Northern checkpoints: Winter raises a blush in the cheeks of the occupation
14:50 – Tura – Shaked Checkpoint
There was very little traffic. A Palestinian transit vehicle backed up to the checkpoint and dropped workers off who walked through to the West Bank. The driver saved himself the inconvenient U-turn on the way back. Two Palestinian cars cross to the West bank, and that was all.
15:20 – Yaabed Dotan Checkpoint
We drove past Reihan – Barta’a Checkpoint and continued past the village of Emricha to Yaabed – Dotan Checkpoint. On the way we saw brown fertile fields that had been seeded and plowed. Cars were crossing in both directions without delay.
The town of Yaabed has close to 20,000 residents. It has been populated since the Iron Age and has the remains of a Byzantine church. There are tax records during the time of the Ottoman Empire for the year 1596 and during the British Mandate there were 1733 residents, all of whom were Muslims. By 1945 there were 3488 residents.
In the settlement of Mevo Dotan located on the opposite hillside on the southern side of Route 585 there are about 500 residents. The settlement was established in 1977 but for some reason it was not vacated during the disengagement in 2005 when 4 settlement were vacated in northern Samaria. It is only for this reason the inner checkpoint of Mevo Dotan still exists on the road to Yaabed, Jenin, and other villages in the area.
Everything was as usual on the way back to Barta’a – Reihan Checkpoint. The gate on the short road leading from the village of Emricha to Yaabed was locked as well as the gates
on both sides of the bridge near the village of Zibda. There were no cars today parked near the gates to the bridge. The private parking lots on the sides of Route 596 as well as the large parking lot on the Palestinian side of Reihan – Barta’a Checkpoint were full.
15:40 – Reihan – Barta’a Checkpoint, Seamline Zone Side
We were saddened to see a young woman and her young toddler daughter sitting on the ground begging at the opening of the covered fenced – in walkway (the sleeve) that leads from the entrance to the opening of the terminal. Some of the workers coming through as well as we, gave her money.
We walked down to the turnstile with many workers. Some bought boxes of cakes from the kiosk operated by the settler from Hermesh, another settlement on Route 585 that was not vacated during the disengagement. Many people greeted us on our way back to our car. There was a straw mat on the floor of the shed where people wait and two prayer rugs were spread on top. A young man was praying on one of them.
16:10 – Route 611
We drove in the direction of Harish. There were a lot of cars parked beneath the village of Qeiqis, but there were no people crossing through the hold in the fence.