‘Atara, Qalandiya, Sat 1.8.09, Afternoon
Saturday afternoon
At the checkpoint of Qalandiya and Atarot the day after the reports on Channel 1 and 2 which speak of the prosperity, the continuous celebrations of the Palestinian cities and the area ……… we saw nothing of this here.
At Qalandiya there are no signs of this propaganda of the previous evening on the television. The passage there is very difficult at all hours of the day both for pedestrians and for cars, the dreams of the Paris of the West Bank opposite the mountains of rubbish and the filth around the checkpoint which is the responsibility of the municipality, or the sight of a woman locked into the turnstile and the difficulties of bring through the parcels bought in Ramallah is not seen here and the feelings of freedom and liberty are all missing here. At the refugee camps near the checkpoint one sees the misery and the neglect and the children and youths who each day tell their stories of the abuse and the maltreatment of the army and the authorities in Israel.
At the checkpoint of Qalandiya in the beginning stood some 10s of people. The passage was terribly slow and accompanied by the shouts and scolding of the soldiers in the booths. Every now and again people are stuck in the turnstiles and when another one opens people are sent from one to the other according to what they are carrying, their IDs, their age while the orders which are heard come out of the microphone in Hebrew and it is very difficult to understand what they are saying. The car passage was very full both at exit and entrance and the drivers and passengers suffer from the amount of time which the checking took.
In the shed was a man from Burin whose work is in Ma'aleh Edumiem but he is not allowed to pass through at Qalandiya. A few minutes previously he had been violently scolded by the soldier. He told of the burning of the fields at Burin by the settlers and the exposure of the olive groves in the last weeks by the army "to show the beauty of the settlements of Bracha, Yizhar " and this in connection with the propaganda of prosperity.
The humanitarian offices and the DCO were closed because of Shabbat.
M.H. told us that he is 19 years old and had just been freed from jail two weeks ago. He had been caught entering Israel illegally. The vehicle which had caught him had no police identification. The police got out and ran after him and other young children. He said that he could not run as fast as his friends because of his weight, he is fat and pleasant. He was handcuffed, his eyes blindfolded and pushed brutally into the car which drove to some building in Naveh Yaakov. He does not know where he was taken because he was blindfolded. He was pushed into the toilet and told to strip and checked and then the interrogator Iman questioned him and then took his fingerprints. Afterwards outside the toilet began a series of sadistic brutal attacks by the policeman who was sitting at the reception desk together with another woman soldier. They called him names because of his weight. Ya Abu Naphchah, Ya Abu watermelon,. We will show you and then the policeman began to hit him with his Ninja weapon which are two clubs tied together and between them a chain, hitting, kicking and being pushed so hard that when he hit the door of the toilet the door broke and he was accused of that. The woman soldier stood at the side and watched and the interrogator Iman in the next room sat and did nothing. Later his eyes were again blindfolded and he was pushed into another room for a whole day without food. He only got water and his eyes were tightly blindfolded and he lost his sense of orientation and did not know for how long or where he was. After this he was put into a room with two other prisoners, young, and they also did not know where they were. After 15 days they were taken again blindfolded and thrown out at the checkpoint of Qalandiya without any document that they had been arrested and were warned that this was not the end of the story. The worried mother could not find them even though the Red Cross as they were not registered anywhere. He said that even his widowed mother did not believe his horrible story in the beginning. We the Israelis also did not believe that bombs had been thrown and children killed in their beds. He does not want to complain because it will not help.
At the checkpoint also a student going into the 12th class sells icecream and gets 5 shekel a day. The soldiers shout at him from the tower that he should go back and he replies that the Jews should go back.
At the checkpoint of Atara cars are not checked but the soldiers are in the sentry towers and the spotlights turned on even in the day.
In cities and the area ……… we saw nothing of this here.
At Qalandiya there are no signs of this propaganda of the previous evening on the television. The passage there is very difficult at all hours of the day both for pedestrians and for cars, the dreams of the Paris of the West Bank opposite the mountains of rubbish and the filth around the checkpoint which is the responsibility of the municipality, or the sight of a woman locked into the turnstile and the difficulties of bring through the parcels bought in Ramallah is not seen here and the feelings of freedom and liberty are all missing here. At the refugee camps near the checkpoint one sees the misery and the neglect and the children and youths who each day tell their stories of the abuse and the maltreatment of the army and the authorities in Israel.
