Tora checkpoint: The donkey does not cross in red

Place:

'Anin

Barta'a-Reihan

Hermesh

Tura-Shaked

Ya'bed-Dotan

Observers:

ina Banai, Ruti Tuval (photos)

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Jun-26-2022

Afternoon

Tura checkpoint: The donkey stops in red

Photo:

Ruti Tuval

An abandoned guard tower near the Hermesh checkpoint

Photo:

Ruti Tuval

The Ya`abed Dotan checkpoint

Photo:

Ruti Tuval

Shaked-Toura Checkpoint: The donkey does not cross a red light…

14:50 We cross the Barta’a-Reihan Checkpoint. Quite a few workers are already descending the long ‘sleeve info-icon ’. Our seamstress friends wave us in greeting. The car parks are full.

15:00 Ya’abad-Dotan Checkpoint A group of soldiers from the Golani Recon unit come to speak with us near the concrete blocks. We are impressed with the army’s ‘melting pot’: a moshavnik from the Sharon area, a Carmel Druze, and a lone soldier from Ukraine – son of a Muslim father and Jewish mother. First they declared that “You have nothing to look for here, go to politicians and to other checkpoints”. But later, thanks to Marina’s experience and patience with years of guidance behind her – they stayed to chat for nearly an hour. In the meantime, cars passed by and waved in greeting to Ruti, who has no more patience for talks with these ‘gung-ho’ soldiers.

The army gate on the way to Maoz Tzvi is locked again.

15:50 Hermesh Checkpoint - Empty of people and cars. The road signs direct towards Mevo Dotan and Afula, totally ignoring The Palestinian Ya’abad and Jenin. The former checkpoint equipment resembles contemporary sculptures. Or a wound in the marvelous landscape.

16:05 Barta’a-Reihan, seam zone side - We meet the workers at the entrance to the ‘sleeve’. Many complain of the morning crowding and the huge time robbery. It takes them 40 minutes to cross the checkpoint. They know how to tell us about the new (permissive…) policy that enables even young bachelors to work inside Israel.

16:30 Toura-Shaked Checkpoint - The garbage all around defines this checkpoint. It seems we will not be able to live without it… Cars cross leisurely, even some mechanized bicycle, and even a donkey-back rider. Nice wild flowers border a field of tobacco plants growing vigorously.

16:45 Anin Checkpoint - We visited it briefly and found it getting more and more gadgeted for the soldiers who are still there guarding the Separation Fence.

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.

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)