Qalandiya: prison governance
Abdallah Tamimi was released about a month and a half ago, after spending a year in jail. During that whole year, his family and friends did not know why his liberty was taken from him. Now he talks and tells us, slowly but in detail.
Abdallah remembers every detail – the starving, the humiliation, the kicks, every sliver of food, every detail of the missing medical treatment.
His legs and chest are covered in scars and wounds that have not yet healed from the kicks and blows he received from his captors.
He was detained because he wrote in the social media – against the slaughter in Gaza, which made him a Hamasnik in their eyes, in the eyes of those who rule, make the laws and the lives of Palestinians.
For the first months he was held in Ofer Prison where he had a kind of trial.
Why kind of? Because the procedure was not direct but in video or zoom or I don’t know what. From there he was transferred to another prison, in the Negev, where he was kept until his release.
When he was released and his parents saw him, his mother sobbed and his father, who did not recognize him, said: This is not Abdallah.
He looked different. When he was detained, he weighed about one-hundred kilos.
Now his weight was sixty kilos.
But it was Abdallah. Starved and beaten. Immediately upon his return he was hospitalized in Ramallah where he was treated and fed under medical supervision.
I call this starving. The responsible minister, the Kahanist minister, calls it prison governance.
I refrained from asking most of the details. They will have their time to be heard.
What keeps Abdallah sleepless is the fact that his son Moustafa (named after his grandfather) had surgery 4 years ago in Hadassah Hospital (inside Israel) and the doctors introduced a device beside his ear. He is summoned for checkups and suitability once a year, but now his father is prevented from entering Israel, as is the entire family, and Moustafa’s hearing is already disrupted. What is going to happen?
I told Physicians for Human Rights about Moustafa, hope they can help.
Location Description
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 FleishmanApr-16-2025Qalandiya: summer fruit
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