At the checkpoint of Qalandiya in the beginning stood some 10s of people. The passage was terribly slow and accompanied by the shouts and scolding of the soldiers in the booths. Every now and again people are stuck in the turnstiles and when another one opens people are sent from one to the other according to what they are carrying, their IDs, their age while the orders which are heard come out of the microphone in Hebrew and it is very difficult to understand what they are saying. The car passage was very full both at exit and entrance and the drivers and passengers suffer from the amount of time which the checking took.
In the shed was a man from Burin whose work is in Ma'aleh Edumiem but he is not allowed to pass through at Qalandiya. A few minutes previously he had been violently scolded by the soldier. He told of the burning of the fields at Burin by the settlers and the exposure of the olive groves in the last weeks by the army "to show the beauty of the settlements of Bracha, Yizhar " and this in connection with the propaganda of prosperity.
The humanitarian offices and the DCO were closed because of Shabbat.
M.H. told us that he is 19 years old and had just been freed from jail two weeks ago. He had been caught entering Israel illegally. The vehicle which had caught him had no police identification. The police got out and ran after him and other young children. He said that he could not run as fast as his friends because of his weight, he is fat and pleasant. He was handcuffed, his eyes blindfolded and pushed brutally into the car which drove to some building in Naveh Yaakov. He does not know where he was taken because he was blindfolded. He was pushed into the toilet and told to strip and checked and then the interrogator Iman questioned him and then took his fingerprints. Afterwards outside the toilet began a series of sadistic brutal attacks by the policeman who was sitting at the reception desk together with another woman soldier. They called him names because of his weight. Ya Abu Naphchah, Ya Abu watermelon,. We will show you and then the policeman began to hit him with his Ninja weapon which are two clubs tied together and between them a chain, hitting, kicking and being pushed so hard that when he hit the door of the toilet the door broke and he was accused of that. The woman soldier stood at the side and watched and the interrogator Iman in the next room sat and did nothing. Later his eyes were again blindfolded and he was pushed into another room for a whole day without food. He only got water and his eyes were tightly blindfolded and he lost his sense of orientation and did not know for how long or where he was. After this he was put into a room with two other prisoners, young, and they also did not know where they were. After 15 days they were taken again blindfolded and thrown out at the checkpoint of Qalandiya without any document that they had been arrested and were warned that this was not the end of the story. The worried mother could not find them even though the Red Cross as they were not registered anywhere. He said that even his widowed mother did not believe his horrible story in the beginning. We the Israelis also did not believe that bombs had been thrown and children killed in their beds. He does not want to complain because it will not help.
At the checkpoint also a student going into the 12th class sells icecream and gets 5 shekel a day. The soldiers shout at him from the tower that he should go back and he replies that the Jews should go back.
At the checkpoint of Atara cars are not checked but the soldiers are in the sentry towers and the spotlights turned on even in the day.
Saturday afternoon
At the checkpoint of Qalandiya and Atarot the day after the reports on Channel 1 and 2 which speak of the prosperity, the continuous celebrations of the Palestinian cities and the area ……… we saw nothing of this here.
At Qalandiya there are no signs of this propaganda of the previous evening on the television. The passage there is very difficult at all hours of the day both for pedestrians and for cars, the dreams of the Paris of the West Bank opposite the mountains of rubbish and the filth around the checkpoint which is the responsibility of the municipality, or the sight of a woman locked into the turnstile and the difficulties of bring through the parcels bought in Ramallah is not seen here and the feelings of freedom and liberty are all missing here. At the refugee camps near the checkpoint one sees the misery and the neglect and the children and youths who each day tell their stories of the abuse and the maltreatment of the army and the authorities in Israel.
