'Anin, Mevo Dotan (Imriha), Reihan, Shaked, Thu 23.8.12, Morning

Place:

Barta'a-Reihan

Tura-Shaked

'Anin

Ya'bed-Dotan

Tags:

Slow passage

Detainees

Seam Zone

Soldiers at checkpoints

Observers:

Tzafrira Zamir, Neta Golan Translation: Bracha B.A.

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Aug-23-2012

Morning

Translation: Bracha B.A.

05:55 – A'anin Checkpoint

The soldiers are already present and the three gates info-icon at the center of the checkpoint are already open and the crossing begins. A tractor is sent back and not allowed to pass because the driver holds a permit to cross at another checkpoint (Shaked Tura).
A young man complains that he was the only man in his family who received a permit to stay in the seam line zone. His father and seven brothers did not receive new or renewed permits.
06:30 – Crossing is proceeding slowly. People are moving towards the area between the two gates inside the checkpoint and a soldier is shouting on them to move back. Two young men are being detained and a soldier makes them sit far apart from each other. When we ask what is going on a sergeant answers that they (the soldiers) are not permitted to talk to us about it.
A man tells us that his 15-year-old son has not been allowed to cross. The man has an agricultural permit, so we call the Liaison and Coordination Administration to find out why. Meanwhile a soldier tells one of the detainees info-icon to go home. He refuses. Someone says that the soldiers have called the police to deal with the other detainee. We saw a few young people return to A'anin without even attempting to cross.

At 07:20 the gates are locked. The soldiers and the two detainees are still inside together with the fifteen-year-old boy, who is still inside the fence. No answer has been received from the Liaison and Coordination Administration.

A military jeep arrives with a commander who speaks Arabic. Meanwhile two elderly women arrive from the seamline zone. One of them is the mother of the detainee who was permitted to return home, and is a diabetic. The officer explains to her that her son was not permitted to cross because his permit has expired, and she convinces her son to return home. The officer explains that the police have been called to deal with the second detainee because he attempted to cross while using his brother's documents. At last the 15-year-old was permitted to cross. "Luckily" for him the soldiers had to wait for the police, but we didn't stay.

07:45 – Shaked-Tura Checkpoint

There are lots of road signs within the checkpoint area but no traffic.

08:15 – Reihan – Barta'a Checkpoint

People arrive in small groups and enter the terminal. The refreshment stallis back, and we hope that it will provide an income for its owners, a young man whom his father was injured in a traffic accident, and since then he became the only family provider.

The parking lot is not full; only two commercial trucks are waiting to be checked.

08:25 – Mevo Dotan – Yaabed Checkpoint

Cars are waiting on both sides of the checkpoint. The soldiers are busy stretching a wire across the road in the middle of the barrier. After a few minutes cars are permitted to cross in the direction of Jenin without being checked. Colored cars - a red car and two green cars going in the other direction are checked. The soldiers begin to stretch the wire again with spikes attached. A line forms on both sides of the checkpoint. The soldiers then pull the spikes to one side and permit cars to pass. This time they decide to check a white truck…

At 08:45 line disappears, occupation remains.

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)