Barta`a checkpoint: an active prayer corner

Place:

Barta'a-Reihan

Tura-Shaked

Tags:

Seam Zone

Observers:

Hanna Heller and Ruthi Tuval with Pierre the driver Translation: Naomi Halsted

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Oct-18-2022

Afternoon

Prayer area in the parking lot of the checkpoint

Photo:

Ruti Tuval

Coffee and pastry in the Barta`a parking lot

Photo:

Ruti Tuval

Waiting for transportation at the Tura checkpoint

Photo:

Ruti Tuval

06:00 Barta’a Reihan checkpoint

At the T-junction where Road 611 (from Harish and Barta’a) meets Road 596 (from Umm el-Fahm), numerous vehicles are picking up the large number of workers arriving from the West Bank. The parking lot is full as well and many workers are continuing to come out of the terminal into the lot. The shed at the end of the sleeve info-icon has turned into a prayer corner and at this hour, rows and rows of people are busy praying. Despite the crowding, it seems that this morning there are fewer than usual. We go down the sleeve to the turnstiles, passing by the cafeteria of the settler from Harish (apparently), who is enjoying his many customers. His coffee is said to be delicious. A man who emerges from the terminal says that it took 10 minutes to get through from one side to the other. By 6:30, the throngs have dispersed and Pierre drives us to the next checkpoint.

06:45 Tura-Shaked checkpoint

Surprise, surprise! The checkpoint was already opened at 6:40! We were told it was because of the olive harvest. There’s lively vehicular and pedestrian traffic – but no tractors. Seamstresses from the linen factory at the Shahak Industrial Park are waiting for their friend in the car that’s come to fetch them. Schoolgirls from Daher el-Maleh come up to the checkpoint holding their exercise books and school books open. A women soldier wearing a helmet is posted at the watchtower, for a change.

The tobacco boom at the Tura checkpoint

Photo:

Ruti Tuval

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).