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

Place:

'Anin

Barta'a-Reihan

Hermesh

Tura-Shaked

Ya'bed-Dotan

Observers:

Hannah Heller, Neta Golan (Reporting and photos). Translation: Bracha Ben-Avraham

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May-6-2019

Afternoon

Sign at the Hermesh checkpoint: fighting for life!

The first day of Ramadan

15:15 – A’anin Checkpoint

18 people and a tractor were waiting for the checkpoint to open. They had not had anything to eat or drink since sunrise: this was the first day of the Fast of Ramadan. M., our friend the tractor driver, wished us a happy Independence Day – a demonstration of the absurdity of the checkpoints. We wished him Ramadan Kareem. The soldiers arrived ten minutes late and opened the gate, and everyone went to the inspection point together. Within a few minutes, everyone had crossed.

15:40 – Tura – Shaked Checkpoint

A youth was waiting under the shelter, sitting on the broken bench. Within a few minutes, a car arrived from the seamline zone and picked him up. Two cars and a pedestrian crossed to the West Bank. We drove past Reihan–Barta’a checkpoint, the bridge with its two locked gates info-icon , and the village to Emricha and the closed gate leading to Yaabed. Young tobacco plants were growing on the sides of the road.

16:00 – Yaabed – Dotan Checkpoint

Cars were going in both directions without being checked.

16:20 – Hermesh Checkpoint

The yellow steel gate was open and traffic was moving freely to and from Tulkarem.

Near the turnoff to the settlement of Hermesh, there was a large sign in three languages. One side warned against crossing the unbroken line in the center of the road. The other side contained a warning against using a cell phone while driving. Hannah noticed that the Hebrew read: “Fight for Life” while the Arabic read: “Your life is important.”

16:30 – Reihan – Barta’a Checkpoint, Palestinian Side

The parking lot was not full and relatively few people were returning from work – either because of Ramadan or because of the smaller number of permits for working in Israel. Yellow taxis and other vehicles were waiting for people. A man was praying behind the cars, and three others were praying behind the checkpoint shelter. The Palestinian attendants were not there.

We left at 16:45. The crossing facility looks like a covered marketplace. We fantasized that that's what it would be in the future.

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)