Reihan, Shaked, Tue 8.2.11, Morning
Translated by Dvora K.
06:10 New Barta'a CP
('Reihan' according to the Occupier – an illegal CP named after an illegal settlement)
It is a cold morning. Drivers talk to us from inside the car with one hand holding a cigarette and in the other a cup of hot coffee. The CP opened at 05:00. The seamstresses have gone through. So have the workers from Shahak. No change or novelty was observed in the procedures of the morning. According to the estimate of the drivers who get here at five a.m. and continue sleeping at the CP when they have no work; all together about 200 men and women have gone through.
We continue and go east to a CP in the direction of Emricha. On the way, we meet the village children on their way to school in Ya'abed. The children are well-taken care of, and their hair is carefully combed.This is definitely out of the ordinary against the background of the misery and neglect of the village.
07:05 Tura CP
('Shaked' according to the Occupier – an illegal CP named after an illegal settlement)
The soldiers are already at the CP and busy opening it. Immediately afterwards, about 30 people crowd the turnstile at the entrance to the inspection room on their way to work in the seamline zone.On the other side, in the direction of the West Bank, there are a few teachers and a few vehicles.
07:15 The pupils from the seamline zone arrive. They include children of all ages — from kindergarten to the upper grades of primary school. An 'older' brother holds the hand of a younger brother or sister. They walk into the CP in an orderly queue. They wait for permision from the soldier (a wave of his hand) and go on to the path at the side that is especially for pedestrians. A soldier stops them there and passes them on in threes or fives — to the next soldier. The little ones, in perfect order, open their schoolbags even before they get to him. and he looks into them. Sometimes he asks the child something (we can't hear what it is; we can only see his body language.) After each group goes through (in the mud), another group of children is given permission to go through, too. The procedure is fascinating. Palestinian children are taught to obey the Occupier from the earliest possible age. That is how the children of Palestine meet each new day. At the checkposts, behaving quietly is taken for granted; as if it is their fate from birth, a fate into which they have been drawn. They do not know any other kind of reality.
08:00 We leave.
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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