'Anin, Reihan, Shaked, Sun 30.10.11, Afternoon

Place:

Barta'a-Reihan

Tura-Shaked

'Anin

Tags:

Slow passage

Soldiers at checkpoints

Turnstile

Observers:

Ruthie T., Hasidah S. (reporting)

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Oct-30-2011

Afternoon

Translation: Bracha B.A.

A'anin Checkpoint, 15:00

The gate opens precisely on time and there is a considerable number of people waiting to return to the village. Most are young people hired to work in the olive harvest by people who own the groves. Also waiting are two tractors loaded with sacks of olives and tins of oil. The gate is open only wide enough to allow one person to pass. There is a coil of barbed wire hanging from one of the gates info-icon which is sure to injure someone who is passing through the narrow opening. On the other hand, there is no barbed wire along the entire upper part of the gate. When we mentioned this to the soldiers they said that it was not their concern – their job is to see to security, not to the safety of the Palestinians crossing the fence. The soldiers behaved insolently. One of them, a religious soldier carrying a weapon continued to eat sunflower seeds and spit the shells out while he was attending to the people at the checkpoint.

Apparently every one of the Palestinians was supposed to know their number on the list and to tell the woman soldier who is checking documents. When someone arrived and asked who was last in line, he was told, "you are". Someone took the initiative and collected everyone's documents and organized the line. An unpleasant incident occurred when one of the tractor drivers arrived with bags of olives and a bag of meat that he had received from a relative in Um Reihan for the approaching holiday. The soldiers did not permit him to bring in the meat because A'anin is an agricultural checkpoint [and it is permitted to transport only agricultural produce]. This is similar to another incident that we heard about several months ago. The solution, as before, was to return the meat to the relative in Um Reihan and bring it in at the Shaked-Tura Checkpoint, where there is a road to A'anin. This is all for the security of the State of Israel…)

Shaked-Tura Checkpoint 15:40

We were there for a short time. One man and a student passed from the seamline zone. We returned to A'anin to observe the closing of the gates. The soldiers called for several young people approaching the gate to hurry and then closed the gate. They then opened the gate again so that they could drive through in their Hummer. The red-headed tractor driver with his bags of olives also drove through.

Reihan-Barta'a Checkpoint, 16:40

When we first arrived the checkpoint was empty. After a few minutes the wave of workers from the seamline zone arrived. We descended the sleeve info-icon and saw about 40 people crowded around the turnstile at the entrance and about 20 people inside next to the two windows which were open. When they were done the turnstile opened again and only four people were let in. The next time the turnstile opened seven people were let in, and then one of the windows closed, the turnstile remained closed for a long time, and a crowd accumulated at the turnstile.

With difficulty we managed to attract the attention of one of the workers in the terminal and to help a woman and girl caught inside at the crowded entrance. Soon there were about 200 people crowded at the entrance. Meanwhile about a dozen men and women exited the turnstile in the direction of the seamline zone, temporarily blocking the turnstile for workers going to the West Bank. People became very angry and we couldn't find out what was going on. Someone said that there was an ambulance on the other side of the checkpoint. We thought about going to the lower parking lot but on the way we met a man who asked us to help him get through the pedestrian crossing at the vehicle checkpoint. He has a heart problem and did not feel well going through the crowd in the sleeve. We did not succeed because the man had no medical permit allowing him to go through the pedestrian crossing. He said that two days ago the terminal was also crowded and they had let people cross at the pedestrian crossing. Today they did not permit it. The guard said that the crowd was dispersing and we had to send the man to go through the regular way through the sleeve. We attempted to call Sharon, the manager of the checkpoint, but could not reach him. He eventually returned our call when we were already on our way home and said that the checkpoint was less crowded.

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).