Tura checkpoint: requesting family reunification
15:30
We passed by Barta’a checkpoints. The car parks up the road to Zabda are empty, unclear why. No one is working there. Several cars manage somehow to park below the village of Zabda. Lines of cars on the roadside stretch from where there is no longer a ‘no parking’ color and all the way to 1.2 kilometers from the entrance to the car park on the Palestinian side of the checkpoints.
15:40 Ya’abad-Dotan checkpoints
Below the watchtower pillbox between Amriha village and the checkpoint stands a soldier with a pointed gun. At the checkpoints itself, cars move in both directions. Raggedy flags hang on the watchtower and the memorial below.
15:50 Hermesh checkpoints
The gate on the road to Hermesh is wide open and traffic flows unhampered.
16:00 Barta’a-Reihan checkpoint on the seam zone side
We had no wish to crowd into the filled car-park on the Palestinian side of the checkpoint, not to park on the roadside about a kilometer away. We go over to the seam zone side. A structure has been built in the waiting shed, its windows shut, and we have no idea what it’s for. The prayer rugs are not laid on the shed floor. Their owners pick them up and fold them, put them on the side or take them as they go. A group of white-shirted Palestinian waiters await their transport to a wedding in Wadi Aara.
A black-clad beggar woman wreaks out her livelihood at the corner of the shed. We descend in the sleeve (a roofed and fenced-in track) along with the crowds of workers going home from work at this time. Among them are several women. Few cross over in the opposite direction – into the seam zone and into Israel, among them more waiters in white shirts. We notice a few women and children who do not cross over to the seam zone inside the sleeve, but make their way on foot through the vehicle lane. We do not know who is entitled to do this. One man waits for us to tell about his brother, blacklisted from entering Israel. We give him Sylvia’s card and wish him luck. Several young men short-cut their crossing by jumping over the fence closing on the ‘sleeve’.
16:40 Toura-Shaked checkpoint
We reach the checkpoint after inching our way in the line of cars that carry back Palestinian workers and then make their way back to Israel. Traffic moves in both directions at the checkpoint. Someone says that this morning it was opened at a quarter to seven. Another crossed over at Barta’a checkpoint this morning. A woman bearing packages crosses over into the seam zone, awaiting a ride. Three women wearing beautiful dresses cross over into the West Bank. A wedding, perhaps? A woman arrives carrying a rather big girl, another girl on a scooter and another boy simply walking… The woman sends us a friendly smile in spite of the heavy girl she carries.
17:00
We wish to leave, when a man approaches us asking for help or advice. His wife is an Israeli citizen living with their children live in Nazareth, and he cannot be with them. Unfortunately we cannot help, only show our understanding of his dire situation that Israel prevents from solving every time anew.
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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Hermesh
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Hermesh
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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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