The northern checkpoints: permits are not being renewed
14:30 Barta’a-Reihan Checkpoint, Palestinian side
Few return from work at this hour, some of them old acquaintances – the seamstresses who work in sewing joints in Eastern Barta’a. We hadn’t met for quite a while and glad of this opportunity. Students from West Bank universities are on their way home for the weekend.
One of the taxi drivers tells us he was tried for throwing a stone which he says he didn’t. He is no child, a 37-year old. The fine is 5000 shekels, the lawyer costs him 7000, and to top it all he is now prevented entry into Israel. It’s been two years that he is not being issued a farmer’s permit because he is “severely denied”. We gave him the phone number for the Center for the Defense of the Individual as well as Sylvia’s numbers.
We were told of an accident on the road to Tul karm near the turnoff to Hermesh settler-colony. We drove over there to see the place. Much work has been done on this road. A few years ago the road was closed off by a locked metal gate. After Hillary Clinton’s visit (as State Secretary during the Obama administration) the gate was opened and since then, as far as we know, not re-closed. Now the gate is still open but there are three concrete blocs in front of it with deep ditches in the road itself. We saw no road sign warning of this obstacle and the cars passing there have to maneuver between the blocs and jump over the bumpers. That is probably how the said accident happened. At the side of the road is a watchtower, unmanned.
15:20 Barta’a-Reihan Checkpoint, seamline zone side
Many return from their work in Israel and inside the seamline zone at this hour. We saw a group of journalism students from Denmark touring the Barta’a enclave and the checkpoint, with a guide (the Israel correspondent of a Danish paper). Too bad Israeli students do not go on such tours.
15:35 Toura-Shaked Checkpoint
The works on the road and infrastructure from Katzir towards the checkpoint is ongoing. There is hardly any traffic at the checkpoint. Two girls are seen waiting in the shack.
15:45 Anin Checkpoint
Several dozen people, a few women, one tractor and one donkey wait for the checkpoint to open. About five minutes later the soldiers open, not widely. They let the people through in groups of five. Only for the tractor do they open the gate wide. By 16;05 everyone got through. A few more keep arriving. Several olive sacks are placed near the shack. A few are destined for Anin and most of them for the Bedouin encampment.
A woman tells us, with the help of a relative who interprets on the spot, that in the afternoon two days ago soldiers took away her 16-year old son’s permit, holding a new ID, and have not returned it. We’ll try to find out why.
Another woman tells us that her son is being sent to and fro between the checkpoints of Barta’a and Anin. We didn’t understand whether he eventually manages to get through or not. An elderly person tells us that in the past he would get a farmer’s permit for two years at a time, and now it’s only for three months.
The two girls who were waiting at Toura Checkpoint now arrive on the transport vehicle. Apparently they are residents of the Bedouin encampment down the hill, on the side of the seamline zone. We could have given them a ride…
16:15 We leave.
'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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