Tura checkpoint: The absurd checkpoint
14:40-16:15
Route 611: Hole in the separation barrier close to the Palestinian village Qeiquis.
A woman and three laborers return to the West Bank from Israel through a hole in the fence. One man comes out of the village to a car that is waiting for him in the parking area below the village. Based on the number of cars parked close to the village, more and more people are using this quick and short transit route.
Tura checkpoint: 15:05
A ridiculous checkpoint. The checkpoint has electric barriers, inspection points, watchtowers, turnstiles, and traffic lights, but as usual, the checkpoint is dirty and quiet. Close to the main gate, where the soldiers are positioned, there’s a large hole in the fence and people pass through it in the early hours before the soldiers arrive. Two laborers and three Palestinian cars – one with children in it – cross the army checkpoint without delay.
In the mornings (before 8:00), the checkpoint is used by no more than 50 laborers (!), teachers, and students on their way to study (in Jenin) and work, and even for them, in most cases, the checkpoint does not open on time.
On the way to the Ya’abed-Dotan checkpoint, via the bridge which passes over the road to Tulkarm, there is an army car and police car (it is unclear to us why they are there). At the checkpoint itself, on the road to Jenin, vehicles pass in both directions, mainly towards Jenin. Beside the road is a Hannukah menorah placed by the Chabad-Lubavitch movement.
Barta’a checkpoint, 15:30
The parking lots are full. A woman with three toddlers is crossing the checkpoint without a car, from the West Bank to Barta’a. A lot of vehicles arrive at the upper parking lot with laborers returning home to the West Bank from work in Israel and the seamline zone. The younger ones jump over the barrier and take a shortcut to avoid the long walk down the fenced-in sleeve. While many workers do return via the military checkpoint, a large number prefer the quick and short route through the hole in the fence.
The owner of the kiosk confirms the situation and complains that the hole in the fence is robbing him of his income due to the small number of people passing through the checkpoint. The visitor (almost a regular) once again comments how degrading the passage through the checkpoint is.
We went into the new, recently built toilets, for the first time. There was no water in the sink (the faucet does not open) and the bowl has no flushing mechanism, and everything was flooded with filth.
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).
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Tura-Shaked
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Tura-Shaked
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-21-2022Anin Checkpoint: A magnificent breach in the center of the checkpoint
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