Tura checkpoint: Military garbage returned "home"
15:00 – A’anin Checkpoint
Two bored soldiers were sitting under the small shed inside the checkpoint as usual during the past few months. However, it was unusual to see that none of the farmers from A’anin were waiting for the checkpoint to open at 15:15. One of the soldiers, a pleasant fellow from Nachal, came up to us. He likes our cause .and agrees with our opinions, but he didn’t know why there was no one crossing or whether anyone had crossed in the morning. He and his comrade had begun their shift at 15:00 and would finish at 23:00. Three shifts a day each with eight hours of boredom and two soldiers in each shift. The soldier called the army base next to the settlement of Shaked that is the base for the military police and the Nachal soldiers who would finish their service here in three weeks. He was told that the checkpoint was supposed to open at 15:15 but today it would not open because there was no one to cross. Our friend M. told us that only the tractors drivers cross at the checkpoint. The rest cross through holes in the security fence. He is a tractor driver, but did not cross today because his foot hurt after plowing for five hours on Monday.
15:40 – Tura – Shaked Checkpoint
The checkpoint was very dirty again with garbage from the IDF and there was no garbage can. (see photo) A car crossed to the West Bank and two crossed to the seamline zone. A young man wearing a mask was waiting under the shed for a ride.
16:00 – Yaabed – Dotan Checkpoint
There was a lot of traffic going towards Jenin.
16:30 – Barta’a Reihan Checkpoint
The parking lot on the Palestinian side and those along the road were full of cars. It appears that the closure because of COVID-19 has no influence on the number of cars. We crossed to the seamline zone side and parked near the entrance to the sleeve with its fenced-in and covered walkway that leads to the entrance to the checkpoint. There is a covered waiting area with benches there and rest rooms. A Palestinian resident of Israel was attempting to sell fish next to the shed. For some reason this bothered the security forces and they insisted that he leave. Some of the workers’ transport vehicles entered the parking lot and let their passengers off near the entrance to the sleeve. Others stopped on the road and blocked traffic. We went down to the terminal with the workers who were coming back. Few people were wearing masks. We met our friend B. who works in the Shahak Industrial zone. He told us that only people who work in the seamline zone can cross at Barta’a Checkpoint. The others cross through holes in the fence. Everyone can cross bask to the West Bank through the checkpoint because they are not checked. The renovation of the old part of the sleeve has not yet been completed.
16:50 We returned to our car. A lot of people were still coming down the sleeve on their way home, and only one woman was among them. No one was crossing to the seamline zone at this time of day.
'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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Ya'bed-Dotan
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Ya’bed-Dotan
This checkpoint is located on road 585, at the crossroads of Mevo Dotan settler-colony / Jenin/ Ya’abad. It has an army watchtower (‘pillbox’ post) and concrete blocs that slow down vehicular traffic. It was erected when Barta’a Checkpoint, lying to the west on the Separation Fence, was privatized and its operation was passed over to civilian security personnel. Since December 2009 this checkpoint enables flow of Palestinian vehicular traffic towards the Barta’a Checkpoint. Seldom is it manned by soldiers sitting in the watchtower, who conduct random inspections of vehicles and passengers. (february 2020)
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