Qalandiya
A long, slow morning.
Only three of the five inspection stations were open when we arrived at 05:10; the lines were already long. At 05:20 the two remaining stations opened but the damage had already been done and the lines stretched deep into the parking lot for about 45 minutes.
At 06:05 we began to track a man at the end of one of the lines; it took him 25 minutes to go through the first revolving gate (we then lost him so we don’t know how much more time he waited until entering the fenced corridor).
At 06:15 no one had yet arrived to open the humanitarian gate. We called the humanitarian office; the female soldier who answered transferred us to a woman (according to her voice) who sounded as if we’d awakened her; she said she’d take care of it. A female DCL officer arrived less than ten minutes later but entered the “aquarium,” ignoring the gate until the security guard arrived at 06:30. By then a line of some 50 people had formed there. The gate opened at 06:30 and again at 06:40, but then people who had intended to go through left the line, either hoping they’d have better luck on the regular lines or because at some point the guard told them not to wait any longer for it to open. And then, as in the past, when people had already moved to the regular lines and were stuck in the cages, more people came to the humanitarian gate which did open for them. Bottom line – a mess. The DCL officer who’s in charge of the humanitarian gate spent most of her time in the “aquarium”, ignoring what was happening at the gate until she left at 07:12.
We left at 07:25, when people who had just arrived were able to enter the left-hand cage immediately.
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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