Qalandiya
What started as a short detention in the jail cell next to where the female soldiers are stationed continued (unrelated) to a detention of an hour and forty minutes at the police station in the checkpoint compound.
Why? Even in retrospect, I don’t know why.
Nor did they, the detainers, know why at the time.
They searched for the why when we arrived escorted by a policeman and guards to the police’s rooms, where they consulted regarding what they could charge us with, and found something.
After an hour and forty, after they wrote situation reports (one for each of us), they issued us summonses for interrogation at the Shefet police station in Neve Ya’akov for Wednesday, three days from now, as well as a recommendation that we be forbidden access: “Maybe for a month, maybe for two weeks.”
During the entire unpleasant period of our detention there, in their company, what was most upsetting and worrying was to see in the adjoining room two Palestinian detainees. A man, and a boy about ten years old. Father and son, who during the evening were taken somewhere by Border Police soldiers. We could see, looking at the father silently, that he had more or less accepted the situation. But the boy, the boy who sat opposite the intervening door saw nothing, even when our eyes met. He sat frozen, stunned.
When the evening was over, when we exited into the cold, rainy Qalandiya night, the children still wandered frozen and wet in the thick darkness, tapping on car windows, and the peddlers, sellers of green almonds and bunches of sage, sat beneath a beach umbrella, hiding from the rain, beside a bonfire of twigs and boards that lit the darkness a bit and warmed the night’s chill a bit.
And, like an old, favorite expression, I again recalled a sentence of Celine:
“And later I went out and continued into the night, filled with shame, because I too, like my mother, never managed to feel that I’m not responsible for the catastrophes that occur.”
Journey to the End of the Night
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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