Qalandiya
Qalandiya Checkpoint
The army calls it “the killing zone” – anyone who enters this area is a free kill.
In Qalandiya everyone knows it is forbidden and dangerous to enter the vehicle checkpoint on foot. Very dangerous.
But how would anyone know this who does not know the Qalandiya Checkpoint?
How could anyone who arrives here for the first time know this? Someone who has a crossing permit but no experience, and no idea who this place is run and how dangerous it is not to follow procedures here?
How were Maram and her brother Ibrahim supposed to know this?
At the spot where the small stone lay, next to the red car, just before the broken line (which is a slow-down bumper), two bodies lay – the bodies of the brother and sister, shot to death by the security personnel.
When I took only a few steps into the zone which everyone knows is forbidden and dangerous to enter on foot, because I wished to photograph “the killing zone”, a policeman and the backs of two private contractor workers – civilian security personnel employed by the “civil intelligence” – hastened to shoo away “the invader”, me. “Scram out of here!” the policeman yelled at me. “If I were not wearing a uniform, I’d tell you what I really think of you!”
As if I don’t know…
Opposite the vehicle checking post rises the closed compound of Qalandiya Checkpoint which now sports a new large Israeli flag, raised to half-mast.
The checkpoint and those serving in it are ready for follow orders.
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 FleishmanJul-21-2026Qalandiya. Conversation in the shadow of the wall
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