Reihan, Shaked, Tue 3.3.09, Afternoon
Translation: Bracha B.A.
Jalameh, 15:30
At noon we picked up Aya, a baby undergoing dialysis in Rambam Hospital and her mother, and drove them to Jalameh. Because of the stormy weather and some wrong turns, we didn’t arrive at Jalameh until 15:30.
There were only a few people coming in and out. Agricultural and construction workers have not gone out to work because of the heavy rains, and the checkpoint was empty of pedestrians. Aya and her mother went through within a few minutes.A woman with a two-week-old infant was sitting in the covered area outside waiting for her husband who had been in the terminal for the past half hour. They are going to visit her family in Muqeibleh – an Israeli-Arab village west of Jalameh Checkpoint. Several Israeli Arab women passed through the terminal returning from shopping in Jenin, laden with shopping bags.
Shaked-Tura Checkpoint, 16:30.
Traffic is light. While talking with a soldier who explained that he was the checkpoint commander, we learned that about 150 people came back and forth through the checkpoint today. We understood from his explanations that schoolchildren are required to go through the inspection booth, but when there is a backup the soldiers quickly check the children’s documents at the gate. The soldier behaved politely and answered all of our questions.
Reihan Checkpoint 16:50
Dozens of women arrived returning from work. They told us that there were four windows open in the terminal and that they had gone through without delay. Their arrival led to a backup in the lower parking lot before the women dispersed to their cars. Suddenly a violent fight broke out in the parking lot between one of the permanent drivers and another young man who began to act wild and curse. A steel bar was suddenly produced and the quarrel became even more violent. The drivers separated the two combatants and the young man got into his friends’ car, which drove away, tires skidding. It returned after a few minutes and the young man emerged holding a huge scimitar.
At this point the civilian security personnel who operate the checkpoint called the army, and an armored vehicle arrived in the parking lot with three armed soldiers. The arrival of the army calmed things down, but the two sides stood in tense quiet.The soldiers found two huge scimitars underneath one of the cars, and after they reported it to their commanders they received instructions to search the rest of the cars in the lower parking lot. Despite our questions the quarrelers refused to tell us why the quarrel had broken out. We left at 17:20.
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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