At the checkpoint of Qalandiya in the beginning stood some 10s of people. The passage was terribly slow and accompanied by the shouts and scolding of the soldiers in the booths. Every now and again people are stuck in the turnstiles and when another one opens people are sent from one to the other according to what they are carrying, their IDs, their age while the orders which are heard come out of the microphone in Hebrew and it is very difficult to understand what they are saying. The car passage was very full both at exit and entrance and the drivers and passengers suffer from the amount of time which the checking took.
In the shed was a man from Burin whose work is in Ma'aleh Edumiem but he is not allowed to pass through at Qalandiya. A few minutes previously he had been violently scolded by the soldier. He told of the burning of the fields at Burin by the settlers and the exposure of the olive groves in the last weeks by the army "to show the beauty of the settlements of Bracha, Yizhar " and this in connection with the propaganda of prosperity.
The humanitarian offices and the DCO were closed because of Shabbat.
M.H. told us that he is 19 years old and had just been freed from jail two weeks ago. He had been caught entering Israel illegally. The vehicle which had caught him had no police identification. The police got out and ran after him and other young children. He said that he could not run as fast as his friends because of his weight, he is fat and pleasant. He was handcuffed, his eyes blindfolded and pushed brutally into the car which drove to some building in Naveh Yaakov. He does not know where he was taken because he was blindfolded. He was pushed into the toilet and told to strip and checked and then the interrogator Iman questioned him and then took his fingerprints. Afterwards outside the toilet began a series of sadistic brutal attacks by the policeman who was sitting at the reception desk together with another woman soldier. They called him names because of his weight. Ya Abu Naphchah, Ya Abu watermelon,. We will show you and then the policeman began to hit him with his Ninja weapon which are two clubs tied together and between them a chain, hitting, kicking and being pushed so hard that when he hit the door of the toilet the door broke and he was accused of that. The woman soldier stood at the side and watched and the interrogator Iman in the next room sat and did nothing. Later his eyes were again blindfolded and he was pushed into another room for a whole day without food. He only got water and his eyes were tightly blindfolded and he lost his sense of orientation and did not know for how long or where he was. After this he was put into a room with two other prisoners, young, and they also did not know where they were. After 15 days they were taken again blindfolded and thrown out at the checkpoint of Qalandiya without any document that they had been arrested and were warned that this was not the end of the story. The worried mother could not find them even though the Red Cross as they were not registered anywhere. He said that even his widowed mother did not believe his horrible story in the beginning. We the Israelis also did not believe that bombs had been thrown and children killed in their beds. He does not want to complain because it will not help.
At the checkpoint also a student going into the 12th class sells icecream and gets 5 shekel a day. The soldiers shout at him from the tower that he should go back and he replies that the Jews should go back.
At the checkpoint of Atara cars are not checked but the soldiers are in the sentry towers and the spotlights turned on even in the day.
In cities and the area ……… we saw nothing of this here.
At Qalandiya there are no signs of this propaganda of the previous evening on the television. The passage there is very difficult at all hours of the day both for pedestrians and for cars, the dreams of the Paris of the West Bank opposite the mountains of rubbish and the filth around the checkpoint which is the responsibility of the municipality, or the sight of a woman locked into the turnstile and the difficulties of bring through the parcels bought in Ramallah is not seen here and the feelings of freedom and liberty are all missing here. At the refugee camps near the checkpoint one sees the misery and the neglect and the children and youths who each day tell their stories of the abuse and the maltreatment of the army and the authorities in Israel.
At the checkpoint of Qalandiya in the beginning stood some 10s of people. The passage was terribly slow and accompanied by the shouts and scolding of the soldiers in the booths. Every now and again people are stuck in the turnstiles and when another one opens people are sent from one to the other according to what they are carrying, their IDs, their age while the orders which are heard come out of the microphone in Hebrew and it is very difficult to understand what they are saying. The car passage was very full both at exit and entrance and the drivers and passengers suffer from the amount of time which the checking took.
In the shed was a man from Burin whose work is in Ma'aleh Edumiem but he is not allowed to pass through at Qalandiya. A few minutes previously he had been violently scolded by the soldier. He told of the burning of the fields at Burin by the settlers and the exposure of the olive groves in the last weeks by the army "to show the beauty of the settlements of Bracha, Yizhar " and this in connection with the propaganda of prosperity.
