Barta'a-Reihan, Tura-Shaked, Ya'bed-Dotan

Place:

Barta'a-Reihan

Tura-Shaked

Ya'bed-Dotan

Tags:

Separation fence

Updates during Corona

Seam Zone

Observers:

Marina B., Ruti T. (report and photos). Marcia L., translation

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Aug-5-2020

Morning

Anin Checkpoint: The large breach in the system fence at the Anin checkpoint, a vehicle can pass through it

Photo:

Ruti Tuval

Anin Checkpoint: Marina against the backdrop of sunrise

Photo:

Ruti Tuval

Checkpoint Ya`abed Dotan: Empty taxis on the way to Jenin

Photo:

Ruti Tuval

Anin Checkpoint

We arrived at exactly 06:30. The front gate was wide open. An army jeep was parked next to the center gate. A woman carrying a shopping bag crossed and turned to an olive grove east of the checkpoint.

At 06:35, the soldiers locked the gate and left. Only 5 minutes had passed! Suddenly, a jeep with Israeli license plates drove on the dirt road in the olive grove and sat there. Strange. We went to the center gate to see if anyone was late, and indeed, at the lower gate (on the side of the village), a car arrived. It turned around and returned in the direction of Anin.

In the fields, we saw a traditionally-dressed farmer, carrying a saw and going up in the direction of the orchard, and a young man approaching the locked gate. In our naivety, we yelled and waved at him to indicate that “nothing can be done;” the soldiers had already locked up and left. When we started to cross back toward our car, that jeep flew out of the grove, crossed the checkpoint, and went at full speed through the wide breach to the left of the locked gate, a break we didn’t notice was there until now. We saw the young man fleeing in panic and the jeep chasing after him. Afterward we heard shouting. Did we just witness an event of a“security” or criminal nature? The driver of the jeep was alone; is rare for security people to travel alone.

07:00 – Tura-Shaked Checkpoint

The soldiers are already at the checkpoint, taking their time. They drink, eat, and chatter. One driver is waiting patiently on this side of the crossing, while a few other cars wait on the other side. Impatiently and loudly we asked the soldiers how come they have no consideration for the time of the local residents. They should begin the crossing at 07:00 at the latest. The driver, A., says that this is how it is every morning. It takes 20 minutes until the crossing begins. At 07:20, the first car goes through. Our friend, C., says that sometimes the crossing starts only at 08:00. About 10 people and a few cars pass through.

07:30 Anin Checkpoint

We returned to Anin Checkpoint to see, up close, the breach in the fence that the jeep has passed through, to try to understand what we had seen. The breach is next to the gate; we haven’t seen it before. Is this some kind of cooperation between soldiers who leave their watch after 5 minutes and the security person in the jeep who has ambushed the infiltrator? Did we, without meaning to, cause the young man to be trapped because we told him that the checkpoint was closed? To our regret, we don’t know how this event has ended.

07:50 – Barta’a-Reihan Checkpoint

In the upper parking lot vehicles, especially yellow taxis, park at the edge of the new, long sleeve info-icon (the enclosed passage to and from the terminal). Apparently, , everyone has gotten used to this new arrangement.

08:00 – Ya’bed-Dotan Checkpoint

To our surprise, there are rows of cars from two crossings of the checkpoint. The soldiers inspect vehicles on their way to Area A, “just because.” At the time of our observation, the lines thinned out and there were no delays.

08:30 – Barta’a Checkpoint

We were interrogated at the exit and sent to wait for a minute on the red X in the road. This time they did not take our identity cards.

Yesterday afternoon, a volunteer from the organization “On the Road to Recovery” brought back Mari, a girl with 100% disability, and her father from the Sheba Hospital. The volunteer was instructed to let them offat the checkpoint, and they continued on foot to the vehicle waiting for them on the Palestinian side of the parking lot. They had to cross the road on foot, and although it was a short way, the young girl was in a wheelchair, and her father was carrying heavy equipment that she uses (the doctor has requested to check them). What for?

Why do we take the trouble to report in Corona times as well?

Because democracy’s watchdogs have fallen asleep on their own watch, so Israeli citizens have no idea what is actually happening in the Occupied Territories, especially now.

Day and night, Israeli soldiers (as the State’s emissaries) help extreme settler-colonists take the law into their own hands, unhampered. They do not stop even in days of a raging pandemic and do not hesitate to harm Palestinians – their bodies, property, and sources of livelihood.

Unceasing harassment of the weakened Palestinian population inflicts psychological harm as well. All – from babies through and including the elderly and the ill – are open prey to Jewish violence and terrorism which the settler-colonists are only too eager to exert.

We of MachsomWatch will not cease to report, certainly not now during these Corona times and under the threat of annexation, about the settlers’ increased rampages, those who hurry to set facts on the ground helped by the Israeli army.

Israel rules the West Bank, and by force of the Geneva Convention, article no. 27, it is committed to enforcing law and order there. The inhabitants of these Occupied Territories have the legal right “to decent treatment of their body and dignity, and should be especially protected against any act of violence”.

Ironically, this is not at all upheld.

Nor shall we cooperate with the commonplace ignoring of the Palestinian people’s suffering, and with the Israeli public’s indifference to it. We shall continue to follow up closely and report the goings-on in the West Bank, in its villages and encampments.

No one should be able to say ‘We knew nothing, we heard nothing’

Location Description

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)