'Anin, Jalama, Reihan, Shaked, Thu 26.11.09, Morning

Place:

Jalama

Barta'a-Reihan

Tura-Shaked

'Anin

Tags:

Seam Zone

Observers:

Neta G, Shula B (photographing)

Nov-26-2009

Morning

Eve of Eid el Adha (Festival of Sacrifice), based on the sacrifice of Ishmael (comparable to the sacrifice of Isaac) and marking the beginning of the haj pilgrimage to Mecca – one of the five commandments binding on for all Muslims.

06:15 Aanin Checkpoint
The festival begins tomorrow (and lasts four days), but today school is already out and many are not going to work. The road from the checkpoint to the olive groves is, therefore, empty of pedestrians. While we are there, only three men crossed through the checkpoint from Aanin (in the West Bank) to the Seam Zone. One of them said that he is going to look at his land. Another said that he hasn’t gone to Mecca because it isn’t yet his turn – he is young. The olive grove to the right of the checkpoint has been ploughed but the garbage is still there. Nobody cares, neither the Palestinians nor the Occupier – all indifferent to the filth.

07:00 Shaked-Tura Checkpoint
Here too there is little traffic. Two donkeys with riders and a flock of goats cross the checkpoint from the West Bank to the Seam Zone, but not before they all go through the accepted procedures. The goats need to be seen, waiting quietly by the barbed wire fence and the soldiers, without moving until it’s their turn to cross the checkpoint when the shepherd calls. What can we say, at this soft morning hour the sight is both pastoral and very predictable. Few waiting by the turnstile. As usual we chat with the locals and learn another detail of their lives: a woman from the West Bank who marries a resident of the Seam Zone is permitted to come to live with him, but the reverse – no! A man from the West Bank cannot come to live in his wife’s village in the Seam Zone (the dream of their lives). At best he can get a permit to visit for a day. Many residents of Tura, close to the checkpoint on the West Bank side, do not receive transit permits for the Seam Zone. To cross they must bring the checkpoint/DCO a reason that finds merit in the Occupier’s eyes.

It is well known that only permits that are attached to people can cross...

07:25 – because we have a jeep, we hopped over to the lone house of the Tura family who prefer to live on the west side of the fence, far from the village so as not to be parted from their land. The family’s olive grove is tended to perfection. Their two storey house is surrounded by green foliage and inhabited by two families of two brothers and their parents – 15 souls at least. Beyond the house, very close, are the red roofed villas of Shaked (officially not a settlement but the separation fence that marks the enclave expropriated for the benefit of Israel which is designed to defend them), is green with thick trees that evidence unlimited water. There, in every house, parents and 2.8 children.
We checked the path that leads on to the system road, then returned back the way we had come.

07:45 Reihan-Bartaa Checkpoint (new)
Bartaa (with 4500 souls) is the largest and most flourishing town of the Seam Zone in particular, and of the northern West Bank in general (apart from Jenin), and it draws in many people on this festival eve. Great activity at the checkpoint. In the upper parking lot on the Seam Zone side drivers are waiting for passengers from the West Bank, many of whom have driven into the lower parking lot and left their private cars to pass through the terminal and out to the waiting transport to Bartaa.
Three cars are waiting to cross to the West Bank. Two pickups loaded with agricultural produce come in for inspection, then they will continue to offload at the shops of East and West Bartaa and the Wadi Ara. In the hut in the Palestinian lot cans of cheese are waiting for somebody, and large cartons of ceramic coffee pots "Made in China."

08:05 Bartaa Checkpoint (old)
The old checkpoint where we began "Watch" at the beginning of the northern group is now closed and sealed. In the past it opened for farmers three times a week, morning and noon time. Is the checkpoint dead or alive. We’ll see...

08:30 – we visit Fahamiya where we find our friend O, who burnt his feet with coals that entered his shoes. "What will you do for the holiday?" "I’ll go to my family, but only on Saturday."

09:30 Jalame Checkpoint
We part and Neta continues to Jalame to collect A and his daughter and bring them to Rambam Hospital in Haifa (Yuval Roth’s program for bringing Palestinians from the West Bank to hospitals in Israel). There is no Palestinian traffic at this hour. But there is a long line of cars at the checkpoint – Israeli Arabs crossing into the West Bank. Others prefer to park in the lot close to the checkpoint and to pass through the terminal.

Location Description

Jalame

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North of Jenin, on the Green Line between Israel and the West Bank. A big terminal for the passage of Palestinians with permits allowing entrance into Israel and goods into Israel operates there.
In the course of 2009 the terminal was opened for the passage of Israeli Arabic citizens into the West Bank. Since October 2009 they may pass in their cars.

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).