Jaba (Lil), Qalandiya
Qalandiya and Jab’a
Closure
Closure, again.
“Every day you have a holiday, plenty of holidays you got”, said an angry young man.
He was angry about the closure, angry because the closure kept people away from the checkpoint and angry because the checkpoint with hardly any people means his livelihood, as well as of others like him who make their living selling things to the people going through the checkpoint – is nil.
***
One and a half kilometers, perhaps two, before Jab’a Checkpoint the traffic stopped.
Hundreds of cars and many hundreds of people were stuck in a long line as far as the eye could reach.
The parallel road was empty except for military vehicles.
At some point people began coming on foot and said the army blocked the way in both directions an hour ago.
It was no traffic jam. nor anything like it. It was a dead end.
After quite a while of no motion and no Galgalatz (radio program reporting traffic situations) I called the hotline of the Jerusalem Separation Wall and asked how long they estimate this situation to last.*
After some moments of checking the person on the phone said that “they’re just now opening the road. There seems to have been a jeopardizing vehicle.”
“Jeopardizing whom?” I asked.
“The residents”, she said.
“But there are no residents here” I insisted.
“You”, she insisted too.
Within minutes vehicles in the opposite direction began to come through one by one, and in a few more minutes the traffic flowed in both directions.
When I got to the checkpoint there were no soldiers and no vehicle jeopardizing any residents.
Conclusions:
- When there is no reason one can always smear matters with “there seems to be”.
- The definition “residents” is a whitewashed version of “settlers”.
* I am against complaining to the authorities and normally do not, I only rarely ask for information.
Sometimes I get it, usually not.
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 FleishmanApr-12-2026Qalandiya. Abdallah at his fruit stand
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