Shocking. Anin checkpoint is closed
Anin checkpoint: The little farmer Vs. Occupation’s steamroller
Mahmoud rang this morning from the Anin checkpoint. Wednesday and Monday are the days of passage at this checkpoint, which was originally intended to allow Aanin farmers to reach their olives (hundreds of dunams) that the separation barrier closed in front of them. He’s standing with his friends and waiting and waiting. The huge wall hides the checkpoint and they don’t know if the soldiers have come or will come to open it. Maybe you can find out for them. Unfortunately, and for the heartache that never goes away – there is no one to inquire with. Until a year ago, I had the phone number of a human DCO officer, who at least agreed to answer my verbal and written inquiries. Since he left, there has been a blanket ban on not talking to the women of Machsumwatch. It has become an operational line and we are not allowed to use it. We are elderly aunts and grandmothers, but we are not stupid.
Mahmoud says that two weeks ago the Civil Administration (at the DCO) renewed their transit permits for the next two years! Last Monday, a DCO officer informed them that the checkpoint was closed! And from now on they will only open twice a year. During Harvest and during the Plowing period. This is a court decision.
An appeal has been filed.
And if there is justice – let it show itself at once!
'Anin checkpoint (214)
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'Anin checkpoint (214)
'Anin checkpoint is located on the Separation Fence east of the Israeli community Mei Ami and close to the village of Anin in the West Bank. It is opened twice a week, morning and afternoon, on days with shorter light time, for Anin farmers whose olive groves have been separated from the village by the fence it became difficult to cultivate their land. Transit permits are only issued to those who can produce ownership documents for their caged-in land, and sometimes only to the head of the family or his widow, eldest son, and children. Sometimes the inheritors lose their right to tend to the family’s land. The permits are eked out and are re-issued only with difficulty. 55-year-old persons may cross the checkpoint (into Israel) without special permits. During the olive harvest season (about one month around October) the checkpoint is open daily and more transit permits are issued. Names of persons eligible to cross are held in the soldiers’ computers. In July 2007, a sweeping instruction was issued, stating that whoever does not return to the village through this checkpoint in the afternoon will be stripped of his transit permit when he shows up there next time. Since 2019, the checkpoint has not been allways locked with the seam-line zone gate (1 of 3 gates), and the fence around it has been broken in several sites.
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