Reihan, Shaked, Wed 26.11.08, Morning
Translation: Devorah K.
When we arrived at the CP (from the side of the seamline zone), a tractor was parked there with a cart loaded with sacks of olives and empty jerrycans. The jerrycans were for oil that would be produced from the olives in an olive press, and the tractor driver has been waiting for more than an hour and is not allowed to go through. He lives in the seamline zone in Hirbet Radiyeh, near the "grocery". He has 2000 olive trees which he is now harvesting. He transports the olives to the press in Tura to produce the oil. Afterwards he brings the oil back in jerrycans to the seamline zone.
The man has a problem and this is his story: The civilian administration counted his olive trees together with him and according to the number of trees, they estimated the quantity of olives that he is permitted to transport through the CP to the press in Tura on the other side of the CP, and the quantity of oil that would be produced and could be brought back to the seamline zone. This year he had a bigger crop of olives than he expected; the man is not allowed to transport the additional crop without a special permit and he will not be allowed to return the oil without a special permit. What can he do? The trees were more fruitful than anticipated and the man is trying, unsuccessfully, to transport the olives to the olive press. He phones the DCO, sometimes they answer and sometimes they don't even pick up the phone (maybe they already know his number, and his request). The soldiers in the CP have not received permission to let the olives through; and the time that is passing is not to the good. We phoned the DCO, the officer was at a meeting, but after we explained the issue, they promised us that "they will do everything". After another hour, the permit did arrive. Until now we have never heard of the peculiar arrangement of quotas!
There was another sad case at the CP: Two children, aged seven and ten, from poor families that do not own olive trees, went out on two donkeys to collect olives left in the groves at the borders of the groves near the CP. The children wanted to come back with a sack of olives and the two donkeys. But (1) they did not have a permit, and (2) they did not have a permit for the donkeys. They were not allowed to go through with the sack and the donkeys. The children tied the donkeys to one of the trees and they threw the sack down at the side. When the soldiers went by the sack, one of them spit (!) on the olives. The children went through the CP without the olives and without the donkeys. We had two bags of clothes and we asked the soldiers at least to let the children take the second-hand clothes. They did allow that.
10:10 – 10:50 Reihan-Barta'a CP
Because we were forbidden to go down to the Palestinian parking lot, we did not see anything. People went through in a reasonable time, 10 -20 minutes. The pickup trucks with vegetables also went through. There were only two.
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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