Anin checkpoint: Palestinians' time is worth nothing

Place:

'Anin

Barta'a-Reihan

Tags:

Expropriation

Observers:

Hagar D. M. and Hannah H. Marcia L., Translation

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Jan-4-2023

Afternoon

Another kiosk is opened at the Barta`a checkpoint

14:30 – 16:00

Agricultural Checkpoint, Anin (Open only twice a week.)

Yesterday, the residents of Anin were notified via the local council of the settlement, that the checkpoint will be open for those returning home, at 15:00 instead of at 16:00, and will only be open until 15:20. Because of this, we went to the checkpoint early. At about 15:00, two tractors and about 50 people arrived. They greet us and wait for the checkpoint to open. This morning, about 150 people left the checkpoint. In our opinion, the move to an earlier opening is designed to reduce the number of workers from Anin, who are not farmers, and who cross from here twice a week without spending money. On other days, they take a taxi to the distant Barta’a checkpoint.

As we have reported in the past, the young soldiers who are stationed at this checkpoint, are simply not able to cope with the 150-200 people in the short interval of 20 minutes, the time the checkpoint is open.

15:10 Two soldiers stay at the checkpoint to guard the fence 24/7 with nothing to do. Opposite them about 50 idle people sit who came early; they had to leave their work

because of the earlier opening time. And still the checkpoint was not opened as was announced!! Contempt for the Palestinians is another trampling of basic human rights. In the end, the checkpoint opened at 15:30, everyone passed through, and the checkpoint was closed immediately. The workers who left in the morning via this checkpoint, and before they arrive later, must return the long and expensive way through Barta’a checkpoint.

Barta’a Checkpoint

Hundreds of workers return from work in Israel and the Seamline Zone and go down the long sleeve info-icon (the enclosed passage) in the direction of the terminal. In the shed in the upper parking lot, a new branch of Shekem Kiosk was opened in the area of the checkpoint. One of the workers, a resident of Ya’bed, tells us with chagrin about the settlers in Maoz Zvi, who broke into his family’s olive grove and stole olives and equipment. “Do you want our land? Let the government dictate it, but who are these settlers?”

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.

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).