Barta'a checkpoint: cheaper and faster to cross a breach in the fence

Place:

Barta'a-Reihan

Tura-Shaked

Tags:

Separation fence

Northern checkpoints

Observers:

Hannah H. (Reporting) and Tami R. (Photographs) Marcia L., Translation

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Jul-1-2021

Afternoon

Tura checkpoint: the lonely house

Photo:

Tami Ritov

The home of the residents of Tura, linked to the Shaked settlement and far from the village houses

Barta'a checkpoint: extra carousel

Photo:

Tami Ritov

15:30 – Tura Checkpoint

We traveled on the new lane to the lone house that belongs to a family from the village of Tura, but was cut off from the village and now remains in the Seam Zone. The lane branches off from the road next to the checkpoint. It is paved with kurkar, a type of sandstone, financing by the Tura Council, the Palestinian Authority, or the Liaison and Coordination Administration (there are several versions). It received this kurkar as surplus from the expansion of the settlement of Shaked. To our surprise, the house actually borders the settlement’s fence.

At the checkpoint, workers cross from the Seamline Zone to home in the West Bank; a car with passengers returns from the market in Jenin; a worker leaves the settlement of Reihan to work a second shift; three young boys from Daher El Malec leave to work in charcoal packaging in Ya’bed and a young boy who leaves to enjoy himself in Ya’bed, joins them.

16:30 – Barta’a Checkpoint

A convoy of contractors’ cars returns workers to the checkpoint – hundreds of them –most returning from work in Israel. Tomorrow is Friday and most don’t work. Therefore, today they return with packages of purchases, and they also stop at the settler kiosk, which is stocked with supplies of rugalach for Shabbat.

Because of the large number of returning workers, an additional carrusel to West Bank has been installed.

We met a Palestinian resident of a village next to Jenin. He has a permit to cross to Israel at the Jalama checkpoint (Gilboa) next to Emek Jezreel, but he works in Natanya, which is closer to Barta’a Checkpoint. Therefore every day he crosses through the closest breach in the fence to the upper parking lot of the Barta’a checkpoint, and there his employer waits to take him to work. The breach saves him a lot of time, expensive gasoline, and money.

The passage for residents of Barta’a, who return from Jenin via the terminal and roofed sleeve info-icon (the enclosed passage to the terminal), is closed on summer afternoons. In the severe heat, they have to go up the road that is exposed to the sun, via the vehicle checkpoint, to the upper parking lot in the Seamline Zone.

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).