'Anin, Barta'a-Reihan, Hermesh, Tura-Shaked

Place:

'Anin

Barta'a-Reihan

Hermesh

Tura-Shaked

Tags:

Environmental Hazards

Northern checkpoints

Problems at agricultural checkpoints

Seam Zone

Observers:

Ruti Tuval (report, photos) Guest: Ruth Sh., Translated by Tal H.

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Aug-7-2019

Afternoon

Toura checkpoint 7/8/2019: walking to Toura Checkpoint. It’s nearby… you can tell by the garbage

Photo:

Ruti Tuval

Toura checkpoint 7/8/2019: At the entrance to the checkpoint, army trash for the glory of the Israeli occupation

Photo:

Ruti Tuval

‘Anin checkpoint 7.8.2019.:will he be allowed to get his junk through to the village today?

Photo:

Ruti Tuval

‘Anin 7/8/2019: no junk going through to the village today. Solution – throw them in the area

Photo:

Ruti Tuval

15:13 Agricultural Checkpoint ‘Anin
The front gate is wide open, its left wing lying on the ground. An elderly tractor driver, carrying easy chairs that have seen better days, and four farmers/workers wait to cross. Among them our acquaintance P. with his special ‘bangs’ hairdo. At his age he is allowed to cross over to Israel and work even without a special permit, and he doesn’t complain. He makes a respectable living, installs plumbing in new homes, not just a jack of all trades. His sons, however, who used to work with him, are now prevented from entering Israel, and he is distressed.

The military police vehicle arrives on time, at 15:15, but crossing begins only at 15:25. We wonder if the tractor driver will be allowed to cross with his cargo, for from our experience here, it’s not always allowed. And nor is it today! He is turned back and has to unload the heavy easy chairs with difficulty, leaving them thrown around inside the olive grove next to the checkpoint. We have a discussion three military policewomen who claim that they inquired by phone and did not get approval to pass the “furniture” through. My guest is shocked at the humiliation that this elderly man must undergo at the hands of these three women soldiers. She asks them where they were brought up, and they answer her roughly: “In Russia!”

15:50 Toura-Shaked Checkpoint

This checkpoint (a “fiber of life” checkpoint) is a festering wound inside a magnificent landscape. Today it is nearly lively. A family with small children is waiting for transport inside the filthy container. Cars pass through. Inside this army garbage dump lives a skinny cat to which we try to give water. On the way back we visit Umm Shadi at Khirbet Al Ra’adiya (who still has no electricity at home) and her lovely8 garden, exchange gifts and hugs.

16:30 Hermesh and Yaabad-Dotan Checkpoints

The two checkpoints are unmanned and traffic slaloms there among the concrete blocs unhampered. Between Umm Riha and the Yaabad checkpoint soldiers are stationed at three spots.

17:00 Barta’a – Reihan Checkpoint

On the roadside few cars remain, and even the car park on the Palestinian side is nearly empty already. We park there. Movement of vehicles bringing workers back is still seen, mainly of people working at the Hareesh (Israeli town under constructions), back to their homes in the West Bank.

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).