Under the sky of the occupation at the Aanin checkpoint
Barta’a checkpoint 05:55 – Today is good
Already on our way down to the Palestinian parking lot, observing the pace of the workers exiting towards their transpot, we realized that today there is no congestion in the crossing like has been recently. Indeed the cigarette seller at the door of the shed confirmed: Today is good and added: It’s been a few days.
The first wave of people passing through here arrives at dawn, half past three, hoping for the miraculous opening of the checkpoint at four. These are the workers who work far away in Israel (for example in Ramle, about a two-hour drive). But the miracle doesn’t happen and by the opening time at 4:30 there are crowd and the line is not moving, creating nervousness about being late for work. The second and third waves arrive about an hour later, when the crossing is already more open. Again and again we are asked to advocate for a four am opening.
An older resident of A’anin sat on a concrete block next to the entrance to the transit shed. He identified himself as a building contractor in Pardes Chana. His workers have already passed through, so he isn’t too anxious. He passes through with an identity card that proves his age (57), which gives him the right to pass. As of now, he’s been refused passage, possibly because the transition only applies to work permit holders and he is a second tier priority. Will try again in a while.
From a distance we saw a Toyota vehicle with a flashing blue light down the hill on which the village of Zabde and several parking lots are perched. The vehicle is blocking the entrance to the parking lot. People said that one person was injured there in an accident and since then the drivers are asked to reach this parking lot only around and through Zabde. One of the Zabde lots is dazzling with its emptiness (the parking shortage in the area is huge), another lot is only partially full and across the street from there is another empty lot.
The residents of Zabde are angry that the drivers are sent to enter the parking lots through a narrow alley in the village. They cause riots in the morning and in the afternoon. They honk in the early hours of the morning and endager pedestrians and especially children in the afternoon, greatly disrupting local traffic.
They protested in front of the council but to no avail.
The mystery regarding the Zabde parking lots’ closing and opening to the public – is still not clear to us. Quite a few rumors are circulating and the truth may be hiding somewhere in between…
One of the inspectors of the parking lot adjacent to the checkpoint comes and blocks, with a rope, the passage to the many parking lots which are far south from the checkpoint, because “everything is already jammed.”
On the way to the A’anin checkpoint, we met a young man who’s a longtime friend, who went through a traumatic experience the other day. Two days before, at ten o’clock at night, he drove some passengers in his car to Ramallah. As he was leaving the city, dozens of settlers stood on the road and threw stones at the passing cars. All the windows in his car were broken. The stone that hit the driver’s side broke the window and hit his shoulder. Allah save us! If it had hit his head, we might not have met him again.
The violent militias of the Settlerorists operate without interference and away from the media.
A’anin agricultural checkpoint, 06:50
Sabah al Kheir, Sabah al Nur (light), Sabah al Ward (roses), Sabah al Kishta (butter), Sabah al ful (sweet pea)
Cool and pleasant, clouds cover a soft sunrise, and below them the occupation’s ugliness is exposed: barbed wire fences, temporary buildings, dirt and garbage from all sides. For close to half an hour, about 100 people and maybe more passed here from the village to the seam zone. Most of the passers-by are young and unknown to us. They hurried to get to the intersection further down the disrupted road, to the day laborer employers waiting for them there. The old passers-by greeted us with a good morning and with a bright face, and we surprised the young passers-by (who are not crazy about us, just like the soldiers…) with all the good morning expressions we know.
We waited until the last of the passers-by hoping to meet M., an old acquaintance from A’anin, who is mourning his son, an officer in the Palestinian police, who was killed a week ago in an encounter with drug dealers (so we are told) near Jenin, in the end he did not come.
Three of the fence guards (of the Naha”l this time), the soldiers stationed there 24/7, approached us lazily. Who are you, what are you? Some young Palestinians of their age dared (perhaps because of our presence…) to approach them and joke with them, but without success.
The harvest season is about to end.
Tura barrier 07:20 The absurdity of nothing
The checkpoint, which is usually characterized by little traffic, was even more desolate this morning. In its center stands a diligent traffic light that supervises in green and red no vehicles and zero pedestrians…absurd.
'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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