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Reihan, Shaked, Tue 11.3.08, Morning

Place: Barta’a-Reihan Checkpoint Tura-Shaked
Tags: Crowding Detainees Slow passage Youngsters and students
Observers: Ruth T. and Hannah H. (reporting)
Mar-11-2008
| Morning
Translation: Devorah K.

Reihan CP – 6:00
The first of the workers – men and women – leave for the upper parking lot. All of them complained about the fact that the CP opened at 5:45 and they had lost valuable time. In the sleeve that leads to the terminal, we hear a lot of noise and see two large crowds – each of about 40 people – one at the gate to the Palestinian parking lot and one at the entrance to the terminal building. The pressure at the entrance to the terminal continues until 7:00. In the lower parking lot, only two pickup trucks with agricultural goods are waiting, and four passenger cars are being inspected in the shed.

Shaked CP – 6:55

The CP is open but people begin to go through in both directions only at 7:00. Thirty people are waiting on the Tura side to go through to the seamline zone – they go through one by one through the inspection pavilion. The little children are going through to school in Tura in groups and today all the schoolbags are being inspected. The older pupils also enter immediately but they also have their documents inspected. Two pupils who do not have documents are detained.
Passenger cars go through in both directions; the inspection takes 2-3 minutes. Not all the passengers go through the inspection pavilion. A herd of sheep also goes through from the West Bank to Re'ut in the seamline zone.
7:20 – Taxis with students go through to Jenin; all the students get out, comment bitterly on the delay and go through via the inspection pavilion. The passage of a single taxi with its passengers takes about 10 minutes. Classes start at 8:00 and on the way to the university, there are, of course, some more CPs.
7:30: We left and we saw that on the side of the West Bank there were still fifteen people waiting to go through.

Old Barta'a – Agricultural CP
7:52 – The CP is deserted and closed.

Reihan CP – 8:00
The CP is now quiet again. A bus and some taxis go through from the seamline zone to the West Bank; only some of the passengers are required to go through the terminal while the others go through in the cars at the vehicle CP.
There is a slow flow of pedestrians through the terminal in both directions – the passage takes about 13 minutes.
8:30 – In the lower parking lot four loaded pickup trucks entered the closed compound for inspection at 7:00, and have only now been able to leave, after an hour and a half. Five other pickup trucks are entering the compound now. Four passenger cars on their way to the seamline zone are inspected in the shed for about 30 minutes. Seven additional cars are waiting for inspection.
Lately it seems that there are fewer people going through the CP. According to A. this may have to do with the fact that many of the permits of those going through to Barta'a are no longer valid. Renewing them is in the hands of the head of the Barta'a local council and for some reason there is a delay. A man from Kaffin is sent from Old Barta'a agricultural CP to go through in Reihan (the reason for this is not clear). On Sunday he succeeded in going through in Reihan, but today he was not permitted to go through, and lost a day's work

  • 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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