Jaba (Lil), Qalandiya, Sun 24.4.11, Afternoon
Translating: Ruth Fleishman
A rifle's barrel holding a soldier's hand approached us from the soldiers' post.
Qalandiya checkpoint:
"They have been shouting from the tower all day long, many times they curse. I want to curse them in return, but I'm scared…" said a cab driver.
Due to the closure only few Palestinians, those who are privileged, were permitted to enter Jerusalem. It was to be expected that the lines at the checkpoint would be shorter than usual and that the passage would be faster.
However, the soldiers regulated the pace of their work, preventing from the line to become shorter, quicker and from the passage to be easier. That was why, in spite of the Easter vacation at the universities, it was only after 70(!) minutes that we passed the checkpoint.
Jaba checkpoint:
A rifle's barrel holding a soldier's hand approached us from the soldiers' post.
We saw him coming closer towards us, aiming at the center of the body. The officer who chased his subordinate that was aiming the weapon sent him back to the post, he apologized and promised to talk with the soldier and remind him the regulations.
Lauren, who was no war horse (unlike me), who wasn't used to the pens, the barbed wire and to having a rifle aimed at people's bodies, froze and became breathless.
I showed the checkpoint commander a picture of a handcuffed Palestinian at the checkpoint that I have in my camera.
(report: http://www.machsomwatch.org/reports/checkpoints/27/03/2011/afternoon/17525)
Yes, he knew all about that incident. After stressing that he was not able to reveal military secrets and that he couldn't share with me all the details, he said that on that day some young men from Jaba village penetrated Rama Base (that is about half a kilometer away from the checkpoint, in front of the main entrance to Ar-Ram, and it is the quarters of the soldiers of Qalandiya and Jaba checkpoints), entered the storage room and stole weapons.
After an investigation it had turned out that the person in the photo was one of the men that had broken through the fence, and: "he made a lot of trouble when he was arrested".
I replied that what we had witnessed of the event in real time could disprove his version, that it wasn't probable that a person suspected of stealing weaponry and of disrupting the soldiers while performing their duties, would be released within an instance from the arrival of two Jewish women at the place where the said "criminal" was being held before his questioning and, without an order of release, and that even without referring to the victims version, it was hard not to deduce that this story was no more than a cheap attempt to cover up something, and that the whole event was a local initiative of the soldiers.
"But I wasn't even here", he said, "this is what I had heard…".
– He was right. He wasn't there.
– And on the following day, after processing the experience of standing in front of a drawn and loaded rifle's barrel , and having that image keep on recurring and not letting go, I tried to imagine what must go on in the souls of those tens of thousands of people who are in that situation so often.
– But they, the Palestinian people, unlike us, have been deprived of their right to shout out. In fact, they had been deprived of all the rights that are the very essence of human existence.
Jaba' (Lil)
See all reports for this place-
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)
-
Qalandiya Checkpoint / Atarot Pass (Jerusalem)
See all reports for this place-
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
-