Barta'a-Reihan, Tura-Shaked
15:10 – Tura Checkpoint
On our way to the checkpoint, next to Umm-al Fahm, we saw two full buses coming from the direction of the Seamline Zone. As we got closer to the checkpoint, we saw many women, and a few men and children, with picnic baskets, walking to the prayer corner by the side of the road. From there the buses left for evening prayer at Al Aksa Mosque in Jerusalem. When we asked about the small number of men, we were told that men don’t have permits to leave from the Seamline Zone. The women say that “the army can’t do anything about buses filled with women,” so they travel securely. The men are more suspect.
Another couple left the checkpoint to visit relatives in the Seamline Zone. A few cars with passengers cross in two directions; the passage is quick.
15:45 – Barta’a Checkpoint
Here, too, there is a commotion in the upper parking lot. Two buses, and many people—mostly women—are preparing to travel to Al Aksa Mosque. The young people with whom I spoke, told me they were leaving without permits.
Dozens of workers from Israel and the Seamline Zone arrive; most are young people on their way home to the West Bank. Several people arrive at Barta’a with packages of food from Jenin.
On the way from the checkpoint, we see lots of cars are parked near the breaches in the separation fence, next to the alternative “checkpoint.”
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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