Tura checkpoint: An amazing rainbow peeked and ran away

Place:

Barta'a-Reihan

Tura-Shaked

Tags:

Northern checkpoints

Observers:

Irit A. and. Neta G. (Reporter and photographer) Marcia L., Translation

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Oct-2-2023

Morning

A winter view over the Tura checkpoint

Photo:

Neta Golan

05:50 - Barta’a-Reihan Checkpoint, Seamline zone side

There is already a long line of cars on Road 611, before the turn to the checkpoint. The road that leads down to the checkpoint is crowded with various cars, buses, and especially people waiting for transportation to work in the Seamline Zone. Pierre, our driver, engineers his way among them. In the shed, that is in the area of the parking lot on the Seamline Zone side, the buffet is open. A few drink coffee and others pray. We go down the sleeve info-icon (the enclosed, covered path to and from the terminal), which is opposite the stream of people going up on their way to work. People aren’t complaining. A few greet us “Good morning.” One of the people tells us it was a good morning, people passed through quickly, and that it should be like this every morning. As yet he believes in our power. Among those passing through is a group of women. The buffet in the sleeve is still open and there are customers. It seems to us that today a huge number of people pass through, more than we have seen in previous mornings. We stand at the opening of the terminal and people leave to the rhythm of the sound of the carousel turning. A man stands beyond the carousel that leads to the West Bank. He probably passes through every morning but today he is suddenly not permitted to. We were not able to clarify more than that because on the advice of his friend, he left the area. Some young people arrive who tell us that they don’t have a permit and then left.

06:00 - Fewer people pass through at this hour. We remain to observe because Anin Checkpoint is closed until the opening of the olive harvest and Tura Checkpoint only opens at 07:00 at best.

07:00 - Shaked Checkpoint

As yet no one is waiting on the Seamline Zone side. As best we can see, there are a few waiting along with some cars, on the West Bank side. The automobile gate in the direction of the Seamline Zone is closed and locked. For many years we have not seen this situation. Border Patrol police arrive to open the gate as well as the gate for pedestrians. After a little more than ten minutes, the first people pass to the Seamline Zone, and the first car crosses to the West Bank. Those few who are allowed to cross here continue to do so slowly. There are also those who cannot take advantage of this entitlement and are then forced to cross at Barta’a Checkpoint, because their work obligates them to arrive earlier than the 07:00 opening here. A few young girls in striped dresses and black hijabs,

are the first to be on their way to high school in Tura. We did not see young boys among them. A pleasant policeman, in an army vehicle, stops next to us and asks how we are. He is worried that we shouldn’t stand on the road lest we be run over.

A large and beautiful rainbow appears in the sky over the checkpoint. Irit and I try to capture it on our cell phones, but the rainbow faded and disappeared in the clouds.

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).