The Barta'a checkpoint continues to improve, but for whom?
05:50 – Reihan – Barta’a Checkpoint, Seamline Zone Side
Yellow taxis were waiting for people to cross to the seamline zone. Our friends the seamstresses who work in Barta’a were already sitting in their transport vehicle and received us with broad smiles. We walked down the sleeve to the entrance to the terminal and the relatively few people who were crossing in the other direction towards the seamline zone passed us. Two regular windows were operating in the terminal and two new ones at the far end that operate by means of facial recognition. The new windows have colored lights and are faster than the other biometric ones. People like the fact that crossing is now faster and one person commented: “This is something really good.” The operations manager of the checkpoint came up to us in a friendly manner and is amazed that we arrived so early from Haifa. He hopes that the new faster system will allow more people to cross at Barta’a Checkpoint in the morning and agrees with us that everyone who is allowed to cross here in the afternoon should also be allowed to cross here in the morning. The settler who runs the kiosk is also extremely interested because he will have a larger clientele, and thinks that this will happen in the next few weeks. The occupation is becoming more elaborate and sophisticated.
We met a person in the upper parking lot who complained that despite the fact that his home and land were on the other side of the separation barrier he now only received a permit for three months. He had previously received permits that were valid for two years. We referred him to the hotline for the protection of the individual.
06:30 – A’anin Checkpoint
The sun rose over the checkpoint on time, but the soldiers arrived late. Men and women soldiers from the military police arrived at 06:40, opened the gates, and called people to be checked in groups of three, then by fives, and finally everyone crossed in an orderly line. 37 men, 4 women who were happily going to visit relatives in Um a Reihan, and two tractors crossed.
07:10 – Tura – Shaked Checkpoint
מA few pedestrians crossed to the seamline zone and two vehicles crossed in each direction.
07:20 – Several high school girls arrived wearing school uniforms of striped dresses and black hijab. We left.
'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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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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