Anin checkpoint: A settler from Ariel attacks an Israeli citizen

Place:

'Anin

Barta'a-Reihan

Tura-Shaked

Tags:

Crowding

Delay in opening the checkpoint

Observers:

Hannah Heller and Hagar Dror Translation: Bracha Ben-Avraham

Leave this field blank

Jul-6-2022

Morning

Barta'a checkpoint is congested with vehicles of work contractors

Photo:

Hanna Heller

The workers who crossed the checkpoint in Barta'a

Photo:

Hanna Heller

The Anin checkpoint has not yet been opened

Photo:

Hanna Heller

8.00 – 6.00

Barta’a Checkpoint 06:00 the two roads leading down to the checkpoint as well as the parking lots were filled with private cars that had arrived to take people to work. People were sitting among them and told us that Mevo Dotan Checkpoint where Route 585 crosses, was closed. Those coming to Barta’a Checkpoint from the direction of Jenin had to drive around it and had arrived late.

We walked down the long sleeve info-icon to the terminal and hundreds of workers were walking up. They told us that is had taken them a half hour to cross through the checkpoint. The busy owner of the kiosk told us that he had begun his workday at 03:00. (The checkpoint opens at 04:30).

The increase in the number of work permits is quite evident. Unfortunately, since our driver Pierre is an Israeli Arab, he is not allowed to cross to the Palestinian side of the checkpoint to observe the rate at which people enter the terminal and the crowded conditions there.

At this hour workers are returning to the West bank at the end of their night shift in the Shahak Industrial Zone located in the seamline zone.

Several passenger cars and trucks carrying merchandise were being checked in the vehicle shed leading to the seamline zone.

A’anin Agricultural Checkpoint 06:45 This checkpoint is open only two days each week The checkpoint was not yet open, but the was already a crowd of people standing and waiting next to the locked gate. A bus came carrying soldiers that continued on to the Tibeh Romena Checkpoint. The soldiers guarding the fence were changing shifts at both of these checkpoints and there are soldiers stationed there 24/7. The soldiers arrived to open the checkpoint at 07:00. The first to cross were two tractors, some elderly people, a family with two small children, and other women and children. They were followed by young workers. About 100 people crossed. The soldiers checked some of the plastic bags they were carrying. Today we saw that the new permits that had been given to residents of A’anin allow them to cross at Barta’a, and one person told us that some permits enable people to cross at Tura each day as well. These two checkpoints are far away from the village of A’anin.

A vehicle belonging to the Ariel police force whose rude and hostile driver is well – known to us, came to aggravate Pierre, our driver, claiming that there was a sign on the road leading to the checkpoint forbidding cars to enter. He even threatened Pierre with a fine and made him go back to the main road. There is no such sign at the checkpoint and cars drive on that road all the time.

Tura – Shaked Checkpoint, 07:30 – The checkpoint was open. Workers were waiting under the shed for the shuttle that takes them to work in the Arab villages in the seamline zone, including Barta’a. They reported that today the checkpoint opened only at 07:15 instead of at 06:00. This has been a frequent occurrence for a long time.

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).