Qalandiya: The remains of a person or of clothes?
With fear and trembling, with hope diluted by dread, I look at the wall built on the road leading from Ramallah to Jerusalem, hoping that perhaps someone manages to cross it, gathers the courage needed to land from above, among the spirals of barbed wire, reaching his destination where he could find work and bring food to the hungry mouths of his family members.
The dread was that armed men would ambush the guy, shoot him and – God forbid – kill him, as they do every do.
So here, above, at the place from which young Palestinian men emerge and try to cross from nothing to something, hang remains of what is unknown, of whom, and the bothersome question who the victim was and what his fate entailed.
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For years I have been hearing Palestinians speak, longing for the past.
- Saying how once it had been difficult, but now it is so much more difficult.
- Saying that back then, even if difficult, with efforts one could still feed one’s children.
- Saying that back then, even if you were held back from reaching your destination, there was no fear of getting kidnapped or worse – killed by colonists and/or soldiers.
On that day, in the public space between Qalandiya refugee camp and the checkpoint compound, I found myself feeling as they do, missing years past, the years that at the time had seemed hell on earth.
I miss the ill children from Gaza treated at West Bank or East Jerusalem hospitals, children on their way back home to Gaza, who are now prohibited from exiting the Gaza Strip, children who do not get to treatment and are dying, sick and hungry, children who I never know whether they are still alive or bombed/shot dead.
I have dozens, perhaps hundreds of children and their mothers looking at me, and I don’t know what their fate entailed. As they look at me, I want to die and don’t believe – again – the saying attributed to Lenin: “The worse it gets, the better it will get”.
The opening in the fence that wraps around the arrival compound to the mighty bridge has been repaired. There is no more shortcut that spared the pedestrians dozens of meters.
Much strength, insistence and courage are needed, but Palestinians have plenty of these three – they distanced two bars from each other and created a passage for those whose body is narrow enough to slip through.
One look above the bridge toward the bare space near the vehicle passage shows an abandoned vendor’s cart, standing sadly unowned and unused, a cart that in the past had provided its owner and his family with livelihood, and on a single terrible day was sequestered and is now unowned and unused.
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 FleishmanMay-31-2026Qalandiya. Human remains or clothing remains
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