Reihan, Mon 10.12.07, Afternoon

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Lea R. and Anna N. S. (reporting)

10/12/2007

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אחה"צ

Seriously? Does this make us safer?

15:30 Reihan-Barta'a CP

The lower parking lot is full of cars - "taxis" and private cars. We had difficulty finding a place to park. Groups of laborers from the seamline zone ahd from Israel kept going through on the way back to the West Bank. We were told that in the afternoon about 1000 people go through the terminal on their way back home on the West Bank. It took people about a quarter of an hour from the time of entering the terminal to the exit.

On the crowded parking lot, it is sad to see the taxi drivers looking anxiously at those leaving the terminal - who is looking for a ride and who has somebody waiting for him. M. gets two passengers going to the bridge. Five shekels. This is his first trip today. "What can I do?" he says quietly. "What can I do?"

Some of those returning left this morning for work in Israel through the Artach CP (Shaar Efraim, near Taibeh). They tell us that every morning about 1000 laborers go through there and the inspections are very slow. They complain about ill-treatment at the hands of the General Security Service. People from the GSS take aside young people with all the proper permits and interrogate them for hours, including demeaning inspections that require them to take their clothes off. All of this is insulting and delays them on their way to work. They would prefer to go out through the Reihan CP in the morning as well.

16:00 The last group of seamstresses from Barta'a arrives. They are in a hurry for their ride.

From the West Bank in the direction of Barta'a the traffic is thinner. For the most part, there are families with small children all dressed up. One little girl stays at the turnstile, playing, turns it around here and there before she responds to her mother's call to come back. She will learn that this is no place for playing.

A pickup truck loaded with eggs is waiting for inspection; another pickup truck is loaded with sheep. Four private cars are being inspected in the white tent. And as if the depressing atmosphere is not enough, a military helicopter flies around very low three times. There are still no toilets in the terminal; people still have to urinate at the side.

Today it is very crowded here and cold.

17:00 We prepare to move. S. asks us to take him with us to Haifa and to bring him back next week, if at all.

תיאור המקום

Barta’a-Reihan Checkpoint

להצגת כל הדוחות ממקום זה

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).