Northern checkpoints: There is nothing new at the checkpoints, the cruelty of the occupation is invisible
15:00 – 16:15
15:00 - Barta’a Checkpoint
From time to time, laborers who worked in agriculture and construction in Israel, return home to the West Bank, in transits vehicles. Later, at 16:00, when we returned from Tura checkpoint, we saw a convoy of cars with workers returning to the checkpoint from the direction of Harish. It looks like life at the checkpoint has returned to normal.
15:40 – Anin Checkpoint
The checkpoint has become a passage only for tractors. M. and his son were the only ones who went out with the tractor in the morning via the checkpoint and the only ones to return in the afternoon as well. All the others cross via the large breaches in the fence next to the gate of the checkpoint and the road. Even during the time we were there, two women from Anin crossed from Anin to the Seamline Zone at a gap in the fence. (At this hour, it is allowed to cross only in the opposite direction.)
At the official opening hour (15:45 – 16:00), cars from the DCO (District Coordination Office) and army vehicles arrived with five armed soldiers. M. and his son cross with their tractor in a quick and orderly way.
16:00 – Tura Checkpoint
Quiet and filthy as usual. Two workers return from the West Bank and three women return from Jenin to Umm Reihan.
On our way back we were delayed shopping at Barta’a Junction. This junction was desolate before Corona, and because of the lockdowns it became, thanks to the crossing of workers through the breaches, a junction bustling with life, with a