Northern checkpoint - Tura, Anin: Olive harvesting began
06.25. A’anin checkpoint.
The soldiers arrive 5 minutes early and open the gates. Passage is quick. One man passing says there are about 70 people waiting. The woman owner of an olive grove at the bottom of the hill arrives smiling on her donkey. Next to her walks a young man, they both have sticks, ready for the olive picking. Another young man on a donkey also aims down the slope – maybe to the same plot? Another young man complains about the ‘fashion police’ (the soldiers determine, according to dress, who is a farmer and who is going to town). Apparently this morning this is not in force. Someone tells us that this year’s crop is poor, over the fence [border?] it is a bit better, but the oil will be very expensive. People smile, a grandmother passes with her granddaughter, a grandfather with a little boy, women and young fellows travel in a tractor-drawn wagon.
06.55. The D.C.O. vehicle departs, the soldiers moving to a different position, more people arrive, three Border Patrol cars emerge from the checkpoint area, we do not wait until closing time (07.30), and proceed to Tura.
07.10. Tura-Shaked checkpoint.
An unusual sight here at this checkpoint: a group of young pupils wait in front of the pedestrian crossing point, cars are waiting to pass towards the West Bank, and on the other side of the crossing point dozens of people wait to pass to the seamline zone. Before there can be an angry outburst, a man and woman soldier of Military Police come out to the checkpoint gate. The woman soldier politely explains that there has been a hitch – the generator is not working and the spikes on the road do not go down. As far as I can recall, this is the first time I have seen soldiers explaining, on their own initiative, to the Palestinians what is happening. Their behavior contributed greatly the calm atmosphere in spite of the delay and coming to work late that could be expected. We asked about the children who were being delayed. The soldier said she was waiting for an answer on the telephone.
07.25.The children passed quickly, pedestrians passed to the seamline zone without going through the checking building. Checking was done by hand, quickly.
07.30. Cars move to the West Bank.
07.40. Cars move to the seamline zone. Here, too, passage is quick.
A complaint we heard from all those waiting (without connection to this morning’s complication) was that lately the checkpoint has been opening at 07.00 and not at 06.30.
One man wishes peace for everyone – for Israelis, for Palestinians, for the whole world. Amen.
'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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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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