The humanitarian offices and the DCO were closed because of Shabbat.
M.H. told us that he is 19 years old and had just been freed from jail two weeks ago. He had been caught entering Israel illegally. The vehicle which had caught him had no police identification. The police got out and ran after him and other young children. He said that he could not run as fast as his friends because of his weight, he is fat and pleasant. He was handcuffed, his eyes blindfolded and pushed brutally into the car which drove to some building in Naveh Yaakov. He does not know where he was taken because he was blindfolded. He was pushed into the toilet and told to strip and checked and then the interrogator Iman questioned him and then took his fingerprints. Afterwards outside the toilet began a series of sadistic brutal attacks by the policeman who was sitting at the reception desk together with another woman soldier. They called him names because of his weight. Ya Abu Naphchah, Ya Abu watermelon,. We will show you and then the policeman began to hit him with his Ninja weapon which are two clubs tied together and between them a chain, hitting, kicking and being pushed so hard that when he hit the door of the toilet the door broke and he was accused of that. The woman soldier stood at the side and watched and the interrogator Iman in the next room sat and did nothing. Later his eyes were again blindfolded and he was pushed into another room for a whole day without food. He only got water and his eyes were tightly blindfolded and he lost his sense of orientation and did not know for how long or where he was. After this he was put into a room with two other prisoners, young, and they also did not know where they were. After 15 days they were taken again blindfolded and thrown out at the checkpoint of Qalandiya without any document that they had been arrested and were warned that this was not the end of the story. The worried mother could not find them even though the Red Cross as they were not registered anywhere. He said that even his widowed mother did not believe his horrible story in the beginning. We the Israelis also did not believe that bombs had been thrown and children killed in their beds. He does not want to complain because it will not help.
At the checkpoint also a student going into the 12th class sells icecream and gets 5 shekel a day. The soldiers shout at him from the tower that he should go back and he replies that the Jews should go back.
At the checkpoint of Atara cars are not checked but the soldiers are in the sentry towers and the spotlights turned on even in the day.
Saturday afternoon
At the checkpoint of Qalandiya and Atarot the day after the reports on Channel 1 and 2 which speak of the prosperity, the continuous celebrations of the Palestinian cities and the area ……… we saw nothing of this here.
At Qalandiya there are no signs of this propaganda of the previous evening on the television. The passage there is very difficult at all hours of the day both for pedestrians and for cars, the dreams of the Paris of the West Bank opposite the mountains of rubbish and the filth around the checkpoint which is the responsibility of the municipality, or the sight of a woman locked into the turnstile and the difficulties of bring through the parcels bought in Ramallah is not seen here and the feelings of freedom and liberty are all missing here. At the refugee camps near the checkpoint one sees the misery and the neglect and the children and youths who each day tell their stories of the abuse and the maltreatment of the army and the authorities in Israel.
At the checkpoint of Qalandiya in the beginning stood some 10s of people. The passage was terribly slow and accompanied by the shouts and scolding of the soldiers in the booths. Every now and again people are stuck in the turnstiles and when another one opens people are sent from one to the other according to what they are carrying, their IDs, their age while the orders which are heard come out of the microphone in Hebrew and it is very difficult to understand what they are saying. The car passage was very full both at exit and entrance and the drivers and passengers suffer from the amount of time which the checking took.
In the shed was a man from Burin whose work is in Ma'aleh Edumiem but he is not allowed to pass through at Qalandiya. A few minutes previously he had been violently scolded by the soldier. He told of the burning of the fields at Burin by the settlers and the exposure of the olive groves in the last weeks by the army "to show the beauty of the settlements of Bracha, Yizhar " and this in connection with the propaganda of prosperity.
The humanitarian offices and the DCO were closed because of Shabbat.
