‘Atarot, Al Jib (Givat Zeev), Jaba (Lil), Qalandiya, Thu 1.9.11, Afternoon
The last day of Id El Fitr
We walked into the sad neighborhood underneath Ramot which used to be part of Beit Iksa in the hope of meeting our young Hebrew speaking friend formerly from Abu Gosh. There is no more separate entrance to her part of the house and we met with her borther-in-law, the teacher and his mother, while she was inside with the baby and didn’t show herself. We remembered how she ‘dressed up’ modestly in front of other men when we visited with her. Since the men have cars, their main complaint at this time was the fact that the few people in their community are not allowed to make use of the Jib checkpoint in Givat Zeev like the inhabitants of Nebi Samuel and Jib. They have to drive through Qalandia which sometimes takes two hours to reach their family members in Beit Iksa and sometimes they are not even allowed to visit them on foot, depending on the whims of the soldiers. They asked whether we could ‘do’ anything for them to facilitate their reaching schools and family. The Social Security issue has not been solved and their main fear at the moment is the fact that their little remaining land will be confiscated to accommodate the widening of the highway which will now, according to plans, run through their living room. As in the past, when they were finally granted blue Id’s, they have engaged Lea Tsemel to fight for them.
The Givat Zeev (Jib) CP was empty as usual.
Along the roads leading to Qalandia many cars were parked and we observed some happy family reunions with family members and children all dressed up. The line of cars entering the CP from the North was very long. It turns out that Palestinians from within Israel await their relatives from the West Bank who were lucky enough to obtain a permit for a holiday visit to Jerusalem, in order to take them for a ride to Jaffa or the beach. Unfortunately the wait at the CP takes two hours or more. We talked to the driver of a van who had to take a group of handball players to Tel Aviv for a match and had just been told that after a wait of 90 minutes it would take approximately another hour for the men to be able to exit. He was furious about the wasted time. After having found out that if we were to join the line we would have to wait for more than two hours to cross, we decided not to go into the CP and turned around. We inspected the new construction in Atarot and the landscaping along the beautiful roads. A sign at the entrance stated that people without a valid permit are not allowed to enter the industrial zone.
'Atarot
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Atarot
Atarot was a workers' settlement destroyed during the War of Independence, where the Arab village of Qalandiya now stands, in the southwestern part of Atarot Airport, built by the British Mandate. After 1967, the Atarot industrial zone was established nearby, and until the completion of the wall from the Qalandiya checkpoint to Road 443, a checkpoint was in place. A new Jewish neighborhood is currently planned for the old airport area.
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Al-Jib CP Givat Zeev (Jerusalem)
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Al-Jib CP GivatZeev (Jerusalem)
It is located on the separation fence, west of the al-Jib enclave. The checkpoint is regularly manned by Border Police and private security companies. Palestinians are not allowed to cross except for residents of the al-Khalaila neighborhood of the village of al-Jib, residents of al-Jib who own land on the western side of the fence, residents of a-Nabi Samuel, which is their only access road to Ramallah and the villages in northwest Jerusalem, as well as Palestinians with work permits in the Givat Zeev settlement and UN workers passing through UN vehicles.
(Updated January 2020)
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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 FleishmanNov-30-2025Qalandiya: Puddles and dirt after the rain
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