The northern checkpoints: the army perpetuates and cultivates the ignorance of the soldiers
We met soldiers who are convinced that “It’s all ours ” (i.e., the entire occupied West Bank), that if we don’t think that way then we are “In favor of the Palestinians (and against the soldiers),” who have no idea who and what the Green Line is, and more.
Who perpetuates the soldiers’ ignorance? What does it serve?
6:00 a.m. Barta’a Checkpoint – we enter the Palestinian car-park with the car, and from far away the usher calls out: You Gotta a permit to inter? We laugh…
Crossing from the West Bank to the Seam Zone flows unhampered at this time. People disembark from cabs or come by foot from one of the distant car parks, enter the transit shed and over to the terminal. No waiting lines. No traffic jams. From there they go to work inside Israel. But not everyone. Two younger men approached us. One showed us an impeccable permit of transit and sojourn inside Israel, including night, and complained that he had been turned back. We could not understand: was he suddenly blacklisted? If and why did he not follow the instruction to go back and come in again at 8 a.m.? He said he came at 5 a.m., has work in Tel Aviv, and if he gets there so late, there is no point in even getting on his way. The checkpoint director’s message was that workers cross automatically in the first few hours, and whoever could not cross is asked to come back at
8 a.m. Only then can they check why he was stopped. The young man claimed this happens once in a while, and when he gets to the checkpoint the next time there is no problem. We were told that if he would return at 8 he would be told why he was stopped.
6:45 Tayibe-Roumana Checkpoint (gate 154) – we were late for the opening of the checkpoint, and the last ones to cross – a small group of women, girls and children – already crossed to the Seam Zone as we arrived. We went down to see the wall, the gate was opened, and the power of the wall hit us like a hammer. Two girl-soldiers, one of them a second lieutenant, were sent to us by the DCO to tell us that “You mustn’t be there!” We patiently explained that “We shall stand as we have all these years – as long as we wish.”
On our way we picked up a man who had trouble walking. He has had knee surgery. He said that today Anin villagers crossed at the Tayibe-Roumana Checkpoint as well, because the Anin checkpoint has been closed due to construction of the gate in the wall.
7:15 Anin Checkpoint (gate 214)
No crossing today. The wall is being constructed slowly, today the gate is being installed. Several workers and a few soldiers are there. Three came to see who we were. They, too, have never heard of us. We repeated the main facts of our history and agenda, and obviously their ears heard nothing…
7:30 Toura-Shaked Checkpoint (gate 300)
Most of the workers have already crossed. One of them said the gate was opened on time today, at 7. “The Border Policemen began working here not long ago, now they are alright. At first they were tough, but they got over it…” Two Border Policemen came to send us away. They have already heard that we were around. We refused to budge and a restrained but unpleasant discussion ensued about our right to stand there. The officer, hostile, claimed that no paper we show him would convince him. The policewoman, resident of Ma’ale Adumim colony, said “It’s all ours”.
We stayed for a while and then 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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Tayba-Rummana
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Tayba-Rummana is an agricultural checkpoint. It is located in the separation fence in front of the eastern slopes of the Israeli city of Umm al-Fahm. The Palestinian villages next to the checkpoint are Khirbet Tayba and Rummana. Dozens of dunams of olive groves were removed from their owners, the residents of these villages on the western side of the separation fence. The Palestinian villages next to the checkpoint are Khirbet Tayba and Rumna. Dozens of olives dunams were removed from these villages' residents and swallowed up in a narrow strip of space, on the western side of the separation fence. The checkpoint allows the plantation owners who have permits to pass. Twice a week, the checkpoint opens for fifteen minutes in the morning and evening. During the harvest season, it opens every day for fifteen minutes in the morning (around 0630) and fifteen minutes in the afternoon (around 1530). (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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