Reihan, Shaked, Wed 21.7.10, Morning
Translator: Charles K.
7:50 Shaked-Tura
About eight people next to the revolving gate. Y., the driver (who’s G.), waits next to the inner gate with a woman and child. At 8:03 they get into the blue Transit and drive to the West Bank. A young man who’s just crossed through explains that the checkpoint stands on his land and calls our attention to a long string crossing the tobacco field, reaching the olive trees to the left of the gate. That’s a kite a boy from Tura lost yesterday. Now one end is caught on the barbed wire and the kite itself is stuck in an olive tree. Vivian climbs the tree, laden with fruit, and retrieves it. A soldier lends us a lighter so we can separate the string from the barbed wire and the guest helps untie the knot and roll the string into a ball. Since we weren’t able to find out who it belongs to – we finally decided to present the modest, handmade kite to our guest, who agreed to accept this symbolic souvenir of the shift.
At 8:47 we saw a car on the other side. Six minutes later it came through and went on its way. It took a laborer two minutes to cross to the West Bank.
09:00 Reihan-Barta’a
Our guest wasn’t allowed to cross to the Palestinian parking lot because she had no identification document. So we split up: Vivian drove to the Palestinian parking lot and the guest and I went to the terminal. Some of those exiting told us about a girl with a permit to go to a clinic in the seam zone, whose father isn’t allowed to cross. We hear the father’s voice: “…I spoke to the officer, he said I could cross wherever I wished…I can go anywhere in Israel. My daughter is sick, how can I get in? I’ve been here two and a half hours. What am I supposed to do now?”
A sergeant who apparently heard us calling approaches, accompanied by a security guard, and tells the father: “That’s not what it says on the permit. You certainly can’t cross here.” We found Sharon on the other side of the passageway: “If is daughter is with him I don’t believe he’s not allowed to cross. We’ll let him cross on a humanitarian basis. If his daughter is in Israel – let him cross through Jalameh.” Meanwhile, in our presence, he receives new information by phone. It turns out, he says, that the father’s permit says that it’s for the purpose of a meeting in Israel in connection with work. “He tried to use that permit to cross with his daughter who’s on vacation from school. He doesn’t have a permit to cross with children. They won’t let him cross at Jalameh either. If it was a humanitarian case – I’d let him through. But he’s just trying to manipulate me.”
We saw this as one more little failing battle in the absurd struggle for existence.
An Israeli (we could tell by the license plate) on his way to the territories, asks Sharon to allow the pickup truck, also with an Israeli license plate, loaded with tools and two laborers, to follow him in. “But he’s not to buy charcoal or stop on the way,” Sharon warns, and orders: “Yoram, let him in.” This time the little battle succeeded. I wonder why. A Palestinian on the other side wasn’t allowed to bring a rug into the seam zone. I wonder why.
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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