M.H. told us that he is 19 years old and had just been freed from jail two weeks ago. He had been caught entering Israel illegally. The vehicle which had caught him had no police identification. The police got out and ran after him and other young children. He said that he could not run as fast as his friends because of his weight, he is fat and pleasant. He was handcuffed, his eyes blindfolded and pushed brutally into the car which drove to some building in Naveh Yaakov. He does not know where he was taken because he was blindfolded. He was pushed into the toilet and told to strip and checked and then the interrogator Iman questioned him and then took his fingerprints. Afterwards outside the toilet began a series of sadistic brutal attacks by the policeman who was sitting at the reception desk together with another woman soldier. They called him names because of his weight. Ya Abu Naphchah, Ya Abu watermelon,. We will show you and then the policeman began to hit him with his Ninja weapon which are two clubs tied together and between them a chain, hitting, kicking and being pushed so hard that when he hit the door of the toilet the door broke and he was accused of that. The woman soldier stood at the side and watched and the interrogator Iman in the next room sat and did nothing. Later his eyes were again blindfolded and he was pushed into another room for a whole day without food. He only got water and his eyes were tightly blindfolded and he lost his sense of orientation and did not know for how long or where he was. After this he was put into a room with two other prisoners, young, and they also did not know where they were. After 15 days they were taken again blindfolded and thrown out at the checkpoint of Qalandiya without any document that they had been arrested and were warned that this was not the end of the story. The worried mother could not find them even though the Red Cross as they were not registered anywhere. He said that even his widowed mother did not believe his horrible story in the beginning. We the Israelis also did not believe that bombs had been thrown and children killed in their beds. He does not want to complain because it will not help.
At the checkpoint also a student going into the 12th class sells icecream and gets 5 shekel a day. The soldiers shout at him from the tower that he should go back and he replies that the Jews should go back.
At the checkpoint of Atara cars are not checked but the soldiers are in the sentry towers and the spotlights turned on even in the day.
In cities and the area ……… we saw nothing of this here.
At Qalandiya there are no signs of this propaganda of the previous evening on the television. The passage there is very difficult at all hours of the day both for pedestrians and for cars, the dreams of the Paris of the West Bank opposite the mountains of rubbish and the filth around the checkpoint which is the responsibility of the municipality, or the sight of a woman locked into the turnstile and the difficulties of bring through the parcels bought in Ramallah is not seen here and the feelings of freedom and liberty are all missing here. At the refugee camps near the checkpoint one sees the misery and the neglect and the children and youths who each day tell their stories of the abuse and the maltreatment of the army and the authorities in Israel.
At the checkpoint of Qalandiya in the beginning stood some 10s of people. The passage was terribly slow and accompanied by the shouts and scolding of the soldiers in the booths. Every now and again people are stuck in the turnstiles and when another one opens people are sent from one to the other according to what they are carrying, their IDs, their age while the orders which are heard come out of the microphone in Hebrew and it is very difficult to understand what they are saying. The car passage was very full both at exit and entrance and the drivers and passengers suffer from the amount of time which the checking took.
In the shed was a man from Burin whose work is in Ma'aleh Edumiem but he is not allowed to pass through at Qalandiya. A few minutes previously he had been violently scolded by the soldier. He told of the burning of the fields at Burin by the settlers and the exposure of the olive groves in the last weeks by the army "to show the beauty of the settlements of Bracha, Yizhar " and this in connection with the propaganda of prosperity.
The humanitarian offices and the DCO were closed because of Shabbat.
M.H. told us that he is 19 years old and had just been freed from jail two weeks ago. He had been caught entering Israel illegally. The vehicle which had caught him had no police identification. The police got out and ran after him and other young children. He said that he could not run as fast as his friends because of his weight, he is fat and pleasant. He was handcuffed, his eyes blindfolded and pushed brutally into the car which drove to some building in Naveh Yaakov. He does not know where he was taken because he was blindfolded. He was pushed into the toilet and told to strip and checked and then the interrogator Iman questioned him and then took his fingerprints. Afterwards outside the toilet began a series of sadistic brutal attacks by the policeman who was sitting at the reception desk together with another woman soldier. They called him names because of his weight. Ya Abu Naphchah, Ya Abu watermelon,. We will show you and then the policeman began to hit him with his Ninja weapon which are two clubs tied together and between them a chain, hitting, kicking and being pushed so hard that when he hit the door of the toilet the door broke and he was accused of that. The woman soldier stood at the side and watched and the interrogator Iman in the next room sat and did nothing. Later his eyes were again blindfolded and he was pushed into another room for a whole day without food. He only got water and his eyes were tightly blindfolded and he lost his sense of orientation and did not know for how long or where he was. After this he was put into a room with two other prisoners, young, and they also did not know where they were. After 15 days they were taken again blindfolded and thrown out at the checkpoint of Qalandiya without any document that they had been arrested and were warned that this was not the end of the story. The worried mother could not find them even though the Red Cross as they were not registered anywhere. He said that even his widowed mother did not believe his horrible story in the beginning. We the Israelis also did not believe that bombs had been thrown and children killed in their beds. He does not want to complain because it will not help.
