Qalandiya
5:10 We parked on the side of Atarot and entered through the checkpoint ( quite easily).
When we arrived we were told that line no. 1 was not moving forward. We made a sign to a female soldier who started operating the check post.
5:15 When lanes 4 and 5 opened the situation in the waiting area improved. Most of the time, the lines were very short. Sometimes there were no people waiting outside the fenced off areas.
We checked how long it takes when everything works smoothly like that. We measured between 25 to 30 minutes.
6:05 An officer, whom we had not seen in the past, arrived to open the humanitarian gate (about time!), but he did not open. Since there were not many people in the waiting area women, pupils and people with permits did not line up at the humanitarian gate. We directed the women and the old people waiting in the regular lines to the humanitarian gate. It opened.
6:10 Many children arrived to pass through the humanitarian gate. Every few minutes a group gathered and the officer opened the gate. We told him that we were pleased to see that there was no pressure when all five lanes were open. He claimed it had been like that every day during the last week.
6:30 When we left there were still people in the waiting area, but everything was working smoothly. In the end, we also passed through the humanitarian gate. It took us fifteen minutes to reach the exit from the waiting area.
We were very happy to see that the parking had opened!
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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