Ya`abed-Dotan checkpoint: signs frozen in time

Place:

Barta'a-Reihan

Tura-Shaked

Observers:

Tami Ritov, photography, Netta Golan, reporting Translation: Naomi Halsted

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Aug-11-2022

Afternoon

Summer fruits at the Barta checkpoint

Photo:

Tami Ritov

Ya`abed checkpoint - signposts frozen in time

Photo:

Tami Ritov

North, August 11, 2022

14:55 Tura-Shaked checkpoint

The checkpoint is sleepy. One man – with a remarkable haircut – is waiting in the shed. He hands a package to a driver who has arrived and returns to the West Bank. A female soldier comes down from the watchtower, wanders around a bit and goes back up again. There is a traffic light, a barrier arm that goes up and down, an inspection hut and other facilities. A well-equipped checkpoint.

15:20. We pass Barta’a checkpoint. A few people are returning from work at this hour. The parking lots are full to capacity. A number of laden trucks are still waiting to cross by the vehicle checkpoint

15:30 Ya’abed-Dotan checkpoint

Light traffic moving in both directions. A soldier looks down from the watchtower but does not interfere with the traffic. Torn flags fly above signposts frozen in time: Sa-Nur was evacuated back in 2005 with the disengagement and it is no longer possible to get to Afula from here. The status of the settlement of Hermesh is unclear. Time seems to have stood still here.

15:50 Hermesh checkpoint

As usual, the former barrier is wide open. On the way there, an impressive line of cypress trees has been planted at right angles to the road. Maybe the idea is to mark plots with different ownership?

16:15 Barta’a checkpoint – Palestinian side

Many people are returning from work at this hour, but the parking lots are still full. We park on the side of the road marked red and white (parking forbidden), behind Palestinian cars. A colorful fruit stall has been set up beside the transit hut. Inside the hut is a sorry sight – a beggar woman sitting there with a baby info-icon . It’s hot. There’s a line of clients waiting at the fast-food truck. I buy a tamarind slushie drink for two shekels. The children selling coffee from thermoses are milling around. The peanut seller isn’t there today. A Hebrew speaker asks for help for his friend. We give him one of Sylvia’s notes and explain how things work with her team this month (Sylvia is on vacation). The Hebrew speaker says that Sylvia deserves a vacation too. She does.

The commotion in the parking lot is greater than usual, a real cacophony of horns and a chaotic muddle of cars. We go to the car with people who are striding to the parking lot up the road. Someone has chosen to rest in the shade of a pipe. Evidently, some kind of development work is going on beside the parking lot.

16:35 We’re on our way home

There are no trucks left at the vehicle checkpoint. In front of us in the Israeli lane (as opposed to the “Palestinian” lane), a Palestinian/Arab citizen of Israel is being checked thoroughly. We’re exempt. It’s embarrassing.

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).