Qalandiya - Every day, they close the net, and every day we open it
First they took our lands, then they murdered us, now they’re fucking us –
That’s what a Palestinian told me when I asked why the road between the vehicle checkpoint and the rise to the bridge had been closed off.
They add fence to fence, barrier to barrier, close themselves off behind concrete and metal, and lead us to hell, lengthening the road there as they do to the suffering man who must cross the checkpoint on foot.
“Every day, they close the net, and every day we open it” said a man, and like in a well-timed theater of the absurd, just then the security guard came from the other side to lock whatever had been open.
(I’ll spare the readers the words we heard from the man in the picture).
Much talk is in the air about the school year about to be opened, much talk about the money that has to be brought home to finance this schooling, for here in the West Bank school is not free and is not mandatory – each person and the number of his children and his ability to stretch his means and pay the institutions of learning and the added expenses of books and notebooks and new clothes because the children need to be at least a bit more decent than in their old, ragged clothes.
I have 4 children, said Basel who lives in Bani Naim in the Hebron district. I have not been home for a month now – I stay here to make money for my children’s school.
One man is a resident of Kufr ‘Akeb. He said that because of his partnership in a Jericho business, and because much of the time is spent there and not at home, the authorities – that surveillance everyone – surveillance him too and when they realized the man does not spend all of his days and nights at home in Kufr ‘Aqeb, they denied him his Jerusalem resident status.
Qalandiya Checkpoint / Atarot Pass (Jerusalem)
See all reports for this place-
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 FleishmanApr-26-2026Qalandiya. Things you see on the way
-