Reihan, Shaked, Wed 10.10.12, Morning
Translator: Charles K.
Reihan-Barta’a checkpoint 06:00-06:45
Quiet and chilly, the Palestinian parking lot is clean, the “national park” sparkles, the public restrooms also gleam. The occupation stinks but manages at the same time to present a wonderfully sweet image. Electric gates open and close, electric revolving gates turn and stop, from time to time a metallic voice from the PA system cuts the air: Sakkar al bab [close the gate]..hamseh hamseh [five by five].
At this hour, six in the morning, the “workers” on their way to Barta’a come from throughout the West Bank: to the stores, the garages, the workshops. Others head to the industrial zone in the Shaked settlement. Most come by taxi. In another hour those who own shiny cars will arrive – maybe they’re “managers.” All the men, almost without exception, greet us warmly, “Good morning.”
A poster with a picture of a little boy, a shahid, hangs on a pole. He was murdered in a dispute between families in Jenin. It’s a PLO poster, “because,” we were told, “the boy’s father is a PLO activist.” “It’s all politics,” said another.
Few cross to the West Bank.
Shaked-Tura checkpoint 06:50 – 07:25
The olive harvest has begun so the checkpoint opens at 06:00, an hour before we arrive and an hour earlier than usual. Only pupils and teachers are crossing now, trying to get to school by 08:00.
Some young pupils (elementary school) arrive from Dahar al Malak, the nearby locality, on their way to school in Tura. They meet our “good morning” (in fluent Arabic) with looks of disgust, provocatively sticking out their tongues. Pretty girls, young, dressed so nicely, already know how to express burning hatred of strangers. We understand that’s also part of our job – not only to protest the occupation but also to absorb the locals’ hatred, to represent al Yahud. Those aren’t the girls in the photo.
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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