The Northern Checkpoints
6:30 Barta’a-Reihan checkpoint
The junction north of the checkpoint is full of laborers and the cars that pick them up. We drive slowly through the parking lot. A new cafeteria is operating in the shed. Farther down, we see many workers walking up the long sleeve. There are only two cars in the inspection station, while the parking lot for trucks waiting to go up for inspection is full.
6:50 Hermesh checkpoint
We visit here knowing that the checkpoint has long been inactive. This time we discovered that someone must have thrown a stone at the window of the abandoned watchtower and blew a hole in it. The direction signs, as we know, refer to “Jewish” settlements only, as if the road does not lead to Ya’abed, al-Yamun and Jenin. The last rain sprouted “green grass on every mound” (from an old song..).
7:00 Ya’abed-Dotan checkpoint
Here, too, the checkpoint seems abandoned, which is unusual. Even at the top of the pillbox there is no movement. A few cars occasionally pass in both directions. It is so cold here that even sheep were not taken out to pasture. The anemones are wet, they haven’t opened yet. Ya’abed is trying to bask in the sun and a red car enters the frame with perfect timing. The gate on the new road to the Maoz-Zvi settlement (and the olive groves of the Anwar family from Ya’abed) – is now wide open.
7:30 Tura-Shaked checkpoint
Someone passing through from the West Bank answers our question about how the crossing was: “It’s bad! They let people pass one every twenty minutes!” A group of workers crosses the barrier in two minutes and refutes his claim. They are picked up immediately in a private vehicle. They work in the nearby Umm Reihan. We want to know if their nights are quiet. One of Nazlat-Zayd reassures us with a smile: “It’s fine with us, we sleep peacefully at night.”
Our shift was too quiet. We are aware of what is happening not far from here but “sufficiently” out of sight, and worry.
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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Hermesh
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Hermesh
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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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Ya'bed-Dotan
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Ya’bed-Dotan
This checkpoint is located on road 585, at the crossroads of Mevo Dotan settler-colony / Jenin/ Ya’abad. It has an army watchtower (‘pillbox’ post) and concrete blocs that slow down vehicular traffic. It was erected when Barta’a Checkpoint, lying to the west on the Separation Fence, was privatized and its operation was passed over to civilian security personnel. Since December 2009 this checkpoint enables flow of Palestinian vehicular traffic towards the Barta’a Checkpoint. Seldom is it manned by soldiers sitting in the watchtower, who conduct random inspections of vehicles and passengers. (february 2020)
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