Qalandiya
When we arrived at 5:10, the line was outside and into the parking lot again. As was the case two weeks ago, there was no shouting, no screaming. The quiet was eerie. When I asked if the line had moved, the workers all answered no. When we looked through the gates, we saw that only four of the checking gates were open. They were just moving slowly.
I spoke to the young female soldier who came out of the aquarium to smoke. We told her she needed to call the DCO office and to ask for help to open the fifth inspection gate. She said they had no one to send to the fifth gate.
I immediately called the DCO at Qalandiya and told what sounded like a young man at the other end of the phone, that the lines were stretching into the middle of the parking lot. He asked, "Now?" I answered. "Yes. Right now!” He promised he would look into it immediately. In the meantime, we called Anan (DCO officer at Kalandia) and Alaa (another DCO officer at Kalandia). Anan didn't answer and Alaa said he was not on duty. He told me to call the DCO. Both Natanya and I tried, but no one answered.
At 5:30, a young female policewoman, who was clearly in charge this morning, came to the aquarium. When she saw the long lines, she immediately had the soldier in the aquarium open the carousels at a faster pace so that the lines moved faster. This young policewoman was actually very efficient and kept coming out of the aquarium to see how well everything was moving. We were both impressed. We did not try to speak with her again so as not to antagonize her. She was clearly doing her job.
At 6:00 a lone soldier (without a second soldier and without any security guard behind him or supporting him) came out and began to let people through the Humanitarian Gate. He opened the gate frequently, before a lot of people gathered. This was the earliest we have seen the Humanitarian Gate open in many months. What was surprising is that the soldier was totally alone all morning. There was no second soldier or additional security guards at all.
By 6:30 there was no long line and most of the workers had gone through. Before we left, we complimented both the policewoman in charge and the soldier at the Humanitarian Gate. It is possible to solve the problem of the crowding in the morning and it is possible to make the lives of the workers easier at Kalandia. It would just take the willingness of the Civil Authority to provide the number of personnel needed at Kalandia in the mornings and to open all five gates.
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-16-2026Qalandiya CP: shortcut
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