The plight of parking at the checkpoint in Barta`a

Place:

Barta'a-Reihan

Tura-Shaked

Ya'bed-Dotan

Zabda

Observers:

Rachel Weizman and Ruti Tuval

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Dec-27-2022

Morning

Parking lot west of the Barta'a checkpoint

Photo:

Ruti Tuval

Heavy equipment equips a parking lot in front of Zabda

Photo:

Ruti Tuval

Blockages for parking under the Zabda bridge

Photo:

Ruti Tuval

6:45 Barta’a-Reihan checkpoint

The entire area round the entrance to the upper parking lot at the checkpoint is jam-packed with workers and transport vehicles. Outside the southern side of the checkpoint (Area C), close to the gate, a Palestinian ambulance is parked on the road, perhaps waiting for someone who’s due to arrive from Israel.

07:00 Ya’abed-Dotan checkpoint

A military vehicle is parked opposite the watchtower. Traffic is moving without being delayed. Drivers wish us good morning. A settler from Mavo Dotan tells us off for parking near the junction. We drive towards to hills simply to enjoy the plowed fields and the gorgeous sunrise.

07:20 Hermesh checkpoint

Lively traffic of Palestinian and Israeli vehicles.

On our way back to the Barta’a checkpoint, we stop at the Zabda parking lot, which we reported on last week. In the meantime, access from the main road and from the lower road that passes under Zabda bridge has been blocked. The friendly attendant is nowhere to be seen today. In any case, several cars, which apparently came from inside of the town, are already parked there. After that, we drive into the old parking lot, the only one paved with asphalt and close to the terminal. We drive past and observe the development work on the parking lot down the hill, which is reached by a dirt track that winds down the wadi. Anyone parking there has to go up the hill and walk a fair distance to the terminal.

08:00 Tura-Shaked checkpoint

Activity is relatively lively for this checkpoint today. Cars come and go. Workers are picked up. On the building site known as Eastern Katzir (next to the Green Line on the Israeli side), heavy machinery and trucks are busy levelling the ground for the construction of more villas that will overlook a sensational view.

At Kfar Kara Aroma coffie shop, where the workers and most of the people sitting there are Arabic speakers, songs of Meir Ariel and Arik Einstein are playing in the background, really quietly. Makes you want to cry.

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)

Zabda

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Zabda
Located in the north of the West Bank,

May-24-2023

Shuli Bar

The huge parking lots in front of Zabda and the Barta`a checkpoint

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