Qalandiya
Translator: Charles K.
Burdens of pain
I know the first thing a person wants to do after being released from hospital is to crawl into bed. To rest. To recover.
But according to the logic of occupation, someone from Gaza treated in a West Bank hospital isn’t an ordinary person.
The double-amputee released this morning from a Ramallah hospital after treatment for a kidney disease sat waiting patiently for his uncle to come to the DCO office and perhaps obtain the permit to allow him to return home that same day.
Because patience, like submissiveness and self-restraint are survival resources for Palestinians, especially those from Gaza.
And it took two Jewish women who just happened to be there that day, at that hour, and didn’t stop telephoning to everyone they could think of, and an hour passed, and another half-hour, before his uncle was admitted to the office and obtained the necessary permits. Then more phone calls and someone in uniform arrived to help, opened the gate for carts.
The man and his uncle were accompanied by Yusuf, a child who’d also been released this morning from the Ramallah hospital. Although Yusuf, sitting on his father’s shoulders, is thirteen, he’s the size of a four year old. His father, pushing the wheelchair, is lugging parcels – because, before returning home, residents of Gaza, who are used to scarcity, load up with goods bought in the West Bank which are unavailable in their besieged city.
Yusuf sat silently, on his father’s shoulders. He doesn’t smile. He doesn’t speak. But from time to time his broad forehead furrowed, twinged in pain.
After their tribulations had ended and the three of them. passed through the checkpoint, and we parted, and they moved toward the taxi that had been awaiting them for hours, we felt a bitter satisfaction. Because we know that it’s disgraceful to improve conditions at this terrible place; I’m here to expose its shame, and ours, to keep my distance, not make it worse for the victims. But there are breaking points. Sick people, particularly those from Gaza, make me violate the principle of not intervening.
It’s important to look at the photograph of this man and this boy and realize they’re just two among hundreds, and perhaps even thousands of people on whom the bureaucracy of occupation imposes burdens of pain over and above the suffering fate has decreed.
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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