Qalandiya
An old acquaintance spoke with at the refugee camp about the fact that this was the anniversary of Rabin’s assassination.
But that was not the issue. The man said this date reminded him of the evening when Rabin was murdered, and how he cried and just could not stop crying that night and afterwards too as he realized that this was not just Rabin who was murdered – his own hope was murdered.
When the patients and their accompaniers exited the checkpoint and boarded their assigned transport vehicle to Gaza, it seemed that the restrictions on patients’ passage had been lightened.
Perhaps because the driver said that in the morning he collected patients at the Erez Crossing (the exit and entry into the Gaza Strip) and brought them to Maqassed Hospital in East Jerusalem, Moutala, and Hadassah Hospital (in West Jerusalem) as well.
The person who made me see my mistake was the armed Civil Administration official who led the group, informing me there was no change or lightening of directives. My wishful thinking evaporated.
Yaman who was born two weeks ago at a Ramallah hospital to his ill mother was the youngest of the group. Yaman is healthy, already weighing 3 kilograms, as his mother told me, and her condition too has improved.
On my way back, as in a parallel universe, on the western side of the checkpoint a single sign caught my attention.
“Inspection cubicle”
Palestinians and various publications attest this is bothersome, even horrifying.
The bothersome and horrifying fact is the door behind the sign and especially the cubicle behind it.
Who are the persons inspecting in there? Who is being inspected? With what means?
I spent most of my time standing right next to the separation wall. There, close to the ground, on the two sides of the old and familiar graffiti by Banxi, several children’s drawings communicate with his.
Children whose sweetness resembles that of the famous girl holding the balloons, but in all of them, boys and girls alike, a mute shriek of pain is visible.
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 FleishmanJun-28-2026Qalandiya. The bridge leading from Jerusalem to the Qalandiya checkpoint
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