Northern checkpoints: Eid al-Fitr is quiet

Place:

'Anin

Barta'a-Reihan

Tura-Shaked

Observers:

Hanna Heller (photo), Neta Golan (reporting), Danah Ezekiel Clark (translator)

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May-2-2022

Morning

Tura checkpoint: a tent for the guards at the fence

Photo:

Hanna Heller

We hadn't paid attention that today was the first day of the holiday, Eid al-Fitr, celebrated at the end of the Ramadan fast,

Already on Road 65, Wadi Ara, there is almost no traffic. The same applies to Road 611, between Harish and the Barta'a checkpoint junction. What we did see was a military tent near the place where the breach in the separation fence was, and a dirt embankment on the side of the road.

06:00 Barta'a checkpoint, Seam Zone side - Very quiet. There are no workers entering Israel or the Seam Zone. There are several groups of young people, laden with packages, on their way back to the West Bank. One group works in a restaurant in Kafr Qara. A driver, who is parked there, says that there are those who are celebrating today, but have promised to return to work in food stores in Israel tomorrow, because there is a lot of work ahead of our holiday (Independence Day). On Memorial Day and our holiday there will be, "of course", a closure info-icon .

06:25 'Anin checkpoint - Two bored soldiers are sitting at the table in the shed. The nearby trash dumpster is overflowing. A military police car arrives. Stops next to us. We are told they will reopen in about an hour. Unwilling to say they’re going to the Taibah-Romana checkpoint, but to “another checkpoint”.

06:35 Tura-Shaked checkpoint - A surprise here: a cone-shaped tent, made of camouflage mesh (see picture) stands at the entrance to the lonely house. Two soldiers emerge from the tent. Guards, unfamiliar with checkpoint matters. They say that the tent migrates to different locations..

06:45 Checkpoint soldiers arrive. In answer to our question they say that during the month of Ramadan and also the holidays the checkpoint is open until midnight. Two cars are waiting to cross into the Seam Zone. The soldiers are in no hurry to open.

07:05 Back to the 'Anin checkpoint - The military policemen had already returned, but we did not see any people passing through the checkpoint.

We drove home.

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).