Bitterly cold and slow at Qalandiya checkpoint
Cold and slow at Qalandiya.
05.20. Bitterly cold, but conditions looked promising on our arrival. Many people were coming out of the checkpoint, a large group was praying at the entrance on the Israel side, and the queues were short enough to be contained within the cages.The soldier in the aquarium was working efficiently.
However within a short time more and more people arrived, and the lines became long enough to extend outside the shed. Suddenly at 5.55 the queues collapsed and there was the usual chaos. The one positive aspect was that this brought all those waiting outside in the icy-cold wind to the relative shelter of the shed!
The D.C.O. officer arrived shortly after 6 o’clock followed by a guard, and she opened the humanitarian gate. Of course many men who had fallen out of the queues tried their luck there, but only those entitled to use the gate were admitted. Unfortunately the gate was closed at 7 o’clock – true, there wasn’t a queue there at the time, but there was a steady stream of women and children arriving afterwards and it was difficult for them to fit into the cages under the circumstances. (In general, the men are very generous in allowing women to enter.) We phoned twice to ask that someone come to reopen the gate, only to receive the standard answer “I will check.”
Gradually the queues re-formed, and once again were long enough to stretch beyond the shed. At 7.50 we joined one, although we usually wait until the crowd is much smaller – but today we were so frozen we could not stay longer! It took us 40 minutes to pass.
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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