'Anin, Reihan, Shaked, Tayba-Rummana, Thu 21.6.12, Morning

Place:

Barta'a-Reihan

Tura-Shaked

'Anin

Tayba-Rummana

Tags:

Seam Zone

Soldiers at checkpoints

Observers:

Shula Bar (photographing), Neta Golan (reporting)

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Jun-21-2012

Morning

Translator: Charles K.

Photos, from top to bottom: A’anin, Mavo Dothan, Shaked, Tayibe Rummaneh

06:05 A’anin checkpoint. The gates info-icon are open, about 35 people and 4 tractors go through. They cross quickly; one of them praises the female MP. Recently there had been confrontations with a different female soldier. A few people tell us their “usual” troubles: the brother of one lives in Umm el Fahm with his Israeli wife. He doesn’t dare apply for a crossing permit to the West Bank because he fears he won’t be permitted to return to Israel. Another’s crossing permit is set to expire and he

doesn’t know when he’ll receive a new one.

06:35 Reihan-Barta’a checkpoint. Three cars wait at the vehicle checkpoint to cross to the seam zone. Behind them, seven loaded pickup trucks wait on the road.

06:45 Mavo Dothan checkpoint. On our way to the checkpoint we saw lovely green tobacco fields. The checkpoint isn’t manned at this hour – it’s well known there’s no terrorist activity before 7 AM… Few cars. Two flocks of sheep cross the road.

07:00 Reihan-Barta’a checkpoint. Lower Palestinian parking lot: Laborers arrive from the West Bank in small groups. The standard announcement is heard before they enter the terminal - “five at a time.” Few cross to the West Bank. The pickup trucks are still waiting. The young man who set up a stand to sell coffee and snacks calls it a “restaurant;” it even has old sofas to lounge on. There are still parking spaces at this hour.

07:20 Shaked-Tura checkpoint. One person crossing to the seam zone calls to us from the new fenced corridor, “Today things are OK.”

Someone else says he has 52 dunums in the seam zone but isn’t able to obtain an agricultural crossing permit that’s valid for longer than three months. “Why issue a permit valid for a year if they can drive someone crazy?” A laborer waiting for transportation to the Shahak industrial zone in the seam zone earns NIS 200 for an 8 hour day, with no benefits. He’s aware of what he’s entitled to because he used to work at Kibbutz Ein Hashofet where he received “everything.”

07:50 Tayibe-Rummanhe checkpoint. We were a little early, as were five local people sitting in the shed on the east side of the fence.

08:05 A jeep with three Border Police soldiers and a female MP arrives – she inspects, they provide security. One of the soldiers explains that it’s not a checkpoint but an agricultural crossing. It all depends on how you look at it.

08:15 Everyone crossed – one woman, eight men and a tractor. One of them demonstrates his knowledge of the Israeli left, asking whether we’re from Peace Now.

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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Tayba-Rummana'

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Tayba-Rummana is an agricultural checkpoint. It is located in the separation fence in front of the eastern slopes of the Israeli city of Umm al-Fahm.
The Palestinian villages next to the checkpoint are Khirbet Tayba and Rummana. Dozens of dunams of olive groves were removed from their owners, the residents of these villages on the western side of the separation fence.
The Palestinian villages next to the checkpoint are Khirbet Tayba and Rumna. Dozens of olives dunams were removed from these villages' residents and swallowed up in a narrow strip of space, on the western side of the separation fence.
The checkpoint allows the plantation owners who have permits to pass. Twice a week, the checkpoint opens for fifteen minutes in the morning and evening.
During the harvest season, it opens every day for fifteen minutes in the morning (around 0630) and fifteen minutes in the afternoon (around 1530).
(February 2020).

Mar-11-2024

Shuli Bar

The huge wall at the Taiba Romana checkpoint. The checkpoint is closed. But people pass

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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).

Tayba-Rummana

See all reports for this place

Tayba-Rummana
is an agricultural checkpoint. It is located in the separation fence in front of the eastern slopes of the Israeli city of Umm al-Fahm.
The Palestinian villages next to the checkpoint are Khirbet Tayba and Rummana. Dozens of dunams of olive groves were removed from their owners, the residents of these villages on the western side of the separation fence.
The Palestinian villages next to the checkpoint are Khirbet Tayba and Rumna. Dozens of olives dunams were removed from these villages' residents and swallowed up in a narrow strip of space, on the western side of the separation fence.
The checkpoint allows the plantation owners who have permits to pass. Twice a week, the checkpoint opens for fifteen minutes in the morning and evening.
During the harvest season, it opens every day for fifteen minutes in the morning (around 0630) and fifteen minutes in the afternoon (around 1530).
(February 2020).

Mar-11-2024

Shuli Bar

The huge wall at the Taiba Romana checkpoint. The checkpoint is closed. But people pass

View the full album