Barta`a checkpoint: The mother will pass, her children will not

Place:

'Anin

Barta'a-Reihan

Tura-Shaked

Tags:

Children

Olive Harvest

Observers:

Tami Rituv (photos), and Hannah Heller (Reporting) Translation: Bracha Ben-Avraham

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Dec-1-2022

Afternoon

In front of Brta`a checkpoint : the parking lots in Zabda are filling up again

Photo:

Tami Ritov

The village of Anin beyond the checkpoint is growing

Photo:

Tami Ritov

Aanin checkpoint: a beautiful sunset regardless of the occupation

Photo:

Tami Ritov

15:10 – 16:40

15:10 – Barta’a Checkpoint

Three army vehicles were present in the upper parking lot and armed soldiers were present (due to the tension and incidents that occurred yesterday?) Before 15:30 many workers began to return from work in Israel and in the seamline zone and told us that when the checkpoint opened at 04:30 in the morning it was very crowded, and that crossing had taken anywhere from a half hour to an hour and a half.

The two parking lots in the village of Zibda were full and there were not many pars on the road leading to the checkpoint as there had been in recent weeks. The parking lot opposite the village was still empty. We met a woman from Nablus who was going to her brother’s wedding in Um al Fahem, but her two small children who were waiting at the entrance to the terminal with their father were not allowed to cross. She was met by her Israeli relatives who attempted to get help from the Barta’a Regional Council.

15:30 Aanin Agricultural Checkpoint

About 60 people and two tractors were waiting next to the gate. The gate opened at exactly 16:00 and everyone went in towards the exit leading to the village. All crossed without being checked, while four soldiers stood on the side and observed. Within 3 minutes the area of the checkpoint was empty, and tractors loaded with sacks of olives continued to arrive and cross in a quiet and orderly manner. Another person told us that next week the olive harvest would end and the checkpoint would again be open only two days a week. This would force people to hae to travel to Barta’a checkpoint and cross there, which is much farther from the village.

15:25 Tura Shaked Checkpoint

A lot of cars were crossing in both directions to the point where a line had formed going in the direction of the West bank. Workers were returning to the West Bank after work, and families with children were crossing in both directions. A resident of Yaabed who was crossing to the seamline zone told us that yesterday a taxi driver was shot and killed while driving. The incident aroused the village and people were throwing rocks in the streets. The army responded with fire. Another person was seriously injured. Today the army locked the main gate to the village.

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).