Anin checkpoint: Who do you think you’re hiding the occupation from?

Place:

'Anin

Barta'a-Reihan

Tura-Shaked

Ya'bed-Dotan

Tags:

Walls and Blockades

Observers:

Rachel W. and Ruti T. (Photograph and report) Marcia L., Translation

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May-30-2023

Morning

At the Aanin checkpoint, concrete slabs are being unloaded for the construction of the separation wall

Photo:

Ruti Tuval

At the Aanin checkpoint, history repeats itself... a wall and a tower.

Photo:

Ruti Tuval

A donkey-drawn carriage at the Tura checkpoint

Photo:

Ruti Tuval

The occupation is hidden beyond the wall, at the Aanin checkpoint

A group of women crosses the Tura checkpoint on the way to the village of Dahar al-Malek

Photo:

Ruti Tuval

Rachel W. and Ruthi T. (Photograph and report)

Marcia L., Translation

Who is Hiding the Occupation at the Northern Checkpoints?

06:45 - Barta’a-Reihan Checkpoint

A great many workers wait for transportation to work at the intersection. We pass the packed parking lot on the Seamline Zone side and continue on. At this hour, many workers still go up and through the long sleeve info-icon (the enclosed path to the terminal) to the checkpoint. On the Palestinian side also, the enormous parking lots are almost full. The new parking long along the road gets wider from the materials quarried from the hills. Years ago, we witnessed the building of pretty terraces on this hill that has now turned into a quarry for another parking lot.

07:00 – Ya’bed-Dotan Checkpoint

The traffic proceeds without delay. At the top of the pillbox (guard tower) there is considerable movement. After a few minutes, an army jeep arrives from the direction of the village of Amrecha, and it looks like it was called because of us. Two courteous paratroopers get out and approach us. They are worried about us and are introduced to MachsomWatch.

As we approach to Amrecha, we decide to give up on a visit to Hermesh Checkpoint which, for a long time, has not been active. Later in the afternoon, we hear about the fatal killing that happened in this place, perhaps at the same time, or perhaps a bit later, because there is still not an atmosphere of emergency in the area.

07:40 – Tura-Shaked Checkpoint

A group of women arrives from the West Bank. They look festive and are filled with packages, marching by foot to the small nearby village of Daher al Malec. After them, is a horse-drawn wagon. A number of drivers wait in front of the gates info-icon for a sign to enter. We are less patient than they are and turn to the border police who are not in a hurry to respond.

We travel home in the direction of the lone house (that belongs to a family from Tura, who stubbornly remain on their land at the corner of the area, despite the fence that separates them and cuts them off from the village). At the end of the road, we turn right, passed the new separation wall. A little before the road system, on the left side, two caravans have been set up for administrative purposes. Someone who works there wonders how we got there (he uses the system road) and does not agree to offer any information.

08:20 – Anin Checkpoint

The area is bustling with feverish activity around the new separation wall.

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)