Ar-Ram, Qalandiya, Tue 5.2.13, Afternoon
Translation: Ruth Fleishman
Two back-to-back procedures at the same time and at the same place.
It was cold. The air was polluted. But the harmful and cruel regulations were more polluted. The victims: two babies.
In less than five minutes two ambulances from the west bank arrived at the entrance of the checkpoint and were ordered to wait.
The first ambulance was transferring a baby of ten days from Qalqilya with respiratory distress, on the way to the checkpoint her condition worsened. According to the driver, the ride from Qalqilya takes an hour and a half, on top of that there is the twenty minutes detainment during the examination of the documents, the inspection of the mother's belongings and the completion of 
the back-to-back procedure: carrying the baby from the west bank stretcher to the Jerusalem stretcher, getting her inside the ambulance from Jerusalem and heading off to Mukased hospital.
The second baby was of four months, he came from Gaza and suffered from a kidney disease. This baby was hospitalized in Ramallah and when his illness took a turn for the worse, the medical crew recommended that he be transferred to Augusta Victoria.
The ambulance was detained at the entrance to the checkpoint. "No co-ordinations had been made" said the soldiers. At Augusta Victoria (where they were waiting for the child) they said that all the co-ordinations had been made. The soldiers insisted: "No they haven't". Augusta Victoria repeated: "Yes they have".
Time crawled and there was no one to solve the problem.
A guard from the Civil Security Company said: "I might be a combatant but I have a heart". He tried to help: he spoke to the soldiers, he spoke to the ambulance crew, he walk restless from one side to the other, but he couldn't do anything to help solve the situation.
It was only after 55 minutes that a DCO officer arrived from out of the blue and suddenly all the necessary co-ordinations were found and authorized.
– On our way to the Israeli side of the checkpoint we were detained in the side room, which is small and filthy, it has a net for a ceiling and on it lied leftovers of food, and on the walls words and addresses were carved, the most distinct was the word "MUHABARAT".
And then Dov arrived, he is the police officer that was alerted by the soldiers to come and deal with me after I refused to report to the soldiers what I was doing in what they thought was A' territory. Dov the police officer released us from the room in which we were held and said: "that’s what happens when you let 18 year old irresponsible girls to do the job", as well as: "If you want you can press charges".
I don't.
Ar-Ram:
Four armed soldiers stood on the hill in front of the entrance to the town, they were aiming their rifles and shooting gas grenades at the main road. Their enemies were four boys of about ten years (no more than ten), that appeared from behind a building, threw stones at the soldiers, hid again, waited for the grenades to be fire and started over. The Cab drivers that stood on the side waiting for customers, were the main victims of the gas fumes that mixed in the air, they said this had been going on for about an hour or an hour and a half.
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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