Hizma, Jaba (Lil), Qalandiya, Sun 11.4.10, Afternoon
On our way to Jerusalem, on Route 1, we passed 6 trucks carrying tanks down to the Coast and wondered if we were preparing for war.
15:30: Qalandiya: When we reached Qalandiya the CP was pretty empty, perhaps because of the weather – the terrible sandstorm that was battering the whole country. Three passageways (2,3 and 4) were active and it took us only about 2 minutes to pass through the CP and emerge in the southern square.
In the parking lot, an ambulance from Mukassad Hospital was awaiting the arrival of a Palestinian ambulance
en route from Genin carrying a 1.5 year old with heart problems, accompanied by his mother. We watched as he was transferred from one vehicle to the other – the swirling sand certainly did not contribute to his well-being.
As those two ambulances left, another pair arrived, this time with a 2-month old baby girl on oxygen due to breathing difficulties. This poor child was also transferred back-to-back through all the flying dirt. Her mother went with her, but her father, a young Palestinian man, had to say his farewells at the fence because it is well nigh impossible for 
young Palestinian men to get permits to enter Israel.
15:45: From the distance we could see that about 10 vehicles were standing in line at Atarot CP.
15:55: The line at Atarot lengthened until it reached beyond the bend.
16:00: Back in the northern shed, the female soldier in the booth controlling the carousels takes a break, and locks the carousels so that within only a few minutes a long line develops despite the fact that there are almost no people in the internal passageways. Luckily, the break was short and the soldier returned after 5 minutes.
Our guest, K., had been on a visit to Nablus. She told us of a young Palestinian man who was lying unconscious and in critical condition in a hospital there after being attacked by settlers who had poured some kind of acid on his head and face. No one knows his name or who his family is in order to notify them. (Apparently the people who brought him to the hospital reported that he had been attacked by settlers.)
17:10: The CP was still quite empty. We decided to see if women are now allowed to use Passageway No. 4, or whether it is still reserved for men. I managed to walk through with no problem but the magnetometer caught Tamar and wouldn't "let go" even though she poured all her belongings into the x-ray machine. The (male) soldiers on duty told her to use Passageway No. 3 because the (female) soldiers there would be
able to examine her. The soldiers denied that their instrumentation was faulty and that the army has been unable (unwilling?) to repair it for several months. The result is that only 2 passageways are actually operational because the third one is defective.
17:20: We had decided to finish our shift when we saw another ambulance waiting in the southern square. This time it was returning an elderly woman who had broken her pelvis from Mukassad Hospital in Jerusalem to Ramallah. She also was exposed to the dirt and lack of privacy as they moved her from one ambulance to another in full view of all the passers-by.
17:30: We left for Jerusalem. On route we passed Lil/Jabba and Hizmeh CPs. Traffic was flowing at both CPs.
We left Qalandiya a little before 5 PM to return to Jerusalem. On our way we passed Lil/Jabba CP, where there was a line of 8 cars, and Hizmeh CP, where traffic was flowing.
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-27-2026Qalandiya: On the way to prayer
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