Jaba (Lil), Qalandiya, יום א’ 23.8.09, אחה”צ
"Everything is set and ready for your orders, commander!"
The last preparations for the arrival of thousands of people on the Ramadan Fridays were being preformed:
The part of the wall by the vehicle checkpoint and the pillbox had been cleaned and whitewashed.
With one brush stroke the painting of the handcuffed Maruan Baraguty in his prison cell had been erased, so has the post card citing verses from the Koran, the tank fueled by the strength of the olive tree above it and the figure of Mahamud Darwish.
From the other side of the checkpoint, on the part of the wall on the northern side of the parking lot, the Arabic word for "Return" had been erased.
- – The parking lot and the waiting shed had been cleaned by from the piles of rubbish.
Its clear that they had learned from their mistakes of last year: the passages leading to the sterile zone are more narrow then they were last year, and cement blocks (pieces from the wall) had been added to the ones that had remained there from last year, they are to close the area where security forces will stand and shove backwards those wanting to pass for their Friday prayer. Snipers posts have also been added to the ones that had been waiting patiently since last year; piles of dirt had been gathered to make it impossible for anyone to pass without supervision.
As a result: there was heavy traffic on the vehicle lane for those coming from Ramalla.
The passage was like an extremely narrow bottleneck on a hefty bottle.
This was a typical display of the generosity bestowed upon the Palestinians in the form of "passage relives".
It was indeed clean and spotless, it was whitewashed, but it was also horrifying.
This emptiness would make you feel threatened, a place that was once decorated with graphite, lots that had been swept-up (something that is rarely done), passage lanes meant for human beings fenced by barbed wires, piles of dirt and trenches that had been dug to prevent anyone from passing without the permission of the sovereign.
Qalandia Checkpoint
The inspection lanes had been open and closed alternately: those waiting for their turn would discover that the lane they had chose to stand in had been closed, and then they were forced to move to another lane and those who had been the first in line before found themselves to be the last in their new lane. After several minutes: again, but this time the other way around. On the official sign showing the exit from the checkpoint showing to: "Judea and Samaria", was word "Palestine" was added in hand writing; someone that made a correction.
– On the western side of the vehicle checkpoint they had begun working on the construction of an additional lane (perhaps two).
The workers that were heading home from Atarot Industrial Center told us of the difficulties they came across when passing during the morning hours. There are long lines and the waiting time is endless. They are forced to pass through this checkpoint if they wish to get to work.
Due to the amount of people passing on that morning, and the electrical blackout that caused the computers to shut down, they arrived at the other side of the checkpoint at 7:00AM, in spit of the fact that they had headed out at 4:30AM. When arriving at work they had been rebuked for their tardiness and threatened they would loss their jobs.
Jaba/Leel checkpoint:
We were greeted with a smile and offered a cold drink. "Welcome to the most boring checkpoint upon the face of the earth", said the reserve soldiers manning the checkpoint.
We couldn't argue about it being dull. But we would prefer to refer to it as the most unjustified checkpoint on the face of the earth. It is so unjustified that even the army isn't able to come up with a security pretext to explain it. .
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 FleishmanMay-13-2025Qalandiya: Back-to-back procedure for transferring patients
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