Jaba (Lil), Qalandiya
It’s a system of psychological terror implemented every hour of every day.
Her name is Huda, she’s forty years old, she lives in Gaza and she’s very sick.
She’s brain-damaged and has a serious heart ailment.
Huda’s muscles are weak; she’s been strapped to the stretched so she doesn’t fall off. She’s incontinent and has a package of adult diapers.
Huda was brought by ambulance from the Erez crossing to the Qalandiya checkpoint where she was transferred via the back-to-back procedure to another ambulance which took her to Al Najah hospital in Nablus.
Huda’s story is a small, visible portion of the bigger story. She has a face, and a name, and an illness and a destination, but in the bigger, hidden story there’s no name and no face and no illness. There’s only the systematic obfuscation of facts.
That same morning, earlier on the day Huda was taken to treatment on the West Bank, Red Crescent headquarters in East Jerusalem was notified that three patients had to be taken from Gaza to hospitals on the West Bank. An ambulance drove to the Erez crossing and waited. No one came through. “Wait,” they were told. They waited. “There’s a problem of coordination; keep waiting.” They kept waiting. They waited for three hours (Palestinians, even Palestinian ambulance staff, have unlimited time). Three hours later Huda emerged from the Erez crossing. The others’ exits hadn’t been coordinated.
Who are those other two, what are their names, what illnesses have they that they weren’t permitted to receive treatment for?
You’re wrong if you think a mistake was made or that the patients recovered during the three hours of waiting.
What’s at issue is the system, the system whose policy is to keep the population in a condition of continuous uncertainty, which is in effect psychological terror imposed daily and hourly for decades on millions without rights.
If you live in Hebron, don’t bother driving along the road. Residents of Hebron are suspect simply by virtue of living in Hebron.
And when Giv’ati soldiers stationed at the Jaba checkpoint happened to stop a vehicle carrying three Hebron residents they had no doubt they’d struck a mother-lode, or at least one large nugget, because the man in the passenger seat had a black beard, and everyone knows a black beard is proof, particularly when a quick search of the car revealed a bundle of bank notes that hadn’t really been concealed.
The soldiers ordered told them to turn off the engine, hand over their IDs, stay in the vehicle, put the car keys on the roof – “Why?” – “Headquarters,” said Carmel, the commander, and all the information was transmitted immediately to brigade headquarters and from there to the secret service. “I’m allowed to detain you for four hours, headquarters authorizes it,” said Carmel.
While it may be nobody’s business why and wherefrom someone has a great deal of money, the men volunteered that the money is the revenue from selling clothes manufactured in Hebron and sold to clothing merchants in Ramallah.
The Shabak was in no hurry, it doesn’t work for them, nor did brigade headquarters feel any urgency, “No photographs, it’s a military area…” Carmel, the commander, repeated, “Why?” “Headquarters,” an armored Border Police vehicle also showed up, the Border Police commander also tried the “No photographs” business and “I’ll call the police” (who didn’t show up), meanwhile day became night, the men sat stuck in the car and the soldiers busily received and carried out orders, demanded the phone number of the bearded man, but didn’t simply ask and record but told to call Carmel with that phone and when the bearded man’s phone number had been uploaded to Carmel’s phone and from there transmitted to the Shabak the owner of the phone was ordered to erase the number he had called. “I erased it,” the man said, but that wasn’t enough for Carmel who checked and confirmed that it had in fact been deleted.
After more time had passed the soldiers approached the car windows and ordered the bearded man to give them his Facebook account (invasion of privacy isn’t considered an invasion at all), he did so, the soldiers checked, transmitted it to the Shabak and another immeasurable amount of time passed.
At the end of the day, after two nerve-wracking hours, in the presence of two Jewish women and one camera, when it turned out they had nothing on them, their IDs were returned and the road opened before them.
As of now, the following day – Monday evening – they haven’t been harassed and nobody telephoned them. For now – I confirmed that by phone.
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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