The parking lots at the Barta checkpoint are full to capacity

Place:

Barta'a-Reihan

Tura-Shaked

Ya'bed-Dotan

Observers:

Ruti Tuval (photography) and Rachel Weizman (reporting) Translation: Naomi Halsted

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Sep-13-2022

Morning

Tura checkpoint: waiting for transportation

Photo:

Ruti Tuval

Tura: Students go through the sleeve

Photo:

Ruti Tuval

06:40 Barta’a-Reihan checkpoint

Packed with cars, on the sides of the road and in all the parking lots.

We moved on to Hermesh checkpoint – all quiet, not much traffic. We had gone to see the sea squills as recommended by our friends.

07:00 Ya’bed-Dotan checkpoint

Traffic is flowing. No sign of soldiers in the watchtower.

On the way back, at Barta’a checkpoint, we go through a car inspection and questioning. The guards’ booth is being renovated. The electric barrier has been replaced by a rope that’s pulled up and down manually. A large number of workers are still waiting for transport on the seamline zone side.

07:20 Tura-Shaked checkpoint

Schoolgirls in uniform are marching towards the checkpoint. There’s lively traffic of workers and cars. The Formica panels placed on the frame of the bench are still in place and the tobacco plants are flowering in the adjacent fields.

Someone comes up to us and tells us that Qasim, our friend from Araqa is very ill. We call him. He’s broken. He’s 55 and is the family breadwinner. He’s having chemotherapy in Nablus. The Authority is covering half the cost – NIS 2,000 per treatment. We gave him the phone number of an East Jerusalem nonprofit organization in the hopes that they can help him.

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).

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)