Reihan, Shaked, Tue 11.1.11, Morning
Translator: Charles K.
06:20 Reihan checkpoint
The checkpoint opened at 5 AM. The seamstresses and Shahak workers crossed. 12-15 people waiting in the upper parking lot for transportation to their factory jobs. They’re sitting by the roadside opposite the taxi stand, on boulders, on the road or on the bare ground. There should be a shed and benches here, because it’s become a place where people usually wait.
Dozens of laborers waiting in the lower parking lot in front of the closed gate. A few minutes later they enter and go to the terminal. Others arrive, wait briefly. We’re told that the terminal is “packed” with people.
Two trucks loaded with agricultural produce wait to be inspected.
We walk through the corridor to the terminal. Only one inspection window is open. Once again the biometric inspection problem arises (palm and fingerprint scan) for the manual laborers. Their jobs are (literally) wearing, affecting their hands, which now don’t match the image in the data base. Once again they have to schlep to the DCO, which is far from their home, and lose a day of work in order to update the image until the next time.
People leaving the terminal ask us about what’s happening in Israel regarding the prohibition on selling apartments to Arabs (you don’t like Arabs), and fear that the quota of permits to work in Israel will also be reduced. One asks, half seriously, half jokingly, who’s our Prime Minister. Netanyahu or Lieberman? He can quote the latter’s brilliant statements about transfer, etc. “Everything’s been taken from us! Where will they dump us?”
A 42 year old man, married, no children, says his permit to work in Israel wasn’t renewed; the reason given was that he didn’t have children. He’s being punished for nature’s curse…says his companion.
Two others say that despite their valid permits they’re delayed from time to time for various clarifications, since there’s a red line under their names on the permit. They don’t know why. They’re waiting for a companion who’s been detained instead of continuing to work.
07:05 Laborers keep exiting. There’s lots of traffic, and except for the unlucky ones being detained is seems that people go through quickly.
07:20 Shaked checkpoint
The checkpoint has just opened but people aren’t being allowed to cross yet. A soldier stands at the gate, supervising.
A line of seven cars and a few dozen people has formed to cross to the seam zone: pupils, teachers, students and others waiting to cross. Exams have begun at the Open University in Jenin.
Twenty or more people are also waiting to cross from the other side (the West Bank). The DCO tells us, by phone, that a drill is currently underway. Now, exactly when pupils and teachers have to cross!
07:30 After we contact the DCO, the checkpoint opens to let people through. The entry to the seam zone, involving undergoing inspection in the building, is still slow. Very young pupils (kindergarten and elementary school) line up opposite the soldiers, open their bags and run to school.
Many complain that the checkpoint again opens late, at 7 instead of 6. They say an earlier opening would make it easier for laborers who rise early; the pupils and teachers arrive later. It would also reduce the stress of crossing.
08:10 The last person from the West Bank crosses to the seam zone. Now the drill can continue without interruption.
A , driving the DCO vehicle, arrives and leaves. So do we.
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)
Ruti TuvalMar-21-2022Anin Checkpoint: A magnificent breach in the center of the checkpoint
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