Jaba (Lil), Qalandiya, Sun 28.4.13, Afternoon
Translation: Ruth Fleishman
Being a healthy Palestinian is hard. It's much harder to be an ill Palestinian.
Qalandiya:
A man from Tul Karem, while in deep agony, was taken from one stretcher to the other, from the Jerusalem ambulance to the West Bank ambulance which would take him back home.
The paramedic said that he had a complicated fracture in his thigh, that Makased hospital, where he was admitted, had decided to send him home and that in a month's time and after assessments of the odds and risks, it would be decided whether to operate. 
It took two hours for the ambulance to arrive from Tulkarm at Qalandiya, now this man would have to go through a two hour drive until reaching home. In one month he will once again go to Jerusalem, this time to hear what the doctors had decided, another two hour drive, again being moved from one stretcher to the other, from one ambulance to another.
Being a healthy Palestinian is hard. It's much harder to be an ill Palestinian.
And in the meanwhile, a young Palestinian lad caught in Jerusalem without a GSS permit was brought to the police station. The hunters called for a police vehicle and once it arrived the lad was place in it and they drove away.
On the same topic: Ayman, the coffee stand owner on the Palestinian side of the checkpoint, had begun to serve a sentence of five months imprisonment. Two years ago he was caught working at Mahne-Yehuda market with a fake ID.
The shift change at the soldiers' inspection post caused everything to freeze over for several long minutes:
At first the soldiers who finished their shift took off their bulletproof vests, then the new soldiers put the vests on, they sipped some Coca-Cola, moved the chairs around, conversed among themselves in peace, as though the tens of people waiting on the other side of the windows and walls didn't exist.
And the intercom system that is supposed to be used as means of communication between the Palestinians and the soldiers has been out of service for years.
Jaba checkpoint:
Omer, the guard at the top popped out his head from the window in the tower and started cursing us, and the three soldiers manning the post below said it would be a while till be could say "good riddance" to him.
The checkpoint commander and his two soldiers said that they were saving the lives of the Jews that might by mistake drive on to Qalandiya or Ramallah, and that: "it is very dangerous here(at the checkpoint), a couple of weeks ago a suspicious package was found here".
They weren't there when the package was found. They were told about 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-31-2026Qalandiya. Human remains or clothing remains
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