Northern checkpoints: Routine routine

Place:

Barta'a-Reihan

Tura-Shaked

Ya'bed-Dotan

Tags:

Updates during Corona

Northern checkpoints

Observers:

Tami Rituv (photos), Adina (Frequent Guest), Neta Golan (Reporting) Translation: Bracha Ben-Avraham

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Apr-1-2021

Afternoon

15:30 – Tura – Shaked Checkpoint

On our way to the checkpoint we saw that many solar panels had been installed on the rooftops of the houses in the tiny village of Hirbet Radiyyeh. It is like a real solar farm. We will try and find out who initiated this.

At the checkpoint itself everything was as usual. There was little traffic and a lot of litter. A police car arrived from the seamline zone, entered the checkpoint, and continued on its way along the security road.

We drove past Reihan – Barta’a Checkpoint. Many workers were returning home and the parking lot and the roadside were filled with cars. Trucks were also driving up to their inspection facility. We continued to Hermesh Checkpoint which was open, and there was light traffic in both directions. The watchtower looked as if it was falling apart.

16:00 – Yaabed – Dotan Checkpoint

The checkpoint and the entire area were filled with greenery. There was a lot of traffic in both directions. A sign on the other side of the road warned against entering Area A. There was an unusually large amount of soldiers and army vehicles. While we were there they did not stop any Palestinian vehicles.

A flock of sheep walked alongside us and grazed in the shadow of the fence along the road near the village of Emricha. A soldier once told us that the fence was put up to prevent people from throwing rocks at vehicles on the road. On our way back we stopped at the small store belonging to our friend F. There was a sign saying “Happy Passover” in Hebrew that had been made by F’s husband who knows Hebrew.

16:30 – Barta’a – Reihan Checkpoint, Palestinian Side

The parking lots were beginning to empty out. At the opening of the covered area leading to the Palestinian side there was a “market” where snacks were being sold. Our guest was shocked to see the fenced – in walkways and the humiliation that people are subjected to by having to walk through them. Two people asked us to help them eliminate bans from entering Israel – one by the police and one by the security services. We gave them cards with Sylvia’s contact information and wished them luck.

On our way to the seamline zone the security guard at the vehicle checkpoint asked us who we were and what we were doing there. She was evidently new and did not know about Machsom Watch and had not been informed.

16:50 – Reihan – Barta’a, Seamline Zone Side

Workers continued to arrive and walk down the covered fenced – in sleeve to the West bank. Tami and I walked down with them. Adina could not bear the sight any longer. The kiosk was closed because of the Passover holiday. Maybe people will buy more on the Palestinian side. People were crossing through the turnstile and the door to the terminal was closed.

17:10 – On our way back the same security guard asked us why we had come at that time of day. We explained that we wanted to see the people coming home from work and he claimed that they were dealt with efficiently. We asked how people cross from the West bank to the seamline zone when the terminal was closed. The people cross through the vehicle checkpoint where there documents are checked. The cars and packages are checked at the vehicle checkpoint. We also asked about the truck crossing. We were told that it is open until 16:00 or 18:00. 50 Palestinian trucks are allowed to cross to the seamline zone each day.

On our way home we saw signs advertising the Northern Samaria race – another superfluous sign of Israeli supremacy.

Why do we take the trouble to report in Corona times as well?

Because democracy’s watchdogs have fallen asleep on their own watch, so Israeli citizens have no idea what is actually happening in the Occupied Territories, especially now.

Day and night, Israeli soldiers (as the State’s emissaries) help extreme settler-colonists take the law into their own hands, unhampered. They do not stop even in days of a raging pandemic and do not hesitate to harm Palestinians – their bodies, property, and sources of livelihood.

Unceasing harassment of the weakened Palestinian population inflicts psychological harm as well. All – from babies through and including the elderly and the ill – are open prey to Jewish violence and terrorism which the settler-colonists are only too eager to exert.

We of MachsomWatch will not cease to report, certainly not now during these Corona times and under the threat of annexation, about the settlers’ increased rampages, those who hurry to set facts on the ground helped by the Israeli army.

Israel rules the West Bank, and by force of the Geneva Convention, article no. 27, it is committed to enforcing law and order there. The inhabitants of these Occupied Territories have the legal right “to decent treatment of their body and dignity, and should be especially protected against any act of violence”.

Ironically, this is not at all upheld.

Nor shall we cooperate with the commonplace ignoring of the Palestinian people’s suffering, and with the Israeli public’s indifference to it. We shall continue to follow up closely and report the goings-on in the West Bank, in its villages and encampments.

No one should be able to say ‘We knew nothing, we heard nothing’

Location Description

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)