Reihan, Shaked, Tue 25.1.11, Morning
Translator: Charles K.
6:15 New Barta’a checkpoint (Reihan)
Shahak staff come through the corridor. The seamstresses crossed earlier. There are no people in the lot. Two pickup trucks wait to be inspected.
6:30 Mavo Dothan checkpoint
Vehicles come through without being delayed. The checkpoint isn’t manned. We’re told the soldiers come at 7:00, and that the elementary schools have a semester break. On the way we met pupils from Amricha on their way to school. How come?, we asked. But no one can explain why they have to go to school when others have a two-week vacation.
Two local residents tell us exactly the same thing regarding the shooting of a resident of Yamun by soldiers at the Dothan checkpoint:
A week and a half ago a resident of the Jordan Valley on his way to work in Israel was shot at the Hamra checkpoint. He’d dropped a plastic bag of food on his way to being inspected, which fell on the ground. The soldiers thought it was a bomb and shot him to death. The person shot at the Hamra checkpoint was the uncle of the young man who’s from the Tzumudi family – 23 years old, single, who arrived from Tamun riding a donkey, holding a revolver to avenge his uncle’s death. Soldiers shot him twice, in the head and chest, killing him instantly.
7:15 New Barta’a checkpoint (Reihan)
Laborers arrive at Barta’a in groups. All work in shops, hurrying to enter, not knowing how long it will take them to get through. “Every day is a different story.” Fifty people came through in 25 minutes. A family with two dressed-up young girls also crossed to Barta’a. A bus carrying children of settlers is on its way to the West Bank; two other buses wait to collect pupils and bring them to schools in Israel. When we leave the checkpoint area we see a truck with a double trailer being carefully inspected by a dog and its handler. Guards stand in small groups with their weapons, perhaps because of the incident described above.
7:50 Tura checkpoint
The checkpoint is empty. No pupils, no one coming or going. One vehicle going to the West Bank is being carefully inspected at the checkpoint itself. A young woman waits for a ride. Ten minutes later, three men came from the West Bank, on their way to the seam zone, entered for inspection and came out a few minutes later.
8:10 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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