Tura checkpoint: why delay the children on the way home?

Place:

Barta'a-Reihan

Hermesh

Tura-Shaked

Tags:

Children

Northern checkpoints

Soldiers at checkpoints

Observers:

Ruthi Tuval and Marina Banai (Reporting Translation: Bracha Ben-Avraham

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Mar-24-2019

Afternoon

Tura checkpoint: at last! the children are crossing home

15:20 – Hermesh and Yaabed Dotan Checkpoint

We drove to see Hermesh Checkpoint and saw flags of “Netzach Yehuda” flying proudly everywhere. There were no soldiers and no traffic, so we continued on to Yaabed Dotan Checkpoint. There was a soldier in the pillbox and very little traffic.

15:50 – Barta’a Reihan Checkpoint

We arrived at Barta’a Reihan Checkpoint on the Palestinian side. It was not especially crowded because there has been a massive cancellation of people’s crossing permits. A farmer who tends 15 dunams (4.5 acres) of olives near Barta’a approached us. He has a permit to cross at Kafin Checkpoint twice each week, but he is interested in obtaining a permit to cross every day at Barta’a. Taxi drivers were trying to attract passengers by shouting their destinations such as Jenin or Nablus (They don’t go to Tiberius..).

A man who has been banned from entering Israel by the police approached us and asked us to help him renew his permit. We referred him to the team who helps people with crossing permits.

16:40 – Tura – Shaked “Fabric of Life” Checkpoint

We approached the crossroads and saw a lot of children on the Tura side happily playing soccer. Two teachers on the seamline zone side of the checkpoint told us that the children from the Palestinian village Um Reihan (seam line zone) were not permitted to cross after returning from a day in TulKarem. There were 30 children aged from 4-8 (kindergarten to 3^rd grade). We approached the soldier from the military police at the checkpoint and tried to find out what was going on. The soldier said they were waiting for a confirmation. The parents who were waiting for the children on the other side of the checkpoint said that the reason for the problem was…the bags of toys and small presents that the children had bought in Tulkarem (Palestinian city in the west bank). The children had been waiting since 16:00 and it began to get cold. We heard shouting from the other side of the checkpoint while a soldier slowly and meticulously swept the road leading to the checkpoint.

Ruthi tried to call the District and Coordination Liaison but there was no answer. She called Hannah and asked her for help. After a few minutes when Hannah called back to report her phone call the checkpoint opened and the children were permitted to return home. The children were crying, while the adults shouted at the soldiers angrily.

17:30 – We drove home. We tried to understand what had happened here and why.

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).