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Tura Checkpoint: The flowers return every year

Observers: Tami Rituv (Photos) and Adina (Guest), Neta Golan (Reporting) Translation: Bracha Ben-Avraham
Jan-06-2022
| Afternoon

14:30 – Tura – Shaked Checkpoint

We were surprised to see a bit of traffic at the checkpoint.  A car left the checkpoint and drove on to the seamline zone.  To our surprise  an older woman and two children were in the car together with the driver.  Usually passengers have to get out and cross the checkpoint on foot.  A young woman was not allowed to ride with them and joined her family after she walked through the inspection booth and the pedestrian sleeve. 

West of the checkpoint next to the settlement of Shaked there was construction work taking place.   We didn’t know what it was for.  Dandelions were beginning to spring up along the fence – so different from the checkpoints and fences.

 

We drove past Barta’a Checkpoint.  Five trucks were waiting to be checked in the parking lot near the vehicle checkpoint.   We stopped at our friend F.’s store in Emricha to buy ice cream.  F. was busy decorating her shop with strings of lights.

 

Yaabed – Dotan Checkpoint

Traffic was moving in both directions without delay.  There was a sign of one of the military units hanging next to the Israeli flag on the watchtower, perhaps the checkpoint brigade like us.  A civilian driver from Mevo Dotan warned us not to cross into Area A on the other side of the red sign.

 

The former Hermesh Checkpoint   – The gate on the road has been open here and the watchtower has not been manned for years.

 

15:30 – Barta’a – Reihan Checkpoint

There was almost no possibility of parking in the parking lot on the Palestinian side, so we drove up to the seamline zone side and parked there.  Many young men were returning from work at this hour, but we also met three of the women who work as seamstresses in Barta’a.  We walked back up the sleeve to the parking lot.  Many workers were arriving who were on their way home and some greeted us. 

16:00 – The trucks that we had seen waiting at the inspection facility were leaving, and we returned home.

 

  • 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).

  • 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)
      מחסום עאנין:  פרצה מפוארת במרכז המחסום
      Mar-21-2022
      Anin Checkpoint: A magnificent breach in the center of the checkpoint
  • 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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