‘Atara, Jaba (Lil), Qalandiya, Mon 17.11.08, Afternoon
Atara CP: When we reached Atara we could see long lines of
cars in every direction. Fifteen cars were waiting on the road
up to the CP on the way to Bir Zeit and another 20 or so were waiting
on the road leaving Bir Zeit. There was even a short line of cars
on the road out of Atara Village. However the wait was no longer
than 10 minutes in each direction.
Just as we arrived at the CP, a truck
out of Atara impaled itself on a spiky roadblock that the soldiers had
laid across the road to make it narrower and to slow traffic (or so
one of the soldiers explained saying that the spikes were always there
and that all the drivers knew that). Its not so clear why the
soldiers would place the spikes just there when the entry to the CP
at that point is just at the end of a very high and narrow bridge which
drivers take slowly anyway. In any event, the truck's driver was
very upset considering that the damage caused to the tire was irreversible
and would require him to purchase a new tire. He told us that
he passes this point every day and had never seen the spiky roadblock
before.
A white car on its way to Bir Zeit drove
into the CP. After checking the papers the soldiers ordered the
two men in the car to stand against the wall and submit to a body check.
All the while another soldier stood by with his rifle at the ready.
It turned out that there were no problems and the two men were shortly
permitted to continue on their way.
15:54
All the lines disappeared and traffic was flowing. We left for
Qalandiya.
16:30 Qalandiya:
Two passageways were operating, both of them pretty empty, while a crowd
of 60 to 70 people waited in the northern shed before the only carousel
that was working. The female soldier in the northern guard house
was busy solving crossword puzzles and paying scant attention to the
length of the lines inside and out. However a few minutes after
we arrived she opened the carousel and allowed 40 people to enter the
CP. The line in the northern shed quickly lengthened again with
the arrival of many bus passengers from Ramallah.
16:40: We joined the line
of people waiting (about 30) and waited 12 minutes to pass through the
carousel and enter the CP, where we waited another 4 minutes – 16
minutes in all – before emerging on the Jerusalem side.
At the vehicle CP traffic was moving
as usual but we could see in the distance that the line of cars at Atarot
CP was very long. Two ambulances drove into the CP. The
one from Ramallah transferred a young man to the one from Jerusalem
accompanied by a woman who seemed to be his mother.
17:06:
We returned to the pedestrian CP. Now there were no lines at all.
We sat in the northern shed with a bunch of teenage boys, students at
a U.N. technical school in Qalandiya where they were studying such subjects
as computers and electronics. They were good company. The CP remained
quite empty so we finished our shift at 17:30.
We drove through Lil CP on our way back
to Jerusalem. There were no lines and the traffic was flowing.
'Atara
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'Atara Checkpoint
Situated at the northern entrance to Ramallah from Route 465, called also Bir Zeit Checkpoint. Nowadays only remains of what used to be a busy checkpoint remain, a pillbox and concrete blocks.
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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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