Jaba (Lil), Qalandiya
Translator: Charles K.
It’s not routine.
“It’s only a routine inspection” said the soldier guarding the handler training a dog on Palestinian vehicles.
To them it’s routine. Just routine.
But for someone who was lucky enough to be selected and forced to leave their car, stand off to the side, watch the dog brought in to sniff the tires, walk around the vehicle, jump on it, go into the trunk, into the car, dirty the upholstery, crawl beneath the seats, poke into each crack and crevice and continue until it finds the hidden training bait – for them it’s not routine. It’s humiliating, an invasion of privacy, a desecration of their religious beliefs. Because, for Islam, the dog is unclean.
Nor was it routine for a woman from Gaza released this morning from hospital in Ramallah. According to the long list of conditions she enumerated one by one to her husband, you could characterize her as a “complicated case.” The couple stood there for hours. It’s hard to exit from Gaza, but it’s not easy to return either. The husband was concerned his wife wouldn’t take her medicine in time, was worried they wouldn’t receive a permit before the Erez crossing closed – where would they spend the night? And he also worried about their son hospitalized that morning in Gaza after he lost consciousness – something he told to me, a stranger, not to his wife because he didn’t want to burden her even more. “She’ll find out when we get home,” he said.
When they were finally able to go through he held his wife by the arm, supporting her, because her legs were swollen, she limped and couldn’t clearly see where she was going. Using the last of her strength she concentrated on lifting one foot, then the other – step by step they both moved forward.
And the man – this isn’t his first time at Qalandiya – looked around. “I won’t come again,” he said very disgustedly. “Even if I have to go all the way to…”, and stopped, searched for a word, found it… ”to Holland!”
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 FleishmanNov-30-2025Qalandiya: Puddles and dirt after the rain
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