Qalandiya
A four-year-old girl with cancer was transferred from one ambulance to another, from one stretcher to another, on her way to Augusta 
Victoria Hospital. “We didn’t have to wait a long time today until they let us cross, only an hour,” said the driver of the Palestinian ambulance. The “only an hour” drives me crazy. Only an hour, a girl only four years old, with cancer, crosses to Jerusalem accompanied only by her mother.
The girl might not return. Many don’t return from August Victoria.
What about the father? He, like other fathers, stays home. The fathers are considered dangerous.
Before the two ambulances met and the sick girl drove away with her mother a Red Cross representative arrived at the ambulance parking area. He told us about a seven-month-old infant suffering from brain damage, perhaps epilepsy, perhaps something else. “He must be brought to Hadassah,” the man said. But: “His father has been blacklisted by the Shabak, his mother has been blacklisted by the Shabak, his grandfather has been blacklisted by the Shabak and his grandmother has also been blacklisted by the Shabak.”
The Red Cross man has already spent three hours on the phone with the Shabak, telling them the infant is very sick, his life’s in danger. “I told them the baby needs his mother; I can’t nurse him.”
Even though the baby’s life is in danger, the Red Cross man also knows that a life hanging in the balance isn’t reason enough to allow someone to go through to a hospital even if it’s a seven-month-old baby. Because only members of the hidden elite seated on the dunghills of the secret service will determine who lives and who dies.
And after entreaties and intercessions, when the mother was given permission to accompany her child, and the ambulance arrived from the West Bank, the baby, semi-conscious, was removed first and then his mother, her eyes red and swollen.
But someone is missing from the sick baby’s bedside, as from the bedside of the sick girl, and from the bedside of many other children – their father.
Qalandiya Checkpoint / Atarot Pass (Jerusalem)
See all reports for this place-
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 FleishmanApr-26-2026Qalandiya. Things you see on the way
-