'Anin, Reihan, Shaked, Mon 15.12.08, Morning

Place:

Barta'a-Reihan

Tura-Shaked

'Anin

Tags:

Violence

Observers:

Lea R., Anna N. S. (reporting)

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Dec-15-2008

Morning

Translation: Devorah K.

6:30 - 9:30 A'anin CP and other CPs at the same time

We give a ride to a sick child and his mother from the Rambam Hospital to the Reihan CP; from there they will go on to their home in Ya'abed. On the way I get off in the A'anin CP and Lea goes on with the child and his mother to the Reihan CP (New Barta'a); she does observations at the CP and goes on to the Shaked (Tura) CP.
People are going through slowly, about 2-3 minutes for each person. The first to go through note that every person is inspected and all his personal details are recorded in the soldiers' list. Since the CP opened (at six) no more than 15 residents have gone through. One of the soldiers was asked why they are not equipped in advance with a list of those with agricultural permits - for efficiency's sake - the soldier did not have an answer.

A resident of A'anin dressed in a shirt with 'ORT School' printed on it, is questioned about where he got the shirt and why he is wearing it. He says that he bought it in Jenin and the soldier told him not to wear it in the future.

A diabetic woman went through but her son does not have a permit and he does not go through with her. She asks to go back home; she will not go without him. Only after a wait of three 45 minutes do the soldiers allow her to go back home.

A Hummer arrives; we thought that it brought some reinforcements for the staff, but no, they are having a discussion in the middle of the CP and in the meantime the passage has been halted. A pickup truck arrives from the DCO. The CP looks as if it is on the verge of a battle, at least eight soldiers are underneath. But the passage is terribly slow. We call the DCO and try to comment on the tempo. They tell us that people from the DCO are on their way and everything will be in order. We say that the DCO people are already here and so is the disorder. 07:00 - About 100 people are waiting; we do not see them but the noise reaches us. Everything is proceeding very slowly. People come out with a minimal amount of equipment; they are not allowed to take any more.

A woman from Umm el Fahm is waiting near the CP for her eight-year-old son. The child is returning from a vacation in his father's house in A'anin. The father is not allowed to go through and there is nobody to take the little boy from there to his mother. The soldiers refuse to let him through. The mother has been waiting for twenty minutes and keeps asking them to allow him to go through to her. After a lot of persuasion, they relent and allow her to approach and take the child from the CP.

07:15 We were told that another hundred men and women are waiting below. The DCO people have gone away on the patrol road, so we could not speak to them. The soldiers stop two people. One of them, a young man, is handcuffed with his hands behind his back. We heard different versions of the reason for the punishment. The man has gone crazy, does not obey the soldiers, screams and curses; the soldiers shout back at him. He asks them to relieve the pressure on his wrists. The soldiers worry that he would try to run away and refuse.

07:30 - The soldiers say that until now (an hour and a half) about 66 men and women have gone through. Another 70 are waiting. We hear shouts and quarrels in the queue. We phone the DCO in connection with the slow tempo of the passage. Whether or not because of our call, another Hummer arrives. For a few minutes, the tempo of the passage is quickened, but very soon it falls back to the slow routine. Two-three minutes for a person to go through. A tractor arrives, with the driver and his wife. The driver says that his wife does not feel well. She threw up and fainted in the grove, and he now asks to go back home. A soldier who arrived in the last Hummer says in a hostile tone: Let them come back at three (the hour when the gates info-icon

open in the afternoon). I ask to talk to the CP commander. After I cross the forbidden line in order to call attention to myself, the commander arrives.

"What would they do if we had already closed?" he asks.

"They would get in touch with the 'humanitarian center' and ask them for help."

The soldier asks them to get in touch with him and tell him to let them through. He is not willing to make the decision on his own.

8:10 Those coming out tell us that there are still 30 people waiting and the lower CP is still open. The commander tells us that the man they arrested was caught with two counterfeit ID cards. The older man who was arrested but not handcuffed is suspected of having given him one of the IDs. The young one, handcuffed, is causing a disturbance and gets to the middle of the open area of the CP, yelling and claiming that he did not even want to go through. He just wanted to talk to the soldier. Three soldiers grab him, free the pressure on his wrists; he falls fainting to the ground; Afterwards he gets up and tries to attack the soldiers again. The soldiers take pictures of him, and of us. 09:00 The lower CP is closed. The last people to come out say that they closed the gates in the face of people who were waiting. The soldiers claim that those are people with invalid permits. In the meantime, the owner of the tractor and his wife are waiting. We try to speed up the procedures.

09:30 - The permit that comes through only allows the woman to enter. Her husband asks to go through with her but is refused. The claim is that the permit is only for her. We get in touch with the brigade again and explain the situation, and after a few minutes he is allowed to go through too.

The CP is closed.

Soldiers are waiting for the police to arrive.

We leave.

07:00- 07:30 Reihan (New Barta'a) CP

The last of the workers are now leaving. The passage is routine with a regular tempo. A number of loaded pickup trucks and a few private cars are waiting.

07:40 - 08:40 Shaked (Tura) CP

Many people are going through in the direction of the seamline zone, mostly agricultural laborers with tools. University students and pupils from school are going through to the West Bank. There are many cars on their way to the West Bank; they are inspected slowly, and their exit is delayed.

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).