מחסומי הצפון: עוברים בפרצות, עוברים במחסומים - העיקר עוברים

Place:

Barta'a-Reihan

Hermesh

Tura-Shaked

Ya'bed-Dotan

Tags:

Updates during Corona

Northern checkpoints

Observers:

Tsafrira Z. Adina, and Neta G. (Reporter and photographer), translation Marcia L., Translation

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Feb-25-2021

Afternoon

East Barta'a Junction: A market is developing here

Photo:

Neta Golan

Needs create natural development:
As soon as the opening in the fence was created, many Palestinians began to use it to move to work in Israel, hawkers of all kinds began to sell their wares and taxis and buses arrived to serve the commuting requirements.

15:00 – Tura-Shaked Checkpoint

A young couple walks to the checkpoint. The man carries two infants in his arms. The woman holds a large bag. It was a lovely sight given the background of this ugly checkpoint and the filthy surroundings. Three cars passed through.

We passed by the Barta’a-Reihan checkpoint. People go down the sleeve info-icon (the enclosed, roofed passage to the terminal). Our guest is shocked at the sight of those marching within the chain-linked fence like animals in a cage. Trucks park crowded together in the parking lot in front of the vehicle checkpoint.

The gates info-icon on both sides of the “bridge” on Highway 596 are locked as usual. Single cars park beyond them. Single roadside checkpoints have opened up over the years. We don’t know why they are always locked.

15:20 – Harmish Checkpoint

The gate on Highway 585 that leads to the southwest, in the direction of Kafin and Baqa al Sharquya is wide open. Presently, the is no traffic. This is an example of a checkpoint that was locked for years and opened after U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s visit in 2012.

We turn northeast, in the direction of Dotan, and on the way, we stop at Fatima’s grocery store in Amricha village. The grocery has developed nicely and the owner is friendly, despite the language barrier. We brought clothes and baby info-icon strollers to give to whoever needs them. Everyone buys a treat for a shekel and gets a grapefruit from Fatima. One can’t refuse it.

15:40 - Ya’bed-Dotan Checkpoint

The checkpoint is not staffed. The traffic is eased after they took down the iron gate that blocked part of the road.

16:00 – Barta’a-Reihan Checkpoint

The entrance to the Palestinian parking lot and sides of the road are so crowded, that there is no place to stop. In the parking lot in front of the vehicle checkpoint, there are still single trucks. Perhaps they are waiting for morning. Workers leave in cars from the parking lot. There are still few parking places available here.

On the way to East Barta’a, a group of women and their children come up from the breaches in the separation fence on highway 611. Two cars wait for them.

16:20 – The Juncture to the entrance to East Barta’a from Highway 611

The improvised market, created by the huge numbers of people passing through the breaches in the Separation Fence, is full of vegetables, fruit, and also toys. We buy some things and travel home via the city of Harish that is being built by the hands of the builders of Israel, the Palestinians.

On Mon, Mar 1, 2021 at 3:38 PM BAR <[email protected]> wrote:

תיקון טעות, הדוח הזה הוא מתאריך 25.2.2021

משקיפות צפרירה זמיר, עדינה ונטע גולן (מדווחת ומצלמת)

מאת: BAR [mailto:[email protected]]
נשלח: יום ב 01 מרץ 2021 15:35
אל: מרשה‏ <[email protected]>
נושא: צפון 24.2.2021

מצורף עוד דוח לטיפולך, תודה!!

15:00 מחסום טורה-שקד

זוג צעיר מגיע ברגל למחסום. הגבר נושא בזרועותיו שני פעוטות, האישה מחזיקה תיק גדול. מראה מלבב על רקע המחסום המכוער והסביבה המלוכלכת. שלוש מכוניות עוברות.

אנחנו חולפות על פני מחסום ברטעה-ריחן. אנשים יורדים בשרוול (שביל מגודר ומקורה). האורחת שלנו מזדעזעת למראה הצועדים בין גדרות הרשת כחיות בכלוב. משאיות חונות בצפיפות במגרש שלפני מחסום הרכב.

השערים משני צידי ''הגשר'' על כביש 596 נעולים כרגיל. מכוניות אחדות חונות מעבר להם. מחסומי כביש אחדים נפתחו במשך השנים. לא ידוע לנו מדוע אלה נעולים תמיד.

15:20 מחסום חרמש

השער על כביש 585 המוליך לדרום מערב, לכיוון קפין ובאקה אל שרקיה, פתוח לרווחה. כרגע אין תנועה. זו דוגמה למחסום שהיה נעול משך שנים ונפתח אחרי ביקורה של הילרי קלינטון כמזכירת המדינה של ארה''ב ב 2012.

אנחנו פונות לצפון מזרח, לכיוון מחסום יעבד דותן ובדרך עוצרות במכולת של פטמה בכפר אמריחה. החנות מתפתחת יפה ובעלת העסק ידידותית, למרות מחסום השפה. הבאנו בגדים ועגלת ילדים שתמסור למי שזקוק. כל אחת קונה חטיף בשקל ומקבלת מפטמה אשכולית במתנה. אי אפשר לא לקחת.

15:40 מחסום יעבד-דותן

המחסום לא מאויש. התנועה נוחה יותר אחרי שהסירו את שער הברזל שחסם חלק מהדרך.

16:00 מחסום ברטעה-ריחן

הכניסה למגרש החניה הפלסטיני ושולי הכביש עמוסים כל כך, עד שאין לנו איפה לעצור. במגרש החנייה לפני מחסום הרכב עדיין חונות משאיות אחדות. אולי ממתינות לבוקר. פועלים יוצאים במכוניות ממגרש החנייה. עוד מעט יתפנו כאן מקומות חניה.

בדרך לברטעה המזרחית קבוצת נשים וילדה עולות מפרצה בגדר גדר ההפרדה אל כביש 611. שתי מכוניות ממתינות להן.

16:20 צומת הכניסה לברטעה המזרחית מכביש 611

השוק המאולתר, שנוצר בעקבות המעבר ההמוני בפרצות שבגדר ההפרדה, מלא ירקות, פירות וגם צעצועים. אנחנו קונות ונוסעות הביתה דרך העיר חריש ההולכת ונבנית בידי בוני הארץ, הפלסטינים.

Why do we take the trouble to report in Corona times as well?

Because democracy’s watchdogs have fallen asleep on their own watch, so Israeli citizens have no idea what is actually happening in the Occupied Territories, especially now.

Day and night, Israeli soldiers (as the State’s emissaries) help extreme settler-colonists take the law into their own hands, unhampered. They do not stop even in days of a raging pandemic and do not hesitate to harm Palestinians – their bodies, property, and sources of livelihood.

Unceasing harassment of the weakened Palestinian population inflicts psychological harm as well. All – from babies through and including the elderly and the ill – are open prey to Jewish violence and terrorism which the settler-colonists are only too eager to exert.

We of MachsomWatch will not cease to report, certainly not now during these Corona times and under the threat of annexation, about the settlers’ increased rampages, those who hurry to set facts on the ground helped by the Israeli army.

Israel rules the West Bank, and by force of the Geneva Convention, article no. 27, it is committed to enforcing law and order there. The inhabitants of these Occupied Territories have the legal right “to decent treatment of their body and dignity, and should be especially protected against any act of violence”.

Ironically, this is not at all upheld.

Nor shall we cooperate with the commonplace ignoring of the Palestinian people’s suffering, and with the Israeli public’s indifference to it. We shall continue to follow up closely and report the goings-on in the West Bank, in its villages and encampments.

No one should be able to say ‘We knew nothing, we heard nothing’

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)