'Anin, Reihan, Shaked, Mon 22.12.08, Afternoon

Place:

Barta'a-Reihan

Tura-Shaked

'Anin

Tags:

Children

Detainees

Seam Zone

Passage Restrictions

Observers:

Rikki Y. and Ruthy T. (reporting)

Leave this field blank

Dec-22-2008

Afternoon

Translation: Devorah K.

12:45 Shaked-Tura CP

When we arrived three children, about six years old, came to the gate on the Tura side. The soldiers waved to them and signalled that they should go through the turnstile and into the inspection room. The children enter and leave immediately. I object and tell the soldiers that they should not have sent such little children by themselves into a place that is likely to frighten them. There is a loud argument (to the chagrin of my partner, I admit). No, the soldiers do not agree to show me the room that is likely, to my mind, to frighten little children, not even to allay my suspicions. And yes, sending them through that room was done for reasons of security.

A., a graduate in business administration from the El-Najah University, who speaks English fluently, returns from working at pruning his family's olive trees. The land, 200 dunams of olive trees, onions, tobacco, and pasture for sheep, belongs to his 90-year-old grandfather and his 55-year-old father, who are no longer capable of cultivating it. Of all his brothers, he is the only one who is permitted to cultivate the land. He himself has a special permit until the end of February. Despite the fact that he has an academic degree, he is forced to work as a farmer, because he believes that if the land is neglected it will be expropriated. He doesn't think he could hold on to it by himself.

In the meantime, everybody who comes to the CP, from both sides, enters the inspection room. At 13:10, from the direction of Tura, thirteen children, about 12 years old, arrive at the CP in pouring rain. They approach the soldiers and the soldiers make them return to the path that leads to the inspection room, and not in order to find shelter from the rain. The fact is that five of them immediately come out. Cars go through in both directions. The inspection lasts between two and seven minutes. Throughout this time, groups of children keep coming out of the inspection room. In one case, we counted nine children coming out in a group.

At 13:32 the CP is quiet.

13:40 Reihan-Barta'a CP
In the Hanukka candelabrum, two candles are lit. Workers are already returning from their work pruning olive trees in Barta'a. A small truck, loaded with blue sacks, is waiting on the road in the direction of the West Bank, at some distance. The driver signals us that they are not allowing him to go through. It turns out that he has to wait until the pickup trucks emerge from inspection, and indeed, after ten minutes, three pickup trucks come out and he is invited to enter.

The inspection shed is now empty. Inside the terminal only one window is in operation. Only a few people are going through to the seamline zone. The workers are waiting. Inside, six young men with bags and knapsacks are sitting on the bench. They are not permitted to go through the ordinary inspection post and at 14:00 they are invited to enter the terminal. The person in charge is kind enough to explain to us that these are illegal sojourners in Israel, who are being 'treated' ('treatment'? No, God forbid, not something serious, don't even think it. There are about 300,000 illegal sojourners in Israel.) Unfortunately, we did not track their exit from the terminal.

14:20 Four cars are now in the inspection shed.

14:40 The lower parking lot is full of cars waiting for workers, who, because of the rain, will return from work a good deal earlier. Four cars are still in the shed. Three cars are waiting on the road and two pickup trucks with goods are waiting in the parking lot. At 14:50 we are told that there is crowding at the turnstile. We go back up to the sleeve info-icon

. Eight women are near the locked turnstile. It is opened and they go through quickly. Many workers, loaded down with sacks of oranges, arrive now and go through quickly. Between the posts the guards are talking about doughnuts and about the homosexual participant from the TV program 'Big Brother.'

15:28 A'anin CP

We arrived at about the time they locked the CP. There are two tractors at the gate. One goes through as we look at it. The second tractor is being inspected. It is pulling a small cart full of used clothes. The soldiers do not allow him to transport them. When we call him, Brigadier General A'adel does not agree either. In the end, he does talk to the commander in the area. After the conversation with them he lets us know that the decision is in the hands of the soldiers. They hold a laughing consultation and decide not to allow it. The owner of the tractor, about 50 years old, someone who works hard for little money, leaves most of what he has on the cart on a sheet of nylon between two trees. He is tired and disappointed: "This is the way peace is? This way?" The soldiers wait for him and lock the gate behind him at 16:05.

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).