Ar-Ram, Qalandiya, Rafat (Bir Nabala), Sun 3.8.08, Afternoon
15:00
A-Ram CP: No Palestinians at the checkpoint.
From A-Ram we drove to Qalandiya via
Beit Hanina, on the "Jerusalem" side of the Wall. On
the way we met up with a representative of Elbit, a contractor whose
team of Palestinian workers were installing rolls of barbed wire atop
the Wall and a row of electronic sensors just below them that connect
up to plasmas in the BP control room and facilitate of the exact location
of any attempt to scale the Wall.
15:30:
We stopped at Atarot CP to talk to the soldiers. Traffic flowed
undisturbed.
15:30
Qalandiya: We met up with Musa from Katanah who gave us DVD
evidence of the damage caused to his village's fields by the flow of
sewage from the hilltop settlement of Har Adar.
15:55: At the northern entrance
to Qalandiya, a woman with a baby carriage (in which a baby was sleeping)
stood before the narrowed passageway and wondered how she would manage
to get through the passage with the carriage. We telephoned headquarters
to request assistance and were told that someone would be sent to open
the "Humanitarian Gate" but that it would take 15 minutes.
Meanwhile the woman with the carriage joined the crowd in the passage
and we followed along. When she reached the carousel she took
the infant out and folded the carriage and we helped manipulate it through
the carousel. And then she stood in the crowd of 25 people waiting
in Passageway No. 4 – only one passageway was open. The soldier
who was supposed to open the Humanitarian Gate had still not appeared.
The baby began to cry and the people waiting on line took pity on the
woman with the baby and moved her to the head of the line and helped
her through the next carousel. Which makes us wonder, whom does
the "Humanitarian Gate" serve? Who controls it and when
is it opened?
Only one passageway is working (with
about 25 people waiting to get in) and a long line of more than 40 people
wends its way around the northern shed before the carousels at the entrance
to the CP.
16:15: Another passageway
is opened.
16:20: Qalandiya bus-stop
on the Jersalem side: an ambulance arrives from Jerusalem to pick
up a woman suffering from a heart attack due to arrive from Tul Karem.
The Palestinian ambulance delivering the woman passes through the CP
in 3 minutes and parks beside the other ambulance. The patient
is disconnected from the equipment in the Palestinian ambulance and
transferred in a stretcher to the Jerusalem ambulance. She looks
like she is in bad shape (quite of bunch of onlookers has gathered around
to see what is happening). And then it takes another few precious
minutes before the woman is reconnected to the new equipment, minutes
that may mean the difference between life and death.
16:30: The ambulance departs
from the bus-stop for Muqassad hospital, its sirens sounding (a pretty
unusual occurrence).
From afar we can see that the line at
Atarot has gotten very long. In the northern square, at the entrance
to Qalandiya's vehicle CP, we counted more than 8 busses waiting to
enter the CP. Drivers that had already arrived told us that they
had waited 20 minutes just to get to the CP. Their passengers,
who had had to pass through the CP on foot, were awaiting arrival of
the busses in order to continue their trip.
16:34: Suddenly an invisible
hand "opened the gates" and a line of busses began to make
its way to the CP.
16:45: Back to the pedestrian
CP. Once again only one passageway is working, but at this point
there is no back-up line in the northern shed. We leave Qalandiya
and go to Rafat.
17:10 Rafat: The soldiers
on duty are happy to see us, apparently because we provide some entertainment.
One of them tells us that his officers are talking about removal of
the Rafat CP (which only serves to bother Palestinians making their
way between Bir Nabala and Ramallah). We shall see.
17:30 Rafat: Five
vehicles are waiting in line.
18:00
– 18:10 Lil: The soldiers are not interfering with the traffic,
only the terrible bumps in the road are slowing things down.
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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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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