At the checkpoint also a student going into the 12th class sells icecream and gets 5 shekel a day. The soldiers shout at him from the tower that he should go back and he replies that the Jews should go back.
At the checkpoint of Atara cars are not checked but the soldiers are in the sentry towers and the spotlights turned on even in the day.
Saturday afternoon
At the checkpoint of Qalandiya and Atarot the day after the reports on Channel 1 and 2 which speak of the prosperity, the continuous celebrations of the Palestinian cities and the area ……… we saw nothing of this here.
At Qalandiya there are no signs of this propaganda of the previous evening on the television. The passage there is very difficult at all hours of the day both for pedestrians and for cars, the dreams of the Paris of the West Bank opposite the mountains of rubbish and the filth around the checkpoint which is the responsibility of the municipality, or the sight of a woman locked into the turnstile and the difficulties of bring through the parcels bought in Ramallah is not seen here and the feelings of freedom and liberty are all missing here. At the refugee camps near the checkpoint one sees the misery and the neglect and the children and youths who each day tell their stories of the abuse and the maltreatment of the army and the authorities in Israel.
At the checkpoint of Qalandiya in the beginning stood some 10s of people. The passage was terribly slow and accompanied by the shouts and scolding of the soldiers in the booths. Every now and again people are stuck in the turnstiles and when another one opens people are sent from one to the other according to what they are carrying, their IDs, their age while the orders which are heard come out of the microphone in Hebrew and it is very difficult to understand what they are saying. The car passage was very full both at exit and entrance and the drivers and passengers suffer from the amount of time which the checking took.
In the shed was a man from Burin whose work is in Ma'aleh Edumiem but he is not allowed to pass through at Qalandiya. A few minutes previously he had been violently scolded by the soldier. He told of the burning of the fields at Burin by the settlers and the exposure of the olive groves in the last weeks by the army "to show the beauty of the settlements of Bracha, Yizhar " and this in connection with the propaganda of prosperity.
The humanitarian offices and the DCO were closed because of Shabbat.
M.H. told us that he is 19 years old and had just been freed from jail two weeks ago. He had been caught entering Israel illegally. The vehicle which had caught him had no police identification. The police got out and ran after him and other young children. He said that he could not run as fast as his friends because of his weight, he is fat and pleasant. He was handcuffed, his eyes blindfolded and pushed brutally into the car which drove to some building in Naveh Yaakov. He does not know where he was taken because he was blindfolded. He was pushed into the toilet and told to strip and checked and then the interrogator Iman questioned him and then took his fingerprints. Afterwards outside the toilet began a series of sadistic brutal attacks by the policeman who was sitting at the reception desk together with another woman soldier. They called him names because of his weight. Ya Abu Naphchah, Ya Abu watermelon,. We will show you and then the policeman began to hit him with his Ninja weapon which are two clubs tied together and between them a chain, hitting, kicking and being pushed so hard that when he hit the door of the toilet the door broke and he was accused of that. The woman soldier stood at the side and watched and the interrogator Iman in the next room sat and did nothing. Later his eyes were again blindfolded and he was pushed into another room for a whole day without food. He only got water and his eyes were tightly blindfolded and he lost his sense of orientation and did not know for how long or where he was. After this he was put into a room with two other prisoners, young, and they also did not know where they were. After 15 days they were taken again blindfolded and thrown out at the checkpoint of Qalandiya without any document that they had been arrested and were warned that this was not the end of the story. The worried mother could not find them even though the Red Cross as they were not registered anywhere. He said that even his widowed mother did not believe his horrible story in the beginning. We the Israelis also did not believe that bombs had been thrown and children killed in their beds. He does not want to complain because it will not help.
