Tura-Shaked - the new wall is getting very long

Place:

Barta'a-Reihan

Tura-Shaked

Observers:

Rachel Weizman, Ruthy Tuval. Translator: Charles K.

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Feb-28-2023

Morning

Barta'a - heavy equipment flattens the terraced hill

Photo:

Ruti Tuval

Zbeida - parking in the renovated parking lot

Photo:

Ruthy Tuval

14:15 Barta’a-Reihan checkpoint

A few workers begin arriving. We accompany them through the corridor to the turnstiles and observe what’s happening inside the terminal. Few people come, some holding belts in their hands, but don’t stop at the last booths, which aren’t manned. A security officer watching from above, overlooking the hall, heard our conversation, asked whether we needed help, and we had to bend over in order to see him. He asked what we were doing, how we arrived, from where, and whether someone is providing security for us. He was satisfied with our replies and let us alone. We went back up. The checkpoint had grown busier. The seamstresses were getting out of the vehicles that brought them. We went through the checkpoint to the Palestinian side to see the changes in the landscape occurring all around us: a lovely terraced hill is being chewed up for a sort of quarry whose contents are being dumped in a valley that’s disappearing. The parking lot opposite Zbeida has reopened and is full. We decided to skip the Yabed checkpoint today.

Tura - a wall develops eastwards towards Jalama

Photo:

Ruti Tuval

15:15 Tura-Shaked checkpoint

Very sparse traffic. Nor do we hear anything. The lookout post is drowsing. In order not to leave with nothing we drove toward the isolated house, but instead of turning in its direction we turned right toward the separation fence to see what was happening with the new wall they started building after shots were fired at the Shaked settlement. The wall has gotten much longer since we last saw it. They’re working on it right now down the road. We recalled a local resident told us it would reach at least as far as the Jalame checkpoint.

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).