'Anin, Barta'a-Reihan, Tura-Shaked, Ya'bed-Dotan

Place:

Barta'a-Reihan

Tura-Shaked

'Anin

Ya'bed-Dotan

Observers:

Claire A., Neta G. (Reporting)

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Jul-30-2015

Afternoon

15:10 Anin Checkpoint

“There are more important things” than the time and the suffering of the Palestinians.

There were traffic jams on the way and we were a bit late, but despite that, the checkpoint was still locked (it was supposed to be opened at 15:00). A dozen people and seven tractors wait (see the photo). It is very hot. We telephone the command center. “We are clarifying (the situation).” Another phone call. “We are still trying to clarify.” I tell the soldier that it is very hot, that people are waiting. The soldier knows but “there are more important things.”

One of those waiting defines himself, in good Hebrew, as a “frustrated farmer”. Another says that we help. How? “You come even though it is so hot, and we see that we matters to you.” Nice to hear, but we too are frustrated. In the meantime, Claire, who works on the electrical connection for Dahar-al- Melech, asks how Anin got connected. Apparently there is a master plan which has been prepared in the 1970’s under the military rule at that time.

15:45 The command center reports that soldiers are on the way. After a few minutes, they arrive and open the checkpoint. One of the soldiers says in embarrassment that they didn’t know they were supposed to arrive at that checkpoint at 15:00 and that when they set out on the way they had a flat tire, had to wait for another vehicle and were late.

16:00 Everyone has gone through.

16:45 Tura-Shaked Checkpoint

There is almost no traffic, as usual at this hour.

We enter Dahar-al-Melech, a small village in the area of the seam line, close to the Tura Checkpoint. Claire tries to help them with the electrical connection. We sit on the porch of the mukhtar and two Hebrew-speakers participate. Evidently, Samir visited them, the new chief of the command center, and told them that soon there will be electricity. Claire will follow up. They speak about a sick woman who needs a respirator and how her husband sent her to family relatives in Umm-Reihan, because it is impossible to rely on the generator. They say that there are about 15 sick people who need electricity for their medical devices.

17:00 Baart’a-Reihan Checkpoint

On the way to Ya’bed-Dotan

On the Israeli side in the area of the seam line, transportation vehicles bring workers. The Palestinian side is still filled with parked cars in the parking lot, and the sides of the road are an additional, improvised parking lot. We continue. The gate on the road that leads from Amricha to Ya’bed is locked, as always.

17:15 Ya’bed-Dotan Checkpoint

The checkpoint is manned. A settler from Mavo Dotan approaches us, full of love. Two soldiers also come to find out who we are and tell us we should turn to them if we need something. There is a lot of traffic at this hour. The soldiers pass cars through each time in one direction, therefore creating a line in the other direction. Only individual cars are told to stop and the line dissipates quickly.

17:40 We return. At Baart’a-Reihan Checkpoint they check us and the trunk of our car.

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).

Ya’abad-Dotan

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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)