'Anin, Mevo Dotan (Imriha), Reihan, Shaked, Thu 21.10.10, Morning

Place:

Barta'a-Reihan

Tura-Shaked

'Anin

Ya'bed-Dotan

Tags:

Children

Women

Seam Zone

Soldiers at checkpoints

Turnstile

Observers:

Shula B., Netta G.

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Oct-21-2010

Morning

Translator: Charles K.

06:20 A’anin checkpoint

The checkpoint is operating. The Bedouin children ride donkeys to where they’re picked up for school (adjoining the checkpoint). Two farmers from A’anin also arrive on donkeys, others come on foot or by tractor pulling a wagon(its mainly women who are seated in the wagon), all of them headed to the olive groves – the 2010 harvest is at its height. It’s a good crop.

One farmer is angry: no, don’t photograph here, go to the other side, why are they delaying us? They’re delaying us for no reason, go take pictures over there. – “Mamnu’a lana, fish tasrikh. We can’t – we don’t have a crossing permit” we tell him. A nice soldier comes over, full of curiousity; he’s never heard of us. I’m an extreme right-winger, he tells us, and listens to us carefully. He’s really into it. He enthusiastically promises to set up a meeting with the soldiers in his battalion (artillery).

Major Ra’em from the Salem DCO tells us that the commander is being replaced. The new head of the Salem DCO will be Kamal Haj. Ra’emis his deputy.

06:55 The last person crosses, number 95. That’s how many crossed this morning to pick olives. The soldiers lock the checkpoint.

07:05 Shaked-Tura checkpoint

The children living in the seam zone who attend kindergarten in Tura (on the West Bank) arrive with their ride at the same time as we do. Aged four and five, they run toward the soldiers at the checkpoint, stop, wait for their names to be checked and their satchels inspected. The soldier we spoke with at the A’anin checkpoint agrees that it’s absurd to search kindergarten children, “but,” he says seriously, “it’s not them we’re inspecting but what their parents might have put in their bags.” (!)

Yesterday Palestinian TV filmed on both sides of the checkpoint. They’ll broadcast the film this Saturday at 9 AM.

07:30 Reihan-Barta’a checkpoint

On one of the eastern hills, on the West Bank side, on the way to the checkpoint, three wind turbines are turning, filling with green energy.

A few people exiting the terminal to the seam zone through the upper corridor. No delays. We saw the sophisticated revolving gate that can, if necessary, turn into a revolving door.

“How are things?” a driver waiting for customers asks.

“Lousy, no?” we try to feel him out…

But he disagrees. “Why lousy? Everything’s fine, there’s a permit, there’s work.”

Who says the occupation is bad? Here are occupied people, happy with their meager lot.

Sanitary news: two shiny new bathroom stalls at the edge of the lower Palestinian parking lot. Locked (so they won’t get dirty).

Six pickup trucks loaded with produce gathered throughout the West Bank wait to be inspected before transporting their loads to the eastern and western parts of Barta’a.

08:00 Hermesh checkpoint

Open and unmanned. From here to Tulkarm is area A, accessible only to Palestinians.

08:15 Dothan checkpoint – open and manned. Traffic in both directions flowing almost without inspections. The checkpoint commander, a sergeant who looks very religious, a little hostile, comes over to us: Move your vehicle, or I’ll close the checkpoint to the Palestinians. It’s my checkpoint info-icon , he says a number of times. “Do you want to see me do it?” His bored pal tells us he’s glad we came, we’re dispelling the boredom. Add this to what’s wrong with the occupation: It’s boring.

08:35 The old Barta’a checkpoint

08:50 Not far from the checkpoint, three women hanging on ladders, milking olives from the branches. They’re covered from head to foot, including gloves. It’s a funny scene. We’re amazed, and they immediately invite us to have coffee. They live in the western part of Barta’a, the grove belongs to their family, the whole family works in the harvest, from the youngest to the oldest. Afterwards we met our friend Walid at his place of work. Soon he’ll be 20, soon he’ll have his own home above that of his parents, and soon, when the building is finished, he’ll look for a bride. He’s our little boy who grew up at the Reihan checkpoint, who’d always wait impatiently and very excitedly to sell us tea and candy, and make a killing for the day.

09:20 The eastern entrance to Barta’a is a combination of pretentiousness and bitter reality: a fairly elaborate entry arch to the town’s dirty back yard, but not by chance it’s the entrance from the West Bank. The day will come. The arch is decorated with Palestinian flags.

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)