Barta'a-Rihan, Tora-Shaked, Ya'bad-Dotan

Place:

Barta'a-Reihan

Tura-Shaked

Ya'bed-Dotan

Tags:

Updates during Corona

Northern checkpoints

Israeli Police

Observers:

achel Weizman and Ruthi Tuval, Reporting and Photos Translation: Bracha Ben-Avraham

Leave this field blank

Feb-28-2021

Afternoon

Barta'a checkpoint: the route leading from the upper parking lot to the terminal, the "sleeve"

Photo:

Ruti Tuval

Barta'a checkpoint: A covered and fenced track ("sleeve") leading to the terminal

Yabed Dotan checkpoint: Israeli policeman in action

Photo:

Ruti Tuval

14:50 – We drove past Barta’a Reihan Checkpoint and saw that the parking lots were less crowded than they usually were during the past few weeks. We later learned that there was a closure info-icon because of the Purim holiday.

15:00 – Ya’abed Dotan Checkpoint

We saw a soldier from far off standing behind the concrete blocks with his weapon pointed towards the middle of the checkpoint. He was guarding a policeman who was enforcing Israeli traffic regulations in a place where there are usually other regulations. There is a 250 Shekel fine for not wearing a seat belt. The policeman, who speaks Arabic, thinks he is working for their benefit. The side road that was opened recently has been closed once again for this activity. The cars that cross here with Israeli license plates belong to Israeli Arab citizens (a term which I hope is politically correct). This issue has bothered us for some time. There is a red sign that warns against Israelis traveling to Area A.

15:30 – Barta’a – Reihan Checkpoint, Seamline Zone Side

Workers were beginning to arrive on their way to the West Bank. We learned that there were fewer workers today because of the Purim holiday closure. We did not ask them why they were working today despite the closure. We learned later that four women and two children who arrived from the seamline zone did not know that they had to go to the northern end of the new sleeve info-icon . They walked south and found that the gate to the sleeve was locked, and were forced to walk back along the entire length of the sleeve.

16:00 – Tura Shaked Checkpoint

We could hear the Muezzin from Tura that was especially loud. Aside from that everything was as usual. The checkpoint was empty and dirty.

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

See all reports for this place

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

View the full album

Barta’a-Reihan Checkpoint

See all reports for this place

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

See all reports for this place

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)