Hizma, Jaba (Lil), Qalandiya
Saturday evening, a little past 8 p.m., a man was executed at Qalandiya Checkpoint. Various websites reported that the man, inhabitant of Qatana village, took knives out of his pocket, tried to stab a policeman and was shot. I don’t know what happened at the checkpoint on Saturday evening, I can only repeat what I was told by my acquaintances.
They said a drunk man entered the checkpoint, shouted, raised a racket and got out. Then this guy entered the checkpoint, the guy who was killed. He was on his way to work on a night-shift at Atarot Industrial Zone, and had an entry permit. On the track before the soldiers’ checking posts, a policeman and a security guard came towards him, they actually came because of the drunken man, and while out there, they fired ten bullets at him.
I don’t know what happened there on Saturday evening, I am just positive that anyone familiar with the checkpoint and its procedures, this sterile labyrinth, could not possibly believe that the fellow who was killed had the slightest chance to meet a soldier or policeman face-to-face, or that he could possibly pass the metal detector with a knife in his pocket. And I do know that someone was shot and bled to death in this place.
Another chapter of a book that will not be written about the banality of occupation:
A woman inhabitant of the Gaza Strip suffering from myocardial infarction was brought to Qalandiya Checkpoint in a Red Crescent ambulance and transferred in a back-to-back procedure to a Palestinian ambulance there that took her to a Nablus hospital. The medical crew member who brought the woman to the checkpoint from Erez Checkpoint said he was equipped with a resuscitation kit because “she could go any moment now…”, and also that the West Bank ambulance has such equipment.
“Why did they not send her in an Intensive Care ambulance?” asked a bus driver who was there.
“She’s from Gaza”.
“Ah, yes, Gaza… They really don’t deserve it…” he concluded with a bitter smile.
Apparently most procedures totally confuse the soldiers. Even if one does adhere to army logic as to security risks, it is simply not conceivable why the luggage of a woman who was inspected at Erez Checkpoint and crossed the State of Israel and is on her way to Nablus in the West Bank – should be re-inspected.
At a roadblock below Jab’a village soldiers below and soldiers above disrupted traffic of hundreds of passengers. They stopped vehicles and checked IDs and opened doors and caused a traffic jam as far as one could see to the west. I don’t know if this is “breathing closure” (as the army calls it) or “breathless closure”, perhaps it is actually some sort of siege. One thing is certain: what the army does when it totally- or half-blocks the entries to Hizma village is torment people.
In closing, something personal:
The photo shows the policeman who yelled at me at the entrance to Hizma village and took my ID for a check with the computer inside the armored police van and when he returned it yelled at me once again and said, “if you give the soldiers a hard time I’ll arrest you”. I did not answer, and did not tell him that because he’s a policeman he can arrest me and he can also implement the new ‘feel-up’ law on me, but what he didn’t know is that half-a-year ago I pressed personal charges against the State for being detained in vain for three hours at Qalandiya Checkpoint. This happened about three years ago (you certainly don’t remember but I can certainly not forget this). The Tel Aviv attorney office ruled that the State should compensate me with a fee of 1000 NIS, and refund me the official fee that I paid for the procedure.
Thanks to attorney Talya Ramati who represented me.
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 FleishmanFeb-16-2026Qalandiya CP: shortcut
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