Tura checkpoint: "Breaches in the separation fence serve Israel"
14:40 – Tura-Shaked Checkpoint
Traffic, both pedestrian and by vehicle, in two directions. A resident of Ya’bed, a businessman who sells charcoal in Umm Reihan, waits for someone to bring him money. He told us that for 30 years he sold charcoal on the streets of Haifa; now he sells from Umm Reihan everywhere in Israel. According to him, his charcoal is the best. He buys trees from the area of Tiberias and the Jordan Valley for NIS 1200 a ton; other trees that he imports from Thailand, cost only NIS 800 a ton, but “they don’t ignite at all.” The man explains to us that the breaches in the fence were opened by Israel, so that workers without permits could pass through and there would be no need to insure and/or guarantee them their rights.
One of the soldiers, from the height of the guard tower, asked who I am and added that “my friends transfer drugs at the checkpoint.” It wasn’t clear who this was about or what he meant.
A couple from Umm Reihan crossed by foot to the Seamline Zone and waited for a car with all the purchases they bought for home and for family in Ya’bed. These people feared they would not be allowed to pass through with these items because they did not arrange for it beforehand. In the meantime, they conversed with the charcoal seller. It turns out that his business is on the first floor of their house. A car came and all the purchases passed through. The man said “It‘s a good day.”
15:10 – We passed by Barta’a Checkpoint. In the vehicle parking lot, there were 7 trucks. The large parking lot and two other private parking lots above the highway are filled with cars.
15:20 – The traffic flows in two directions. There are no delays at the Checkpoint.
15:40 – Barta’a-Reihan checkpoint
The parking lot on the Palestinian side is full and the guards block the entrance.
Already there is no parking at the sides of the road because of fines given by the police. We cross to the side of the Seamline Zone of the Checkpoint. Two people were praying in the shed. A group of men, some of them young and others less so, sat beside the sleeve (the long covered and enclosed fence leading to and from the terminal) with all the other people who returned from work in the Seamline Zone and in Israel. Among them were also a few women. When we went up to return to the parking lot, the group of men still sat where they were. It turns out that they are all waiters who work in restaurants in Israel, from nearby Ar’ara, via Kfar Qasim and to Tel Aviv. They work the evening shifts, crossed through the breach in the separation fence to the bottom of the village of Qeiqis, and return the same way at night. They don’t have permits to work in Israel and asked if we could help them receive these permits. We gave them the notes from Sylvia and wished the good luck.
16:15 -We left the Checkpoint on our way home and realized that people today were especially friendly. We don’t know why. Maybe because the holidays are over and with them, the lockdown?
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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