Hizma, Jaba (Lil), Qalandiya, Tue 6.11.12, Morning
Translator: Charles K.
Qalandiya – 06:00
The vehicle checkpoint is crowded with vehicles coming from Ramallah.
Three long lines at the checkpoint itself – about 240 men. Some 40 people wait on the humanitarian line. All five inspection booths are open.
The humanitarian lane opens at 06:05 but the people waiting weren’t admitted.
A young man jokes to me: “It’s a good thing there’s a checkpoint; it organizes our lives for us. We get up, stand in line…spend the day thinking about what the checkpoint will be like tomorrow.”
Carelessly, I was swept up in the flow of black humor and replied: “Yes, it’s really beneficial. Otherwise, when would you have the time to stand and talk with friends?”
A young man who heard only my reply calls out to me: “You said that it’s good there’s a checkpoint? That it helps you get things organized?”
I recounted the conversation for him, stressing my opposition to the checkpoints.
He relaxed and said, smiling: “That’s what I thought, but you confused me.”
“Life and death are on the tip of the tongue,” say our sages. They were right.
I fell into a trap that could have led to a serious misunderstanding.
Qalandiya – 06:30
300 people entered inspection during the past half hour, 70 of them through the humanitarian gate.
The regular line is still long. There’s a problem at inspection booth no. 5 where people who went through the humanitarian gate are waiting. Inspection there is painfully slow. About 50 people stand at the closed humanitarian gate; ten women move over to the regular line which has shortened.
The policeman is worried. He runs back and forth, looks at what’s happening, checks the length of the line at inspection booth no. 5, peers through the bars to see how long the regular lines are. He tries to regulate the lines, moves a few people from one line to another – he cares.
My conclusion: One pleasant soldier and a responsible, concerned policeman are able to calm an explosive situation without creating a huge traffic jam that will take a long time to overcome. The (technical?) problem was solved in 20-30 minutes and the lines became shorter.
But the female soldier continues screaming over the loudspeaker, in Hebrew: “Not two at a time – one by one!”
Qalandiya – 07:00
385 people entered inspection during the past half hour, 175 of them through the humanitarian gate.
The humanitarian line again lengthens after booth no. 5 began operating again and all the 80 people waiting there were admitted at once. Many women now wait on the regular line, which has become much shorter.
Qalandiya – 07:30
300 people entered inspection during the past half hour, 55 of them through the humanitarian gate.
There is no more line. The green light over the first revolving gate remains lit; everyone arriving goes through. The soldiers left the building, and we left also.
Qalandiya – 07:40
A very long line at the vehicle checkpoint.
A soldier with a megaphone calls to one of the drivers: “Khawajah! Ho! Ho! Get back!”
In view of that irritable behavior, and since we had been detained last week for half an hour at the vehicle checkpoint, we decided it would be better to wait in the traffic jam that forms every morning on the bypass road via the Hizma checkpoint rather than taking the shorter route from the vehicle checkpoint straight to Atarot and Highway 443.
Dozens of cars wait in a long traffic jam that begins at the Jaba checkpoint and A-Ram. Most of the cars are apparently going to Ramallah; some will cross to Israel via the vehicle checkpoint.
The building at the Jaba checkpoint is manned, but in the opposite direction – unlike in the past, now the soldiers look at us when we leave the Qalandiya checkpoint, not at those entering the checkpoint.
Hizma
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Hizma
A checkpoint at the north-eastern entrance to the Jerusalem area which was annexed in 1967, at Pisgat Zeev. The passage is allowed to bearers of blue IDs only. Open 24 hours a day.
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Jaba' (Lil)
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Jaba' (Lil) In fact, the Jaba checkpoint is east of the Qalandiya checkpoint. Its declared purpose is the prevention of Israeli citizens from entering Area A. A road checkpoint for vehicles, located on Road 65, borders the southern fence of Kfar Jaba, about three kilometers east of the Qalandiya checkpoint, on the road leading to the settlement of Adam on Road 60. Archaeological excavations within the village found the remains of a cloth house from the First Temple period. The events that led to the construction of the checkpoint are precisely here: on the day of the abduction of Gilad Shalit and before the outbreak of the Second Lebanon War, a 17-year-old man from one of the settlements was abducted by a Palestinian cell. His body was found several days later at the entrances to Ramallah. A military investigation revealed that his abductors had taken him along this route. The checkpoint was set up to prevent future kidnappings and to warn settlers from traveling to Ramallah and entering Area A (which is forbidden for Israelis). The checkpoint that operates around the clock. Usually only vehicles traveling in the direction of Ramallah are inspected. (November 2016): Every morning, when the settlers en masse travel to Jerusalem on Route 60 and every afternoon they return from Jerusalem on Route 60, the army initiates a traffic jam at the entrance to the Jaba checkpoint and stops the movement of Palestinians traveling toward Route 60. (February 2020): In the last two years the checkpoint has not always been manned. Sometimes the soldiers come and just stand, sometimes they come and stop and check those who enter the village, sometimes they patrol the alleys of the village, sometimes they fire stun grenades and gas and sometimes they invade houses and stop young people, say those passing through the Hazma checkpoint. (Updated February 2020)
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Qalandiya Checkpoint / Atarot Pass (Jerusalem)
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Click here to watch a video from Qalandiya checkpoint up to mid 2019 Three kilometers south of Ramallah, in the heart of Palestinian population. Integrates into "Jerusalem Envelope" as part of Wall that separates between northern suburbs that were annexed to Jerusalem in 1967: Kafr Aqab, Semiramis and Qalandiya, and the villages of Ar-Ram and Bir Nabala, also north of Jerusalem, and the city itself. Some residents of Kafr Aqab, Semiramis and Qalandiya have Jerusalem ID cards. A terminal operated by Israel Police has functioned since early 2006. As of August 2006, northbound pedestrians are not checked. Southbound Palestinians must carry Jerusalem IDs; holders of Palestinian Authority IDs cannot pass without special permits. Vehicular traffic from Ramallah to other West Bank areas runs to the north of Qalandiya. In February 2019, the new facility of the checkpoint was inaugurated aiming to make it like a "border crossing". The bars and barbed wire fences were replaced with walls of perforated metal panels. The check is now performed at multiple stations for face recognition and the transfer of an e-card. The rate of passage has improved and its density has generally decreased, but lack of manpower and malfunctions cause periods of stress. The development and paving of the roads has not yet been completed, the traffic of cars and pedestrians is dangerous, and t the entire vicinity of the checkpoint is filthy. In 2020 a huge pedestrian bridge was built over the vehicle crossing with severe mobility restrictions (steep stairs, long and winding route). The pedestrian access from public transport to the checkpoint from the north (Ramallah direction) is unclear, and there have been cases of people, especially people with disabilities, who accidentally reached the vehicle crossing and were shot by the soldiers at the checkpoint. In the summer of 2021, work began on a new, sunken entrance road from Qalandiya that will lead directly to Road 443 towards Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. At the same time, the runways of the old Atarot airport were demolished and infrastructure was prepared for a large bus terminal. (updated October 2021)
Tamar FleishmanNov-30-2025Qalandiya: Puddles and dirt after the rain
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