Barta`a checkpoint: ugly, cruel, filthy - the occupation

Place:

Barta'a-Reihan

Tura-Shaked

Tags:

Filthy checkpoints

Observers:

Rachel Weizman and Ruti Tuval Translation: Naomi Halsted

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Jun-29-2023

Morning

CBarta`a checkpoint: the parking lots are empty for the Feast of the SacrificeB

Photo:

Ruti Tuval

Barta`a checkpoint: the filth of the occupation

Photo:

Ruti Tuval

Barta’a checkpoint: Ugly, cruel, filthy – the occupation

The second day of Eid el-Adha, the Feast of Sacrifice. Route 6 southbound is almost deserted. In the opposite direction, there’s lively traffic going north to the vacation resorts in the Galilee and Golan Heights, but there’s far less than in the past according to our friend Marina, who lives in Almagor.

06:35 Barta’a-Reihan checkpoint

There’s not a living soul at the junction next to the checkpoint, but the parking lot on the Seamline Zone side is overflowing with shuttle vehicles waiting for passengers, who will only start arriving at 8:00. We go down to the parking lot on the Palestinian side and join 3 cars parked there. We’re told that the app used for messages to holders of transit permits had advised that the terminal would open at 7 (like on Fridays) but it now transpires that it will open only at 8. A few dozen workers are already waiting beside the first turnstile. We call the checkpoint office. A kind young woman apologizes; she is not authorized to open earlier. We give the phone number to one of the men waiting who speaks fluent Hebrew (before he got married, he worked all over the country) and he also gets a polite reply, but to no avail. A man who works as a waiter in a restaurant in Jaffa has already told them he’ll be late. We tell him there aren’t any traffic jams today, so perhaps he won’t be all that late. We joke about the connection between Palestine and the traffic jams in Israel and get treated to toffees.

At 7:30, a security guard sends us to park on the side, on the X; after a brief inspection of the trunk, we’re sent on our way.

07:40 Tura-Shaked checkpoint

About 10 workers and one car crossed through the checkpoint during the 20 minutes we were there. A military policewoman promised to have a look at the MachsomWatch website and we learned that the greeting on Eid el-Adha is the same as on other festivals: Kul‘am wa-intum b’kher – may every year find you in good health – happy holiday.

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).