new car.
People go through very slowly. Seven men and women (apparently students) wait a long time next to the door of the inspection booth. “They’re not working,” says a driver who exits at 7:40.
We ask a nice female soldier to accompany us. In response to our surprise that the computer delays people for so long, she says: “Do you think our life is so boring that we’re purposely holding them back?” We made a written note of that pleasantry and promised here she’d be able to find it, word for word, on our web site.
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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