Turah barrier: "they" are guilty
05:55 Barta’a Reihan checkpoint (Palestinian side): Full, with large numbers of workers going to the checkpoint, beside the road, at the junction, in the parking lots and on the way up the sleeve at the exit from the terminal. We went down to the parking lot on the Palestinian side. We distributed 5 notes with details of Sylvia’s team, which helps the Palestinians clarify why they are prevented from entering Israel. The parking lot is exceptionally dirty, even though there are attendants who collect payment for parking – the money goes into the pockets of any of the owners.
06:25 Hermesh checkpoint: Nothing happening here. Cars zigzag between the concrete slabs in both directions. The other side of the checkpoint is considered to be Area A (of the Palestinian Authority).
06:35 Ya’abed-Dotan checkpoint: From the top of the pillbox (watchtower), we were informed that the soldiers from the Golani patrol had left (evidently on an operation, as we heard on the news) and the Nahal soldiers had not had time to raise their flags. Traffic is moving with no delays.
07:05 Barta’a-Reihan checkpoint: Still at this hour, throngs of people were continuing to come up from the terminal and walk through the sleeve, including an elderly woman who moved with difficulty. No one helped her and we remembered, too late, that it would have been possible to ask for a wheelchair for her. We regretted not doing so.
07:15 Tura-Shaked checkpoint: We were told that the checkpoint opened at 7:10 this morning – 40 minutes late! Are the workers’ employers considerate when they arrive late? Again, we exchanged words with the soldiers about the responsibility for cleaning up the surroundings. Obviously “they” (the Palestinians) are responsible and not the soldiers, even though this is a military area. There is no local council here for us to contact and for sure no one in the IDF, even though the dirt has already spread into the checkpoint and along the sleeve.
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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