Qalandiya
When an ambulance is delayed at the checkpoint that means additional suffering for the person within. When four ambulances are delayed at the checkpoint, like happened this afternoon – two from each direction – that means additional suffering for at least two people.
Three youths ran along the bus lane toward the checkpoint, their fists clenched. When they arrived they threw the stones they were holding at no one in particular, turned and vanished in the alleys of the refugee camp.
In response, because not to respond would be inconceivable, tear gas was fired.
The tear gas spread to the bus stop and chased away those who waited there.
Old-timers reacted scornfully. They, who’d already seen it all, said, “That was just a little bit…a little tear gas…that’s the crazy guard, he’s the one…”
“Freedom has no price” – tattooed on the arm.
He told me a great deal about himself, where he’d been born, where he lives today, about his three years in an Israeli prison. Why was he there? Permits. He said that in jail he not only learned to speak Hebrew but also to read and write. Do you read Hebrew? – What do you think? – So, read what’s written on my arm, he said and rolled up his sleeve and added that what’s written is correct, that a fellow-prisoner wrote it with a nail. Yes, it hurt, but the pain went away and the truth remained. He said that because he has a suspended sentence he’s afraid to enter Israel to work so he works here, at Qalandiya and wherever he can. He works in construction, receives one hundred shekels a day, and you can’t live on that. He works with Mahmoud, his boss, but Mahmoud also has a boss, a bigger contractor who decides what they’ll earn and pays them.
And Mahmoud, who’s from Dura, lives next to the Tabish family. He knows Ayman, who’s in jail, and also his brother Muhammad, whom I also know.
And after we parted I thought about the lives of migrant workers, all manual laborers, within Palestine, in the small, restricted area of the West Bank, and about their limited opportunities to find a day’s work and barely make a living.
And I thought about the suspended sentence that military courts impose on Palestinians in addition to years of jail time and fines, that it’s the true hell because it freezes their lives and makes people live in constant, eternal fear.
And I understood that hell is the essence of the occupation and the fear and terror are the means and it’s the policy.
And then I thought that even though I know a lot about him, I don’t know his name.
He didn’t tell me, and I didn’t ask.
And that’s really a shame.
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 FleishmanJul-21-2026Qalandiya. Conversation in the shadow of the wall
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