The northern barriers: you can feel Ramadan in the air
15:00 – 16:30
Barta’a Checkpoint
We stand at the upper parking lot at the Seamline Zone (under Israeli control). Only one transit vehicle leaves for the mosques in Jerusalem for Ramadan prayers, along with people who have permits to work in Israel.
Workers begin to return to the West Bank from their jobs in Israel in the Seamline Zone. The number increases around 16:00 but it looks like most of the workers already returned earlier.
We met a woman from Nablus who works as a caregiver for an older family in Nazareth. She leaves for Israel each time for a few days. Now she is waiting for the driver who will pick her up and in the meantime she chats with us in English, praising the city of Nablus and the Ramadan fast.
Around 16:00, a large group of men arrives from the West Bank (who have permits to pass) dressed in white shirts and arrange to travel to mosques in Jerusalem for prayers. These are the last days of Ramadan and Eid-al Fitr begins on Thursday.
Tura Checkpoint
About 20 workers return to the West Bank from the Seamline Zone. Cars pass in two directions, most of them to the West Bank. One car that was to leave for the Seamline Zone was turned back and delayed for reasons unknown to us.
A resident of Turn turned to us because in September 2022 he was given a police order prohibiting him from crossing to Israel for 6 months, and he still hasn’t been able to cancel the prohibition. We gave him the phone numbers of Sylvia’s staff for help in submitting forms for canceling the prohibition.
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)
Ruti TuvalMar-21-2022Anin Checkpoint: A magnificent breach in the center of the checkpoint
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