'Anin, Reihan, Shaked, Mon 25.10.10, Morning

Place:

Barta'a-Reihan

Tura-Shaked

'Anin

Tags:

DCO (District Coordination Offices)

Seam Zone

Passage Restrictions

Palestinian farmers

Soldiers at checkpoints

Observers:

Neta G., Anna N.S

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Oct-25-2010

Morning

Translator: Charles K.

06:00-07:00 A’anin
The checkpoint opened at five-thirty; by now 30 people have gone through. A few dozen are still waiting. Inspection takes place in the middle of the checkpoint, making it hard to see what’s going on. Abbas, the DCO representative, is there. People say the soldiers are checking documents against computer lists. Relatively many women come out riding donkeys, old people carrying wooden poles and sacks, and tractors pulling wagons in which olive pickers are riding, going to the grove.
The Bedouin children didn’t show up for school today. A two-day holiday because of the olive picking.
Two people complain that family members weren’t allowed to cross despite the permit they’d just received. They were sent to the DCO. Abbas, the DCO representative, told us over the phone that the two of them didn’t come back to A’anin after work, so they were sent to the DCO. He promised to solve the problem. The wife of one of those refused entry said that wasn’t the case, that her husband received the permit only last night and today is the first day he’ll be picking – how could he not have returned?
Someone else: He has four children at home; not one received a crossing permit for the harvest. No, he hasn’t spoken to Abbas…Should he? Will it help? OK, tomorrow he’ll go to the DCO. We took down his information and will check to see whether the children received permits.
Another man tells us about a large olive grove he owns. Despite repeated requests, for two years he didn’t receive a permit to harvest the crop. Except once – for half a year. “Why?” He has all the ownership papers. Yesterday he received a permit valid until November 22! “What if I don’t finish by then?” He has a few hundred olive trees that have been neglected for years. His father, who owns the land, is 88 years old and hasn’t gone to the grove for years. But there’s no one to talk to. Bitterly he shouts what he has to say, gesticulating expansively. “We’re afraid to talk to them…they’re high officers, we’re simple people.”

We ask whether he spoke to Abbas, and he repeats himself over and over. “They yell at us…We’re afraid of them…I’m a (poor) clerk, he’s an Israeli army officer – do you think he’ll talk to me?” He wants to plant sesame and onions and other vegetables in the grove after the olive harvest. It’s his land, isn’t it? So what? Do you think they’ll let him? That the government will let him? Why do they open the checkpoint only twice a week? Why do they close it at 7 in the morning? They don’t have time in the morning to pray and get ready. Why do they close it at all? Why all these restrictions? It’s his land. Yes or no? So why do they prevent him?

Anyway, another person intervenes in the discussion, the whole area of the checkpoint and the security road was once a large olive grove, 100 years old. They’ve worked the land since his great-grandfather’s time, the land was his before the Zionists (came), and now they’ve not only taken the land, they’ve erected a checkpoint blocking their lives, and then do him a favor by allowing him to go through to his grove twice a week.

It’s difficult to deal with the strong feelings and frustration expressed by these people. It’s hard to follow his stream of complaints filled with outrage and helplessness at their humiliation.

At 7 the checkpoint closes. Abbas drives by, talking on the phone, not looking our way. Doesn’t see, doesn’t hear

07:10 Shaked checkpoint
The checkpoint is open; few cross. Some students (apparently) on their way to the West Bank. Cars come and go. Pupils have a two-day vacation for the olive harvest.

A man hobbles through the checkpoint. His shoes have metal in them, and was told to remove them in the inspection building. He came out before putting them back on.

Someone else, who lives in Umm Riehan, bought a vehicle five months ago. He’s trying to register it with the DCO so he won’t have problems going through the checkpoint. He went to Ramallah, where he was told that the information about the purchase had been sent to the DCO. He’s already been to the DCO four times, waited hours only to hear that not all the documents had been received. Sometimes they do him a favor and let him cross, sometimes they refuse because he’s not listed.

Mahdi suggests the man go to the DCO now and he’ll handle him personally. The man decides to drive to the DCO, he drives into the middle of the checkpoint and we wait to see whether or not he’ll get through. After a few minutes waiting and a check he calls to us that they let him through – but “this is the last time…”

08:00 Barta’a-Reihan checkpoint
The parking lot is filled with cars. Four drivers wait under the canopy, some praying. Pickup trucks and private cars from the West Bank are waiting to be inspected. Drivers sit meanwhile on the road in the shade of the cars, smoking a narghila.

A line of cars on the way to the West Bank wait to be inspected. Taxi passengers wait outside the vehicle.

Another noticeable innovation in the ornamental garden. After decorating the plaza with concrete cubes that look like backgammon dice, here’s the real thing: black and white pavement stones – backgammon! You can play at the checkpoint.

A refreshing innovation: two new bathrooms, for men and for women, fully furnished. There’s even a mirror in the women’s bathroom, that Ron promised to install (two years ago) – Ron keeps his promise!

People occasionally cross to Barta’a while we’re here.

08:20 Hermesh checkpoint
The two barriers in the middle of the road with the yellow iron bars are closed as usual. For security reasons, I assume…The Hermesh checkpoint, on the road to Tulkarm, is open. There are no soldiers there.

Dotan checkpoint
A soldier with an American accent, filled with good intentions, explains politely that we can’t stand here, only over there. For our own security, of course. He can’t guarantee our safety here. This is a checkpoint. We explain politely that where we’re standing is not a checkpoint, and anyway…etc. etc. He doesn’t agree. Tells us that he’ll stop letting vehicles cross as long as we stand there. We tell him that’s illegal, and wonder whether to complain, meanwhile writing down what’s happening. He volunteers to provide his details and is willing to go to court with us. We give in. We don’t need his details but insist on standing there. Meanwhile a line of 4-5 cars has formed, and the polite soldier goes from one to the other to explain to the drivers that he’s not letting them through because of us. We’re the ones causing the delay. It’s not his fault. They should know!

At this point we saw no point in being stubborn, and left.

Location Description

Anin agricultural checkpoint

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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, for periods of time that are growing shorter Lith time. It is meant for Anin farmers whose olive groves have been separated from the village by the fence. 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. At times 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 every day 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 according to which 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 info-icon ), and the fence around it has been broken in several sites.

Tura-Shaked Checkpoint

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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-22-2022

Ruti Tuval

The locked gate at the Anin checkpoint

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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).