'Anin, Reihan, Shaked, Mon 20.6.11, Morning

Place:

Barta'a-Reihan

Tura-Shaked

'Anin

Tags:

Hitches at checkpoints

Observers:

Leah R., Anna N.S.

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Jun-20-2011

Morning

0610 A'anin Agricultural CP

People tell us that the CP has opened as usual at six; so far about 30 people have gone through and about the same number are waiting. Recently, permits have been distributed, but not generously. Every family received one permit, if at all. According to the people we spoke to, there many farmers with land on the other side of the Fence who did not get any permit to go across. We remind whoever needs a reminder, that distributing permits is not a 'right' but a duty by the occupier's definition of agricultural gates info-icon in the Fence: 'that the occupier will not prevent farmers from cultivating their lands.' Then they made a commitment …

The passage is conducted through the middle gate; they are making lists on paper because there is no computer. This always causes mistakes, which cause arguments when people return, as we have seen more than once. Young fellows aged 12-16 are not allowed to go out even if they are accompanied by a parent. This is the same problem that has never been solved in relation to this age group. They are not given identity cards, but they are still considered mature enough to need a permit. A woman accompanied by her young son has to go through by herself because he is not allowed to go with her. Yet, according to tradition, a woman is not allowed to go out alone in public …

0620. About 20 people are still waiting. A group of people denied passage is standing at the side. There is no representative of the DCO.

0630. We hear shouting and arguments. Somebody is yelling provocatively: 'Call the police!". Most of the young boys return to the village; while one refuses to move. He insists on going through. There is no way to find out who the person is even though we know what the argument is about. At one stage, two soldiers grab the fellow, one on his right and one on his left, and drag and push him to the passage of the CP yelling "Be careful!" and so on.

The end of the story: We have bought one more fan for the national team. Now we can close the CP and go out to carry out some tasks of defense, protecting the nation of Israel from those who wish to do it evil.

0650 Tura-Shaked CP

Soldiers are concentrating on the task of opening the CP.

0700The CP has been opened. About 20 people from the West Bank (from 'the Red side') are waiting near the turnstile at the entrance to the inspection pavilion. Then another 20 will arrive, and among them teachers going to East Barta'a, to proctor matriculation exams, and so on. Here, too, they are recording names on paper. The tempo of the passage is reasonable.

A young shepherd is waiting to go through; the young lambs do not know about order and discipline. They break through the CP and stop the passage. After a quarter of an hour he goes through with the herd and order is restored.

Our acquaintance, Y., arrives with a young woman relative and a young boy. She is on her way to the DCO to renew her permit. Y. is nervous because of the 'catch': Her permit is not valid, but in order to renew it she has to go through the CP. How will she go through without a permit? He calls the DCO, upset, talks to the soldiers, presents documents, goes ahead and comes back. The soldiers examine the papers, call whoever they have to call and in the end let her go through. Since all of this is happening in the middle of the CP [which we see only partly], when Y. comes out, we ask about what happened. At first he refuses to talk. We are surprised; usually we are on good terms. And then suddenly his tongue is freed, and this nice man who usually smiles and jokes with us, takes all his anger out on us. We are to blame! It's all because of us! Why do we come here at all if we do not help? He yells at us like a pressure cooker whose valve has blown out: "Go away from here! Don't come here ….. !" We think that if others feel this way, swallow their resentment and restrain themselves until the day when they explode - and that day will come, it must come because how much can people absorb – then neither we nor any fence nor any wall will be able to stand against the frustration and the hate and the pain that have accumulated for decades among these people, some of whom were born to the occupation.

0815 New Barta'a CP (Reihan in the name of the Settlement)

The head of the Barta'a council and his assistants are distributing flyers to people who are going through the CP. Today there are elections to the Palestinian Office of Commerce, and just as is done in our country, they are trying to influence the results until the very last minute.

A young man from East Barta'a and his wife, an Israeli from West Barta'a, live on both sides of the wadi that separates the Israeli Barta'a from the Palestinian Barta'a. She has not moved officially to East Barta'a so as not to lose her civil rights, and he is prevented from moving to live with her. Thus, they live at a walking distance of five minutes from one another. In order to see him, she and two toddlers and another one in her stomach must travel to Jenin via Jalameh, because Israeli Arabs are allowed to go through to the West Bank only there. He is not allowed to take three steps, to cross the border between the two villages and to see his family. The absurdity shouts to the heavens!

Now the woman was caught in her husband's house. Somebody apparently informed on her and somebody from Israel came to her house and found it empty. They inspected the refrigerator, the garbage pail; they took pictures and noted: there is no sign of everyday life in that house. They found her in her husband's house and cancelled her health insurance.

Afterwards they said, why are you shocked? That is the routine. Nothing out of the ordinary. They take pictures, record the facts and pass them on to wherever facts like these get passed on, and they do what they do.

0900 We left.

Our boys had a hard day.

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).