‘Atarot, Hizma, Jaba (Lil), Qalandiya, Mon 4.5.09, Afternoon
15:40: The line of cars at Atarot CP was already quite long but did not yet reach around the bend.
15:45: Qalandiya: At the entrance to Qalandiya CP we were happily surprised to meet our friend the coffee vendor who was at his "post" again and told us that the soldiers were not bothering him (for the moment). Within the pedestrian CP, three passageways were operating and the number of people on line was not large.
15:50: We passed through the CP and emerged in the vehicle CP (Jerusalem side). There we saw a transit-bus drive up and disgorge 12 young men, apparently "illegal border crossers", each of whom in turn received his ID documents.
In the vehicle examination post close to where we were standing we saw a Palestinian man with a bicycle talking to an Israeli police officer. When the policeman walked off we spoke with the man, Musa, and it turned out that he was a resident of East Jerusalem (Israeli ID) and an employee of the UN. On Monday morning, returning home after a shift as night-watchman at a UN post near Ramallah, soldiers at the vehicle CP had taken his ID card and his UN card and had not returned them. Musa was tired so he left his documents at the CP and went home to sleep, returning in the afternoon to look for his papers. Police officer Babayan called headquarters to find out where the papers were and he was told that Musa would be able to claim them only in another 2 weeks. And how was Musa to walk around and go to work without his ID documents? We phoned the Association for Citizens' Rights to ask for help and also, on the recommendation of Hannah B., we suggested to Musa that he call his boss at the UN and ask him to intervene for him. (The boss really did get to work, but only on Tuesday was Musa able to collect his papers.)
Meanwhile the line of cars going towards Ramallah had gotten very long and extended all the way around the southern CP square. The line of cars at Atarot was also very long and reached beyond the horizon.
16:20: We returned to the pedestrian CP. We noted, in the northern shed, that cordon-ribbons had been tied around the narrow entrances to two of the carousel lanes, so that only one carousel was open to the public. We asked the security personnel how the crowds of people on their way to work in the morning would get through and he answered smiling, "slowly." We saw no signs that anyone was fixing the problem.
Within the CP three passageways were still working and lines were small and moving quickly.
We stayed at Qalandiya until 17:30. There were no unusual occurrences. We returned to Jerusalem via Lil and Hizmeh CPs. At Lil traffic was flowing undisturbed. Hizmeh was crowded but there was not much of a delay.
'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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Hizma
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Hizma
A checkpoint at the north-eastern entrance to the Jerusalem area which was annexed in 1967, at Pisgat Zeev. The passage is allowed to bearers of blue IDs only. Open 24 hours a day.
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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 FleishmanJun-28-2026Qalandiya. The bridge leading from Jerusalem to the Qalandiya checkpoint
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