Northern checkpoints, Tura: There is a bench, but there is nowhere to sit; there is a garbage container, but no one empties it.

Place:

Barta'a-Reihan

Tura-Shaked

Tags:

Northern checkpoints

Seam Zone

Observers:

Rachel W. and Hannah H. Marcia L., Translation

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Jul-22-2019

Afternoon

Tura Checkpoint: Neglected bench in the filthy waiting area of the shelter

Tura Checkpoint: Garbage container returned inside of the checkpoint, at the entrance to the checkpoint

Photo:

Hanna Heller

15:00 - 16:25

15:00 -Agricultural Checkpoint Anin

We arrived early and saw that people had already gathered and wait in the shade. The city of Anin has grown a lot and there are many additional new homes.

Nine people, a woman, a boy and a tractor wait to pass through. M.’s tractor is loaded as usual with junk. The soldiers arrive at exactly15:15 and the passage beginsin five minutes. Everyone passes through quickly.

15:40 – Tura Shaked Checkpoint

We and all the Palestinians who pass through, are greeted with a pile of army garbage that returned to decorate the sitting area in the checkpoint, which is devoid of benches. The checkpoint is quiet. Female students who return from the university in Shechem and wait for transportation, sit on the only plank (50 x 50 cm), which teeters on the frame of the long bench. The few workers now returning to the West Bank tell us that they again opened the checkpoint in the morning only at 07:00 (instead of at 06:30).

16:05 – Barta’a-Reihan Checkpoint

Workers arrive from work in contractors’ cars and get off at the entrance to the terminal’s sleeve info-icon . A bus, also filled with workers arrives from Israel. We went down to the lower parking lot that has turned into a transportation hub: many transits whose drivers declare the travel destinations in a loud voice. There is a place to park for all the transits, obviously because this morning, not many people passed through as in the past. Therefore, the lot was very full. In the afternoons, they allow most people to return home from here. A few workers tell us they live in Shechem, went through Jalama Gilboa checkpoint in the distant north in the morning, traveled south to work in Hadera and now return home through Barta’a. This is the most circuitous route that wastes time and money. The Occupation doesn’t care.

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).