Reihan, Shaked, Wed 15.4.09, Morning
Translation: Bracha
Last day of the Passover Holiday
Reihan Checkpoint: 06:55
Two vans are waiting in the upper parking lot. The gate in the middle of the checkpoint is still closed. There are Israeli flags and flags of the checkpoint management company on the flagpoles. What are they building on the eastern side of the road near the dog kennels? Today it looks like the container that is standing there has been covered with yellow plaster.
07:00: The checkpoint staff are on their way to their positions, all dressed in their blue uniforms. The announcement: “Good morning. Passage is beginning” sounds and the yellow gate opens.
We hear rhythmic calls of “Futu hamsa! Sakkar el baab!” (Come in five at a time! Shut the door!”) A lineup can be seen accumulating at the end of the sleeve at the entrance to the terminal.
07:10: The first people are coming out of the sleeve at the entrance to the terminal and report “Everything is OK today.” Later we hear that “Everything is awful!” and the repeated question of “What kind of life is this?” voiced by the seamstresses (whom we have not seen for several Saturdays and holidays). We also hear complaints about the crowds and lots of people inside. The partition is closed inside the terminal and one window is open.
It takes 15-20 minutes for a person to get from the entrance (“Futu hamsa!” – Come in five at a time!) to the terminal and to go out through the sleeve. The lineup going out of the rooms to the window is long and people are waiting.
08:00 – Another window is opened.
08:20 – There is no need for another window.
In the vehicle shed the rate of inspection is as usual. There are no cars waiting in line. There are 8 transits in the upper parking lot. From conversations with people coming out it appears that they knew about the holiday and the alterations in schedule for the day.
One of the people coming out approached us about a permit that was taken from his uncle because he left from Shaked Checkpoint and came back in at Reihan. He asked that if anyone knew what to do about it that they call him.
We left at 08:30.
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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