Shouting at the Aanin checkpoint
15:00–16:45
15:00 Barta’a checkpoint: Routine activity at the checkpoint: Workers are starting to return from work in Israel and the Seamline Zone; women are returning from work and shopping in the Seamline Zone; a family carrying parcels is on its way to a visit in the West Bank; from the West Bank, workers are on their way to work the second shift and families from east Barta’a are returning from shopping and errands in Jenin.
All the workers complain about the opening times in the early morning. Two workers tell us that they arrive at the checkpoint at 4:00 a.m. and encounter many workers who’ve been there since 3:00 a.m., so that they can cross the checkpoint and not be late for work in places in Israel, a long way from Barta’a. The problem is that the checkpoint opens only at 4:30, when the entrance to the shed leading to the terminal is extremely crowded.
15:30 Anin (agricultural) checkpoint: Around 70 people are sitting in small groups beside the checkpoint and waiting. In the hut at the entrance to the checkpoint, two soldiers are waiting for back-up. We talk with the cousin of M, whom we know and who is in mourning for his son, an officer in the Palestinian police force who was killed in action. When we ask when the olive harvest will be over, he tells us there’s no official date. “One day, they’ll stop coming every day and once again will open the checkpoint only twice a week, with no advance warning.” He also complains that this year they don’t open the crossing in the afternoon to allow children to come and help with the harvest after school. In the morning, they open the checkpoint at 6:45. “Good morning, the problem is in the afternoon.”
When it’s almost 4 o’clock, the reinforcements arrive and they start preparing to open the checkpoint. The entrance gates, which are wide open throughout the day and night, are now closed by the soldiers with a great fuss and all the people and tractors that until now stood silently, crush together beside the narrow opening that’s left to cross. The soldiers today are very young and inexperienced, and shouting and tension grow on both sides. After 10 minutes, things calm down. The soldiers let people in to the checkpoint in groups of ten at a time, and only when each group has gone through the permit and cargo inspection by the exit, do they let the next ten people in. When most of the people have exited the checkpoint, the three tractors with sacks of olives and women who have participated in the harvest go through. People are constantly arriving at the checkpoint and by this time, they can go through immediately. By 16:25, around 200 people have crossed (most of them not farmers).
16:35 Tura checkpoint: The checkpoint is open. Cars and people are crossing in both directions. Workers are going back to the West Bank from Israel and the Seamline Zone and residents of the Seamline Zone are returning home from the West Bank.
We were told that the checkpoint was closed for two hours yesterday because shots were fired on Shaked.
17.11.2022 צפון
חנה הלר ופייר הנהג
16.45 – 15.00
מחסום ברטעה 15.00 הפעילות במחסום שגרתית – פועלים מתחילים לחזור מעבודתם בישראל ובמרחב התפר; נשים חוזרות מעבודה וקניות במרחב התפר; משפחה עם חבילות עוברת לביקור בגדה; מכיוון הגדה יוצאים פועלים לעבודה במשמרת שנייה ומשפחות מברטעה המזרחית חוזרות מג’נין מקניות וסידורים.
כל הפועלים מתלוננים על שעות המעבר המוקדמות בבוקר. שני פועלים מספרים שהם מגיעים בשעה 4.00 למחסום ופוגשים הרבה פועלים שכבר הגיעו ב-3.00 והכל כדי לעבור את המחסום ולהגיע בזמן לעבודה בישראל במקומות רחוקים מברטעה. הבעיה שפותחים את המחסום רק ב-4.30 ואז הצפיפות בכניסה לסככת המעבר לטרמינל – רבה מאוד.
מחסום (חקלאי) עאנין 15.30 כ-70 אנשים יושבים ליד המחסום בקבוצות קטנות וממתינים. בסככה שבפתח המחסום יש 2 חיילים שממתינים לתגבורת. אנו משוחחים עם בן דודו של מ’ מיודענו, שנמצא באבל על בנו, קצין במשטרת פלסטין שנהרג בפעולה. לשאלתנו מתי נגמר המסיק הוא אומר שאין תאריך רשמי. “יום אחד יפסיקו להעביר יום יום ויחזרו לפתוח רק פעמיים בשבוע, בלי הודעה מוקדמת.” הוא גם מתאונן שהשנה לא פותחים את המחסום בצהריים כדי לאפשר גם לילדים לבוא לעזור במסיק אחרי הלימודים. בבוקר פתחו את המחסום ב-6.45. “בבוקר טוב, הבעיה אחה”צ.”
קרוב לשעה 16.00 מגיעה התגבורת ומתחילים להתכונן לפתיחת המחסום. שערי הכניסה הפתוחים לרווחה כל שעות היום והלילה נסגרים עכשיו על ידי החיילים בהמולה רבה וכל האנשים וטרקטורים שעמדו עד עכשיו בשקט וברווחה מצטופפים ליד הפתח הצר שנשאר למעבר. החיילים היום מאוד צעירים ובלתי מנוסים והצעקות והמתח בשני הצדדים גוברים. אחרי 10 דקות האווירה נרגעת. החיילים מכניסים אנשים למחסום בקבוצות של עשרה-עשרה ורק כשהם עוברים את ביקורת האישורים והמטען ליד היציאה, מוכנסים עוד עשרה אנשים. כשרוב האנשים עברו, עוברים גם שלושת הטרקטורים עם שקי הזיתים ונשים שהשתתפו במסיק.
כל הזמן ממשיכים להגיע אנשים למחסום ועכשיו הם עוברים מייד. סך הכל עברו עד 16.25 כ-200 אנשים (רובם לא חקלאים).
מחסום טורה 16.35 המחסום פעיל, מכוניות ואנשים עוברים בשני הכיוונים, פועלים חוזרים מישראל ומרחב התפר לגדה ותושבי מרחב התפר חוזרים מן הגדה הביתה.
נאמר לנו שאתמול המחסום נסגר לשעתיים בגלל הירי על שקד.
'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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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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