At the checkpoint also a student going into the 12th class sells icecream and gets 5 shekel a day. The soldiers shout at him from the tower that he should go back and he replies that the Jews should go back.
At the checkpoint of Atara cars are not checked but the soldiers are in the sentry towers and the spotlights turned on even in the day.
In cities and the area ……… we saw nothing of this here.
At Qalandiya there are no signs of this propaganda of the previous evening on the television. The passage there is very difficult at all hours of the day both for pedestrians and for cars, the dreams of the Paris of the West Bank opposite the mountains of rubbish and the filth around the checkpoint which is the responsibility of the municipality, or the sight of a woman locked into the turnstile and the difficulties of bring through the parcels bought in Ramallah is not seen here and the feelings of freedom and liberty are all missing here. At the refugee camps near the checkpoint one sees the misery and the neglect and the children and youths who each day tell their stories of the abuse and the maltreatment of the army and the authorities in Israel.
At the checkpoint of Qalandiya in the beginning stood some 10s of people. The passage was terribly slow and accompanied by the shouts and scolding of the soldiers in the booths. Every now and again people are stuck in the turnstiles and when another one opens people are sent from one to the other according to what they are carrying, their IDs, their age while the orders which are heard come out of the microphone in Hebrew and it is very difficult to understand what they are saying. The car passage was very full both at exit and entrance and the drivers and passengers suffer from the amount of time which the checking took.
In the shed was a man from Burin whose work is in Ma'aleh Edumiem but he is not allowed to pass through at Qalandiya. A few minutes previously he had been violently scolded by the soldier. He told of the burning of the fields at Burin by the settlers and the exposure of the olive groves in the last weeks by the army "to show the beauty of the settlements of Bracha, Yizhar " and this in connection with the propaganda of prosperity.
The humanitarian offices and the DCO were closed because of Shabbat.
M.H. told us that he is 19 years old and had just been freed from jail two weeks ago. He had been caught entering Israel illegally. The vehicle which had caught him had no police identification. The police got out and ran after him and other young children. He said that he could not run as fast as his friends because of his weight, he is fat and pleasant. He was handcuffed, his eyes blindfolded and pushed brutally into the car which drove to some building in Naveh Yaakov. He does not know where he was taken because he was blindfolded. He was pushed into the toilet and told to strip and checked and then the interrogator Iman questioned him and then took his fingerprints. Afterwards outside the toilet began a series of sadistic brutal attacks by the policeman who was sitting at the reception desk together with another woman soldier. They called him names because of his weight. Ya Abu Naphchah, Ya Abu watermelon,. We will show you and then the policeman began to hit him with his Ninja weapon which are two clubs tied together and between them a chain, hitting, kicking and being pushed so hard that when he hit the door of the toilet the door broke and he was accused of that. The woman soldier stood at the side and watched and the interrogator Iman in the next room sat and did nothing. Later his eyes were again blindfolded and he was pushed into another room for a whole day without food. He only got water and his eyes were tightly blindfolded and he lost his sense of orientation and did not know for how long or where he was. After this he was put into a room with two other prisoners, young, and they also did not know where they were. After 15 days they were taken again blindfolded and thrown out at the checkpoint of Qalandiya without any document that they had been arrested and were warned that this was not the end of the story. The worried mother could not find them even though the Red Cross as they were not registered anywhere. He said that even his widowed mother did not believe his horrible story in the beginning. We the Israelis also did not believe that bombs had been thrown and children killed in their beds. He does not want to complain because it will not help.
At the checkpoint also a student going into the 12th class sells icecream and gets 5 shekel a day. The soldiers shout at him from the tower that he should go back and he replies that the Jews should go back.
At the checkpoint of Atara cars are not checked but the soldiers are in the sentry towers and the spotlights turned on even in the day.
'Atara
See all reports for this place-
'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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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-27-2025Qalandiya: A beggar woman
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