'Anin, Barta'a-Reihan, Tura-Shaked, Ya'bed-Dotan
Many people asked for the magic slips of paper with Sylvia’s contact information.
14:15 – A’anin Checkpoint
Even before we reached the checkpoint, two people stopped us on the road leading to it. One was banned from entering Israel by the Special Security Forces, and the other was an elderly man whose relative had received a ban as well. We gave them Sylvia’s team’s information and wished them Ramadan Kareem. The older man asked if we were fasting and then remembered that we fast only on Yom Kippur.
We arrived at the checkpoint early. The military police also arrived early, but did not open the checkpoint until the official opening time of 15:00. Everyone’s certificates were checked, one by one. Four tractors that were waiting with us crossed without any problems, despite their load of used furniture.
15:25 – Tura Shaked Checkpoint
A few vehicles crossed in both directions. Some women and children crossed to the seamline zone and waited under the rundown, shabby shed for their ride. A shiny car came and picked them up.
15:50 – Reihan – Barta’a Checkpoint, Palestinian Side
The parking lot was not as full as usual, perhaps because of Ramadan. The new shed is not yet in use and drivers were sitting beneath it. Maybe that is what it was built for. Despite the fast people appear to be relaxed and smiling and greeted us warmly. Many people today asked for Sylvia’s team’s information.
On the way to the next checkpoint we saw two women walking on the road, who had just crossed at Barta’a. We drove them to Emricha and they thanked us in Hebrew and Arabic.
16:20 – Yaabed – Dotan Checkpoint
The checkpoint was unmanned and traffic was flowing freely in both directions except for the hindrance of the concrete blocks positioned on the road. Men and women are picking tobacco on both sides of the road leading to the entrance to the settlement of Mevo Dotan. Some of the small signs forbidding entrance to area A have fallen down. Perhaps this is symbolic.
16:35 – The Vehicle Checkpoint at Reihan – Barta’a Checkpoint
The security guard asked to see our identity cards. I gave her my driver’s license and Tzafrira gave her an I.D. card. She claimed she had never seen one like it before. When she went to check the trunk of my car she put on a flak vest. The car was OK, but what about the I.D. card? She called another security guard and we were asked to stand aside on the red “X”. The guard apologized and another guard was called to explain to the woman guard that the I.D. card was valid. After about 20 minutes the guard returned our documents. Tzafrira’s I.D. card is an old card, issued about 30 years ago. The guard remarked that she no longer looked like the picture on the certificate, but added, “Today you still look OK.”
'Anin checkpoint (214)
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'Anin checkpoint (214)
'Anin checkpoint is 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, on days with shorter light time, for Anin farmers whose olive groves have been separated from the village by the fence it became difficult to cultivate their land. 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. Sometimes 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 daily 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, stating that 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), and the fence around it has been broken in several sites.
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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).
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Tura-Shaked
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Tura-Shaked
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-21-2022Anin Checkpoint: A magnificent breach in the center of the checkpoint
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Ya'bed-Dotan
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Ya’bed-Dotan
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)
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