Hizma, Qalandiya
.This is Jerusalem, Nor Is This Jerusalem, or Double your pleasure
The grocery store in the refugee camp is narrow and long. It begins inside the Jerusalem area and continues “behind that door is the storeroom, and it’s in Palestine”. “So to whom do you pay city taxes?” “Whoever sends me the bill. And they both, so I pay both.”
When the soldier at the only inspection post in operation detained me for quite a while and because of that many dozens of Palestinian were stuck behind me in line, because – as the soldier said- “I was ordered to stop your passage and everyone’s”, a man behind yelled out: “Madam, if they don’t want you here, go back to Ramallah, they do want you there!”
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A group of men on reserves army duty disembarked from a military vehicle that stopped at the entrance Hizme village. “What are you doing here?” I asked.
“Don’t talk to her”. They kept silent.
I recalled the testimony of a soldier of Breaking the Silence, who said:
“There’s tactical deception which by definition is the will to shape consciousness and the will to inhibit consciousness. You try to deceive someone into thinking and feeling threatened, no doubt about it.”
The inhabitants of Hizma, whose consciousness is shaped by terror every single day do not stay silent, and they told me of three children, between 13 and 16 years of age, two of them brothers, who were taken out of their homes 4 days ago.
“The army came at night?” –“Of course at night. They come only at night.”
True, the soldiers who are good at following orders did hold their silence, but there is no order that forbids them to invade the public and private space of Palestinians and take the liberty not only to urinate wherever they feel like it, but also to leave written souvenirs about anything they feel like, and wherever they feel like it.
Like the inscription No to hatred! on a shop door.
Because the soldiers too are only human, and like all humans they want to be loved and it wouldn’t occur to them and to their mothers that anyone would not like them.
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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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-8-2025Qalandiya: Emptiness in public space
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