Aanin checkpoint: the Palestinians' time does not count

Place:

'Anin

Barta'a-Reihan

Tura-Shaked

Tags:

Hitches at checkpoints

Observers:

Hagar Dror Meliniak, Hannah Heller Translation: Bracha Ben-Avraham

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Jan-18-2023

Afternoon

Waiting to move home to Anin

Photo:

Hagar Dror

The house captured by the IDF in Tura

Photo:

Local resident

Soldiers took over a house in Turah

Photo:

Local resident

16.45 – 14.30

A’anin Agricultural Checkpoint is open only twice a week, and the residents were informed recently that the checkpoint would open from 15:00 – 15:20 instead of from 15:30 – 16:00. We think that this is meant to cut down the number of people crossing, because the soldiers were not capable of dealing with 150-200 people at once during the short opening hours. Residents of A’anin who do not work in agriculture are unable to return earlier, so they are forced to return via a longer and more expensive route through Reihan – Barta’a Checkpoint. Four tractors and about 60 elderly people who had traveled to the seamline zone to run errands were already waiting next to the gate.

Women with children who were returning from family visits offered us apples to eat and sat down. Meanwhile people who were waiting told us that in the morning the checkpoint was only open from 07:00 – 07:15 instead of at 06:30.

A large number of people from A’anin received permits to cross at both A’anin and Reihan Barta’a Checkpoint, but others were refused and can only cross at one place. The reason for this is not clear.

Today is sunny and the two soldiers who are positioned here to guard the fence 24/7 were walking around and enjoying themselves lazily and enjoying the weather, while the Palestinians were forced to wait and wait as they did before. This waste of the Palestinians’ time is not taken into consideration.

There are renovations going on at the checkpoint. There are new embankments and poles have been placed along the fence that will be made three meters higher.

Barta’a Checkpoint

Hundreds of workers arrived in busses, transit vehicles, and cars at one time from Israel and from the seamline zone and walked down the sleeve info-icon towards the West bank to go home. They also complained about overcrowding and the length of time it takes to cross in the morning. They asked that the checkpoint open earlier, at 04:00 in the morning. Hagar spoke with the checkpoint vice-manager this morning who said they would consider the request. In addition, there are 10 places for examining people’s magnetic cards, but only five of them are operating at the exit to the terminal, which makes crossing much slower. There is also no separate lane for women to cross and the seamstresses are forced to move through the checkpoint together with the men, which is not acceptable. People suggested that the women be allowed to cross through the vehicle checkpoint outside on the road. One person told us that in the new large parking lot next to the checkpoint he has to pay NIS 400 each month for parking, and he knows that not everyone who comes are permanent workers. The fee in the other parking lots is only 10 NIS per day.

A large number of women and young people came out of the terminal towards the seamline zone. We are not accustomed to such large numbers of young people. They are evidently students from the seamline zone and Tura Checkpoint is closed on Tuesday morning in response to the shooting from Tura to Shaked. S. explained that the soldiers had taken over a house in the center of Tura and hung an Israeli flag on the roof. There are 21 soldiers using the house, including the bathroom. They will remain there as “grass widows ” until they find the source of the shooting.

People came up to us and told us about their problems, and we gave cards with the details of Sylvia’s team who help people who have been banned from entering Israel.

On our way back we saw people walking down the sleeve holding flyers, and we met Asaf Adi from the Ma’an Organization is attempting to eliminate the illegal demands that people are making for Palestinians to pay NIS 2,500 a month to receive work permits. The courts have declared this practice illegal, but it is not enforced and Palestinians are still paying. The organization is attempting to issue green cards that will serve as both a work permit and permit to enter Israel and the seamline zone.

Tura Checkpoint was closed. We spoke with a major from the regional “Menashe” unit who said the checkpoint would remain closed until the soldiers would remain in the house in Tura until the shooters were located.

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).