Ar-Ram, Hizma, Jaba (Lil), Qalandiya, Sun 25.4.10, Afternoon
"All blood is red- if they cut off an Arabs hand or a Jews hand, the blood coming out- will be red, the same"
So said a paramedic while waiting for a West Bank ambulance bring a woman from Nablus who was about to go through surgery at Mokased hospital (east Jerusalmen).
He spoke with much sadness about how the Jews didn't think of them, the Arabs, as human beings. A week earlier, he said, he arrived on duty at Hadasa hospital where he saw a mother sitting by her dying son's bed and grieving his lose while he is still alive. He felt his heart braking and approached the woman, he wanted to support her and say that not all is lost, that there is still hope, he wanted to share stand by her for just a moment or two and share her sorrow. He held himself back and didn't go forward: She is a Jew, I don't know what she would think of me and how it would end…", he continued to tell us as he and his crew were moving the patient, who was escorted by her mother, from one ambulance to the other.
Another ambulance that arrived from Ramalla was transferring an elder man (using the regular "back to back" routine) suffering from thrombosis in his leg, to Mokased hospital to continue his treatment.
Under the dust blowing in the wind and into the dirt from which there was no refuge, a family was taken off a bus: a young woman with a one month old baby in a stroller, her elder six year old son who was holding is grandmother's hand. Only very old people (no age specification) were allowed to pass the checkpoint while sitting in the bus. The bored soldier didn't take notice of the stroller that was arriving; they also couldn't hear the mother's complaints for having to wake the toddler, fold the stroller and take it through the narrow turnstiles. The intercoms and the gates that are intended for strollers- haven't been working for a while.
A father to a three year old girl was sitting sad and worried on a bench at the entrance to the checkpoint.
He had been sitting like that for some days, ever since the child had been admitted at Mokased hospital. The girl had a defective heart and was in need of surgery: "such a nice child!", said the coffee salesmen and added that two day prior to the operation, her grandfather brought her to the checkpoint "to say hello to her father, and I even got to play with her…". The child had been at Mokased for a couple of days, her father wanted to escort her but is request was denied. He now has passage prevention from the GSS. According to him he never had any trouble, he is completely in the clear… his parents and wife were sitting by his daughter. In his loneliness he found comfort in his new friends, the peddlers at the checkpoint. The entrance to the checkpoint is as close as he could get to his daughter. He sits there and waits like a father waiting outside of the room in which an operation on his child is being performed.
The surgery (he said) started at 9:00. His father called him that afternoon to tell him the doctors said everything was going well. That evening (I received a call with his information), he was told that the surgery was successful. Only then did he leave the checkpoint and returned to his home near Nablus.
A Palestinian camera crew from Ramalla, with the aid of officials from Tel Aviv University, was preparing a film that would portray the back yard of Qalandiya checkpoint through Wagy, the coffee salesman. Wagy "is like Elifelet", says Phillys, the one from the song by Alterman: "Smiling without knowing why/ And how and for what reason and way…".
Gava checkpoint:
A new unit was manning the checkpoint. The commander asked to see the permit that allowed us to stand near the checkpoint. Once we settled that, he told us how much the checkpoint important in preventing lynching against Jews (he said there were many such events but wasn't able to be more specific), and that only three weeks ago they caught three members of Hamas, "they weren't armed", he answered our question, "but weapons we found at their home at Ar-Ram and Hizmee".
A-Ram
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two kilometers south of Qalandiya and 300 metres north of Neve Yaacov Junction, in Dahiyat el-Barid Quarter. Checkpoint has operated since 1991, in a Palestinian area annexed to Jerusalem in 1967. The checkpoint has been inactive since the middle of 2009.
The wall was built on the road that led to Jerusalem. Since then the situation in the town has deteriorated. Houses are abandoned and half finished, most of the businesses have closed. Severe neglect around the fence and on the streets. Those who could left. Updated January 2024
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Hizma
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Hizma
A checkpoint at the north-eastern entrance to the Jerusalem area which was annexed in 1967, at Pisgat Zeev. The passage is allowed to bearers of blue IDs only. Open 24 hours a day.
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Jaba' (Lil)
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Jaba' (Lil) In fact, the Jaba checkpoint is east of the Qalandiya checkpoint. Its declared purpose is the prevention of Israeli citizens from entering Area A. A road checkpoint for vehicles, located on Road 65, borders the southern fence of Kfar Jaba, about three kilometers east of the Qalandiya checkpoint, on the road leading to the settlement of Adam on Road 60. Archaeological excavations within the village found the remains of a cloth house from the First Temple period. The events that led to the construction of the checkpoint are precisely here: on the day of the abduction of Gilad Shalit and before the outbreak of the Second Lebanon War, a 17-year-old man from one of the settlements was abducted by a Palestinian cell. His body was found several days later at the entrances to Ramallah. A military investigation revealed that his abductors had taken him along this route. The checkpoint was set up to prevent future kidnappings and to warn settlers from traveling to Ramallah and entering Area A (which is forbidden for Israelis). The checkpoint that operates around the clock. Usually only vehicles traveling in the direction of Ramallah are inspected. (November 2016): Every morning, when the settlers en masse travel to Jerusalem on Route 60 and every afternoon they return from Jerusalem on Route 60, the army initiates a traffic jam at the entrance to the Jaba checkpoint and stops the movement of Palestinians traveling toward Route 60. (February 2020): In the last two years the checkpoint has not always been manned. Sometimes the soldiers come and just stand, sometimes they come and stop and check those who enter the village, sometimes they patrol the alleys of the village, sometimes they fire stun grenades and gas and sometimes they invade houses and stop young people, say those passing through the Hazma checkpoint. (Updated February 2020)
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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-12-2026Qalandiya. Abdallah at his fruit stand
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