A'anin: The Border Patrol is late opening the checkpoint

Place:

'Anin

Barta'a-Reihan

Tura-Shaked

Ya'bed-Dotan

Observers:

Hagar Dror, Neta Golan (Reporting) Translation: Bracha Ben-Avraham

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Nov-10-2021

Afternoon

14:30 – Barta’a – Reihan Checkpoint

We drove along Route 611 from Barta’a Checkpoint to Harish. We didn’t see any people crossing through the holes in the fence but the large number of cars parked near the villages of Dahar Al Abed and Kaikis indicated that many people had crossed into Israel this morning. A police car was parked at the junction to Route 596 and another was blocking the entrance above the parking lot on the seamline zone side of Reihan – Barta’a Checkpoint. Only a few people were returning from work at this hour. The parking lot on the Palestinian side of the checkpoint and those along the road were full. The parking lot for trucks was also full.

14:40 Yaabed Dotan Checkpoint

An army vehicle was parked opposite the watchtower but it was not delaying cars from driving through in both directions.

15:00 On our way back to the seamline zone we passed Barta’a Checkpoint again. The parking lots were still full and the police cars were still parked and blocking the road to the upper parking lot.

15:10 – Tura – Shaked Checkpoint

The parking lot on the way to the checkpoint, usually empty, was now filled with various kinds of army vehicles.

As usual there was little pedestrian or vehicle traffic. A woman and her son were waiting for her husband to arrive in his car. They were residents of Um A-Reihan who were returning from Nablus. A young man crossed in a shiny clean car, stopped, and asked if we were in Israel or Palestine. I answered that we were in Palestine and he took out a Palestinian flag that he had put on his car. The soldiers had not allowed him to cross until he took it down.

15:25 A’anin Checkpoint

The ongoing problems with A’anin Checkpoint's opening hours during the olive harvest continue. According to the District Coordination and Liaison Office(DCL), the checkpoint is supposed to open from 07:00 – 07:15, but the border patrol who are responsible for opening the checkpoint have less precise hours. Last Monday the checkpoint only opened at 10:10 after our intense intervention - Shuli's with the DCL, and mine with the Civil Authorities. This morning the checkpoint opened early at 06:20 and two tractor drivers crossed who had made sure to arrive early at 06:00. A. and his wife arrived with their tractor at 06:30 and found the gate locked. The checkpoint was opened for them after Shuli made an urgent phone call. The afternoon hours are also unreliable. The checkpoint is supposed to open from 16:00 – 16:15 but the hours range anywhere from 15:30 – 17:00.

M., his son, and an additional tractor driver were already waiting along with five cheerful young men from M.’s family. They had come for a day of fun and not to help with the olive harvest. Army vehicles drove along the security road, and M. explained that they were taking part in the large military exercise that was taking place in the north of the country. A border patrol vehicle also arrived to open the checkpoint. I called A. and told him to come quickly so that he would arrive at the checkpoint in time and would not find the gate locked again. He told me he was loading his olives onto the tractor and that the checkpoint was due to open at 16:00. Evidently he still believes in the IDF border patrol clock.

15:55 A. and his wife arrived. We hurried to leave before the people crossed. There were a lot of army vehicles along Route 6535 from Mei Ami to Wadi Eron taking part in the exercise. A police car was blocking the entrance to Um Al Fahem causing a severe traffic jam. We were forced to leave early and didn’t manage to get where we wanted to go.

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).

Ya’abad-Dotan

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This checkpoint is located on road 585, at the crossroads of Mevo Dotan settler-colony / Jenin/ Ya’abad. It has an army watchtower (‘pillbox’ post) and concrete blocs that slow down vehicular traffic. It was erected when Barta’a Checkpoint, lying to the west on the Separation Fence, was privatized and its operation was passed over to civilian security personnel. Since December 2009 this checkpoint enables flow of Palestinian vehicular traffic towards the Barta’a Checkpoint. Seldom is it manned by soldiers sitting in the watchtower, who conduct random inspections of vehicles and passengers. (february 2020)