Checkpoint in Barta`a: Suspicious Israeli women were caught

Place:

'Anin

Barta'a-Reihan

Tags:

Dogs, dog trainer

Passage Restrictions

Walls and Blockades

Observers:

Neta Golan, Shuli Bar (report and photos)

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Jun-21-2023

Morning

The parking lots are emptier than ever at the Barta`a checkpoint, because of the fighting in Jenin

Photo:

Shuli Bar

6 a.m. Barta’a Checkpoint: the fighting in Jenin (a half-hour’s drive from here) in recent days has naturally affected Palestinian traffic to the checkpoint. Those coming there through Ya’abad Checkpoint, which has been swamped with soldiers. Have a hard time crossing it, and consequently the car-parks opposite Barta’a and Zabda are emptier than usual.

We have heard repeated complaints that certain people, when arriving at the checkpoint at 4-5 a.m. are ordered to return and cross it at 8 a.m. in spite of holding permits to work and stay inside Israel.

Yesterday, at 6 p.m., a young Palestinian man about 30-years-old was arrested here on his way home from work to the West bank. He was put inside the small cell and told that he was blacklisted by the GSS. He was released after four hours, at 10 p.m., with no explanation and only a water bottle, and was duly frightened by his jailers.

Since we were seen entering the Palestinian car-park, we were suspect and when leaving we were asked to be thoroughly inspected in my car by security guards and their sniffer-dog. Neta and I passed the metal detector and finally the turnstile. Bingo: a small, black one-time sharp knife was found in the glove compartment. If I were Palestinian, this would have been an entirely justifiable grounds to neutralizing me right then and there, and Neta would have had to get back home alone…

Aanin checkpoint: a surprise. A horse passes without a permit

Photo:

Shuli Bar

7 a.m. Anin Agricultural Checkpoint: Large vehicles crowd this checkpoint, carrying heavy equipment and concrete slabs. Work on the wall is ongoing and close to finishing. It is high enough so that Anin is no longer visible, the landscape we love so much - only a bit of blue sky. We don’t see the people waiting either. Only ugliness everywhere.

Tractors could not cross today either (may we remind you that this is an agricultural checkpoint by definition). For the third time. The mishap has not been fixed yet. And today, too, Lieutenant Yitzhak came to distance us from the checkpoint.

The news today is that a horse crossed unhampered… On the other hand, a young man from Anin who has a permanent permit to cross at Barta’a Checkpoint was not allowed through. This checkpoint does not recognize his permit. Perhaps, if he were a horse…

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.

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).