Ar-Ram, Hizma, Jaba (Lil), Tue 4.8.09, Afternoon
We formed the afternoon shift at Qalandiya and Atara, but there was not much to report. There were almost no people at the Qalandiya CP and at Atara traffic was flowing undisturbed (with no soldiers to be seen). However, when you think about it, the lack of anything to report is itself newsworthy material: fewer people are coming to the CP because they cannot get through to Jerusalem. Even in the morning, we were told, the lines of people going to work in Israel have shrunk considerably. Israel is not issuing the necessary permits, drying the flow of Palestinians who would like to cross the border in order to make a living but cannot.
15:30: Atarot CP: There was no line of cars at Atarot.
15:45: Qalandiya: There were almost no pedestrians in the CP. Passage was rapid and two passageways were in operation until we left the CP at 16:45. At 16:30 we passed through the CP to the vehicle section. A Transit vehicle was parked in the area where the buses pick up their passengers, with a leather armchair standing next to it. Two young men with blue ID cards were waiting for a soldier to come and examine the chair and give them permission to transport it to Jerusalem. The driver complained about the length of the wait and then the soldier turned around and promised that she would be with him in only two minutes. She kept her promise, attended by a security guard, examining the chair from every angle she finally allowed the two men to take their chair home to Jerusalem. On returning to the Palestinian side of the CP we saw that the biometric ID machines were all out of order so no one could record his passage.
16:45: From Qalandiya we went to see the grafitti on the A-Ram side of the separation Wall. We were rewarded with the longest grafitti message in the world, a message from South Africa expressing solidarity with their Palestinian brothers.
From A-Ram we drove through Lil CP (no lines) to Atara. The CP was not manned and the traffic was flowing undisturbed. We saw no soldiers in the pillbox however Tamar told us that if the "street lights" were burning (and they were) that was a sign that the pillbox was manned. So apparently there are still soldiers stationed at Atara.
From Atara we returned to Jerusalem via Hizmeh CP. Traffic there was moving slowly but uninterruptedly.
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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