Northern checkpoints: The heat and Ramadan less the activities of the checkpoints.

Place:

'Anin

Barta'a-Reihan

Tura-Shaked

Observers:

Rachel W. and Hannah H., Marcia L., Translation

Leave this field blank

Jun-3-2019

Afternoon

permission to visit your family? - Go by the long way

Photo:

Map

The road in blue is the way permitted by the permit. The road in green brings families closer through the A'anin checkpoint -- but the permit is not granted

Waiting “bench” at Tura Checkpoint

15:00 – 16:35

15:00 – Agricultural Checkpoint Anin

The checkpoint is closed but we take advantage of the time to speak with people returning from work and who were waiting for the opening. It is very hot. These are the last days of Ramadan and only 9 people, two children and three tractors left today for work. They tell us that recently, they again inspect in the morning to see if the clothes people wear testify to the fact that they are going to agricultural work. The fashion police is back.

15:10 – The soldiers arrive and open the gate of the checkpoint after five minutes. The first people cross the checkpoint after another five minutes. Within two minutes, everyone passed through.

A resident arrives to the checkpoint who now lives in Umm al Fahm, following marriage. He is allowed to pass to his family in Anin only through Jalama Checkpoint (Gilboa Checkpoint) or through Taibe Checkpoint (Ephraim Gate), two distant checkpoints. He maintains contact with his family through messengers who pass through the checkpoint.

15:40 – Tura Checkpoint

Families in holiday dress return from Jenin (west bank) to the Seamline Zone in cars, filled with purchases (during the month of Ramadan, people often buy presents for family members). A new car parks next to us, that has arrived from Barta’a Checkpoint; the driver lives in Tura Village next to the checkpoint. He approached the soldiers to find out if his new car is already registered as is demanded, in order to pass through this checkpoint with it. He returns disappointed. The registration wasn’t done yet and they didn’t bother to tell him to whom to turn in order to arrange the matter. He says he will try to arrange it with the help of the local council.

16;00 – Barta’a Checkpoint

The activity at the checkpoint is very slight. It feels like there is a decline in the number of workers because of the holiday. In the lower parking lot the drivers wait for passengers a longer time than usual. The month fast will end tomorrow, Tuesday, and afterward, there will be three days of holiday: Eid al Fiter.

Location Description

Anin agricultural checkpoint

See all reports for this place

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

See all reports for this place

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

View the full album

Barta’a-Reihan Checkpoint

See all reports for this place

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).