Hizma, Qalandiya
The years gone by and the hurled Molotov cocktails and the burning tires rolled towards the ‘pillbox’ (army post) next to which appears Yasser Arafat’s portrait have eroded the graffiti on the Qalandiya wall and darkened the leader’s face to near invisibility.
So a few days ago, young men and women came along and perpetuated once more the face of the Palestinian people’s father.
Older, more worried, but perhaps he will last longer here.
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“Now they’re not doing anything, but at night, every night they throw a lot of teargas inside the village” answered a Hizma resident to my question: “What are they (the soldiers) doing here?”
So I asked Or, the commander, who answered: “Inspections”.
As we know, inspections is a code word for activity that is done in order to sow fear in human beings. A sort of terrorism.
And I asked about the nightly teargas, Or said that “on a daily basis, stones are thrown from this village at the thoroughfares. So we carry out inspections.”
- No equation holds those whose lands have been confiscated, and a wall has separated them from East Jerusalem – the former hub of their lives – and their livelihood has been impacted “on a daily basis”, and they in their desperation throw stones at the cars of the settlers who enjoy all the cream of the land that has been robbed from its inhabitants – and those armed men who invade their village nightly and harass them and arrest them and fill with teargas their very own public and private space.
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-25-2025Qalandia: West Bank man injured in both legs
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