Atarot, Jaba (Lil), Qalandiya, Sun 20.1.08, Morning
Today we decide to
visit the checkpoints of Abu Dis and Qalandiya and at that which is most
routine we encountered the greatest grief. There were hardly any
pedestrians and no pressure. No students and we go on to Qalandiya though road
443. At 7.10 the Atarot checkpoint is quiet and we do not
stop.
Qalandiya 7.20 At the
south side where the car lane is a big sign forbidding Israelis to enter the
Palestinian authority area. This is also written on stones along the way. If
this is an official sign it is no wonder people do not notice is. There are not
many people at the checkpoint and most of them are crowded around the turnstile
which is mean to be opened. All the turnstiles are open and the checking seems
to be swift.
A man arrives with a
little boy who is covered from head to foot. From the other side arrives a
sergeant and explains politely and with apologies that there is no key to open
the side gate and gets the man and the sick child through the crowd.
"כאן , ליד רכסי העשן , על מדרגות הבית
אין זמן לזמן.
נעשה מה שעושים
העולים אל האלוהים
נשכח את הכאב"
מחמוד דרוויש
At
Lil at 7,45 there were no lines and the area seemed even more calm than usual
and we decided not to bother and thought that we had had a quiet day but it was
not to be.
8.00 At Wadi Nar from the direction
of the west and south we saw a long line of cars snaking down. Shortly after our
arrival it opened up and we counted 100s of cars, trucks and taxis which had
been delayed for no reason dafke at a time of great pressure and this they
continued to do afterwards as well. At the side stood a bus from Bethlehem on its way to Jericho with students and also to the Allenby bridge with
passengers to Jordan. It was delayed for a long
time because the soldiers were checking the IDs on the computer and this took
time. The students had exams, the travellers had a time table. We spoke to the
soldiers but this did not help.
In
the meantime about 9 taxis were stopped and the soldiers started to check. Was
this because we had spoken to them. We had seen to many taxis passing without
being checked. We spoke to people from Bethlehem who knew Hebrew and the drivers said
that there was no worse place than this. There was nothing to check and they
were being delayed without any reason.
We
tried to speak to the commander and to tell him that the checkpoint was a school
for terrorists. Each time cars were delayed and then let through. He acted as if
they were all terrorists. He was new and evidently came from a place which was
much worse and acted accordingly.
We
spoke to Elishea and asked him to deal with the matter of the IDs. But when we
left we saw that all had been freed except for the bus. But maybe below, the line
was building up again.
'Atarot
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Atarot
Atarot was a workers' settlement destroyed during the War of Independence, where the Arab village of Qalandiya now stands, in the southwestern part of Atarot Airport, built by the British Mandate. After 1967, the Atarot industrial zone was established nearby, and until the completion of the wall from the Qalandiya checkpoint to Road 443, a checkpoint was in place. A new Jewish neighborhood is currently planned for the old airport area.
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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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