Barta'a-Reihan, Tura-Shaked
06:00 – Barta’a-Reihan Checkpoint
The upper parking lot is filled with workers and cars. Many workers are coming up from the terminal toward it. On the Palestinian side the parking lot continues to fill up. The line in front of the only turnstile is not especially long and the passage of workers is flowing. From time to time the turnstile stops suddenly, without warning, for a worker or two returning to the West Bank from night shifts in the seam line zone. The turnstile serves also for those returning to the West Bank and therefore must be turned in the opposite direction. In front of our eyes, three workers were injured because of this. Since the beginning of the construction work there has been no shade in the entire area. A worker who forgot his identity card in the car, in the Seamline Zone, came to the checkpoint. He knew the driver, but was unable to locate him. We tried to help, and even went through the checkpoint a second time, spoke with his brother and met his uncle, who could not locate the driver as well. Obviously, they did not let the worker go through without an identity card.
07:00 – Tura-Shaked Checkpoint
This time we arrived late, but were told that there were no problems with the passage this morning. Several cars pick up men and women who had arrived from the West Bank and the checkpoint was quiet again. We walked around a bit in the field next to the checkpoint, and a little after 08:00 we traveled to Daher el Malec, to see the change in the village, which has recently been connected to the electricity grid. Within a minute, we were invited for tea and coffee with Mrs. H., who sent her son to call a cousin who spoke Hebrew. They told us with happiness about the big change in their lives. We heard about the history of the village that was built by the Ar’ara family in 1929, and about the good relations with the neighboring settlements of Hinanit, Tal Menashe, and Shaked, where V. has worked as a gardener for many years. In honor of the connection to electricity, neighbors heaped presents on them, including a washing machine. We heard (for the first time) that the night after the murder of the policemen on Temple Mount, a group of young Jews came to the village and succeeded in damaging two cars. Soldiers were called and arrived within minutes, and the rioters fled.
Not far from Daher el Malec there is a very small village, Hirbet Ra’adiye, 7-8 houses, that people from Umm al-Fahm founded in 1948. Our hosts thought the time has come to also connect that village to electricity.
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).
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Tura-Shaked
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Tura-Shaked
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-21-2022Anin Checkpoint: A magnificent breach in the center of the checkpoint
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