A difficult morning at Qalandiya.
05.15. Already a number of people were waiting on the Israel side for transport.
There were long lines. Only 4 checking stations were open – no.5 was not working. People complained that the queues reached all the way to the road. Yesterday the situation was also bad. One man said that he reached work only at 9, and his employer – in Atarot – wanted to send him home.
Women who arrived were allowed to fit into the leftmost lane. A few times it looked as if the lines would collapse – perhaps it was thanks to the women’s presence that this was prevented at first.
One acquaintance told us that during the Holidays he did not return home because of the closure, Instead, he slept at his employer’s, in Modi’in.
Our friend H. who lives in Bidu, told us that his son was recently married. But the celebration was marred: Because of the incident in Har Adar, there were closures in neighbouring villages. Instead of the 800 invitees, only about 80 arrived, and he had to throw out a lot of meat he had bought for the occasion.
By 6.10 there were already a number of people waiting at the Humanitarian Gate, but with no sign of the D.C.O. Just then the regular lines collapsed, and turned into a heap of shouting and pushing people. Older people tried to calm things, but each time the carousel opened, the chaos resumed. In the end the older people gave up and retreated. The few remaining benches filled up. It took 40 minutes for the queues to re-form.
Only at about 6.20 did the D.C.O. officer arrived, with guards to open the Humanitarian Gate. Now the fifth checking station also opened. The pressure was great. At least they did leave the gate open until about 8 o’clock. At one point, when a man arrived in a wheelchair, they immediately opened the gate next to the carousel at the humanitarian gate, and one of the guards accompanied him toe the checking station and arranged for the gates there to be opened for him.
Meanwhile we chatted with a man who told us he had been living 15 years in the U.S.A. He has an American passport, as does his wife who was born in Aemerica of a Palestinian family. Over the years they visited the family here many times, and decided to return so that their children could preserve their Palestinian identity. Here it is easier to keep discipline among the children, so that they shouldn’t take to drugs or bad influences.
At about 7.30, the lines were shorter, and we joined one. While we chatted in line in the cage with our “American” friend it still took us 40 minutes to pass to the Israeli side.
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 FleishmanFeb-27-2026Qalandiya: On the way to prayer
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