Ar-Ram, Jaba (Lil), Qalandiya, Rafat (Bir Nabala), Sun 17.8.08, Afternoon
15:40
A-Ram CP: No Palestinians were at the checkpoint.
From the CP we drove to Qalandiya via
A-Ram. Nothing has changed here – traffic is light and many
stores are shut and shuttered.
15:50
Qalandiya: Two passageways are operating with a few clients
in each (12 in Passageway 3 and 5 in Passageway 4). The soldier
on duty at the northern entrance has locked the carousels so that there
is a small line of people waiting in the shed as well. Total waiting
time was clocked at about 8 minutes. In the DCO passageway two
people are waiting (in spite of the fact that it's quite "late"
– actually not yet 4 PM). One of the men has come to pay a fine
in the Post Office to free his brother from jail. At the police
station he was told that the Post Office would be open until 5 PM (once
upon a time….). But there is nothing that can be done – the
Post Office closes nowadays at 3:30 in the afternoon. The second
man is desperately trying to receive a permit (that has been ready since
this morning) that will permit his mother, who is sick with cancer,
to receive radiotherapy treatment in a Jerusalem hospital. But
the computers crashed this morning and he couldn't get the permit and
now, just before the offices close, there is no one he can talk to.
We called the DCO offices and were transferred to "Transit Headquarters"
(which refused to give us their phone number). The Headquarters
staff promised to send the DCO representative, Abu Rukun, to take care
of the matter within 15 minutes. We waited patiently and the 15
minutes passed but Abu Rukun did not appear. And then a woman
with 2 small children arrived (she was Palestinian and the children
residents of East Jerusalem). When she was allowed to enter the
DCO, the son of the sick woman entered as well.
16:20: The son leaves the
CP with his mother's permit in hand.
16:25: Passageway 4 is closed
so that only one passageway remains open – 17 people are waiting in
line. A line has also formed at the northern CP entrance.
Why is it that there is always only one passageway open just as the
flow of people grows towards 5 in the afternoon?
16:35: We pass through the
passageway to the vehicle CP. From the distance we can see that
the line of vehicles at Atarot CP is so long that it reaches the horizon.
But the traffic at Qalandiya is flowing and lines are not long.
16:40: We leave Qalandiya
on our way to Rafat.
16:59 Rafat: No line of
vehicles. One of the soldiers on duty tells us that the CP will
be removed by next week. (He complains that the soldiers will
be given an even worse task. In his opinion soldiers are even
worse off than Palestinians.)
17:07 Qalandiya Village:
All is quiet. From the house of the Mukhtar we can see that the
line of vehicles at Atarot CP is still long.
18:00:
We leave Rafat.
18:30 Lil: Traffic flows
uninterrupted.
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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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 FleishmanMay-13-2025Qalandiya: Back-to-back procedure for transferring patients
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Rafat (Bir Nabala)
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Rafat (Bir Nabala) With the completion of the Bir Nabala enclave, which includes also Al Jib, Al Judeira and Beit Hanina al Balad, a checkpoint was put at enclave exit. The passage into the enclave is allowed only to the enclave inhabitants and to Ramallah District people.
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