The Northern checkpoints: The apparent routine is not the whole story
16:30 – 15;00
15:00 – Barta’a Checkpoint
In the upper parking lot (located in the Seam Zone), mainly women are waiting, who are returning home to the West Bank after working in the Seamline Zone, and a few men with heavy baskets. Palestinian taxis that have permits to cross back and forth from the West Bank to the Seamline Zone, pick them up and they set out with no inspection at the vehicle checkpoint and without having to make the arduous journey by foot through the long sleeve (enclosed sleeve though which people pass) to the terminal.
Hundreds of workers go down through the sleeve and cross to the West Bank via the terminal, some of them supplied with rugelach for Shabbat, from the kiosk that is open. The kiosk (a Shekem concession) that was built in the upper parking lot half a year ago, hasn’t functioned at all.
Six trucks with merchandise go to the inspection shed and afterward, continue to the shuk (market) in East Barta’a, in the Seamline Zone (next to the Israeli West Barta’a).
16:00 – Tura Checkpoint
Cars pass in two directions. Wedding season has begun, and a group of young men from Tura, leave for work as waiters at a wedding in Umm al Fahm. An older couple from Tura leaves for a family visit in Israel and bring fruit from their orchard with them. They generously treated us to sweet, delicious plums.
Two students return from the Seamline Zone, from the university in Jenin, which they attend a few times a week.
This is the routine one sees at the checkpoints, but this is not the whole story.
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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