Tura checkpoint: Surrounded by IDF garbage for the glory of the occupation

Place:

'Anin

Barta'a-Reihan

Tura-Shaked

Tags:

Separation fence

Northern checkpoints

Observers:

Hagar Dror and Neta Golan (report and photos)

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Jun-30-2021

Afternoon

Anin checkpoint: so far only one farmer passes through it

Photo:

Neta Golan

Works on the middle gate of the checkpoint, which has a large gap next to it and the two outer gates that protect it, have been wide open for years

A breach in the fence near the Tora checkpoint

Photo:

Neta Golan

05:50 We drive to the Barta'a checkpoint through Harish. At the entrance to Eastern Barta'a from Highway 611, many cars are parked, and many workers are standing or sitting on the side of the road waiting for transportation. Further down Road 611, in front of the village of Dahar al-'Abd, more cars are parked and waiting for passers-by coming through a breach in the fence. The cars of those who came from the West Bank are parked near the village.

06:00 Barta'a-Rihan checkpoint, the seam area side

Many go "legally" through the checkpoint and walk up the sleeve info-icon (long, fenced and covered path) to the parking lot and the shuttle vehicles. Among them are also a few women, our acquaintances who sew in Barta'a’s sewing shop. We walk down the sleeve in opposition of the stream of those walking up in it. Some buy coffee and pastries at a buffet franchised by a Hermesh settler. We're peeking into the terminal, no hurry at this hour. Everything seems to be going "fine".

6:35 'Anin checkpoint

The middle gate is locked, a gap next to it is still open. M. with his son and the tractor are waiting for the gate to open. M. asks that we photograph the strange innovations in front of the gate: a ditch with yellow containers, from which black rods protrude.

06:45 A military police car flies by. Perhaps on their way to open the agricultural checkpoint in Taibah-Romana first?

07:05 The car returns. The soldiers open the gate, M. passes and one woman also passes on her way to visit relatives who live at the foot of the checkpoint, on the side of the seam area.

07:15 Tura-Shaked checkpoint

People cross the checkpoint from Area-A to the seam space on their way to work. One of them remarks that they have only just opened the checkpoint. A driver, a resident of Umm Rihan, is waiting for passengers from the West Bank who work in the seam area. We notice that here, too, near Tura’s houses, the fence has been breached.

07:30 As usual the place is a dirty mess. A lot of green garbage bags of the army, and freely strewn garbage, surround the checkpoint. Hagar has a camera info-icon and will try to lodge a complaint where possible.

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).