The northern checkpoints: two days before the earthquake in the south
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Barta’a Checkpoint
At the entrance to the checkpoint on the Seamline Zone side, a Haifa fisherman sells fish to workers and to seamstresses. Many laborers who work in Israel and the Seamline Zone, return to the West Bank and go down the long sleeve ( the enclosed, roofed passage to and from the terminal). Most of them carry packages of goods they bought, aside from the lunch boxes they carry in their hands. Opposite them, residents of the Seamline Zone, go up the sleeve. They return with baskets of goods from the West Bank. Tens of waiters in black pants and white shirts, leave for weddings arranged in Israel. Parking lots on the hills of Area C, are filled with Palestinian cars.
Apparently, this is the usual “routine” that goes on in quiet within the long sleeve, along with the background squeaking of the turnstile. But in mornings, they tell us, there is crowding at the entrance to the checkpoint, and the crossing continues for between a half an hour to an hour. The contractor doesn’t always wait for those who are late and the worker loses a day’s pay. This week there is no apparent serious problem because of Sukkot. Many workplaces in Israel are closed and many workers do not come for work. Achieving a permit to work in Israel is still difficult. One of the workers tells us about his son, age 22, who cannot get a permit to pass through to Israel, apparently because he is not married.
Tura Checkpoint
A group of young people from Umm Reihan, who finished a year of study in Ya’bed, return from enjoying a day in Jenin.
About ten cars, some filled with families from the Seamline Zone, pass through to the West Bank. Four cars cross to the Seamline Zone, a fast crossing.
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)
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