Qalandiya
Tension in town, as usual at the checkpoint
Despite the presence of President Trump in Jerusalem and riots near the checkpoint on the previous day, there was no closure today and it was a standard morning –the traffic even a little lighter than usual – at the checkpoint. When we arrived at 5:30 a.m., as we entered from the southern (“Israeli”) side of the checkpoint, we could not see any lines waiting to enter the shack and thought that perhaps people avoided coming through Qalandiya today because of the unusual circumstances in the city. But we quickly discovered that the lines were short because of the very wise policy of the soldier on duty to allow many people through each time he opened the turnstiles and to create long lines at the entrances to the five checking stations (all of which were operating). As a result, the lines in the shed never reached beyond the sidewalk directly outside it, and they began to grow a bit longer after the change of shifts just after 6:00. For most of the morning, the pace forward was fairly slow. We ascribed this to a presumably more stringent security check due to the U.S. president’s presence on the city. That was either so or not (see below).
Two Civil Administration soldiers arrived at 6:10. As soon as we saw that one of them was the veteran and experienced F. (whom we hadn’t seen in months), we knew that the Humanitarian Gate was in good hands. The gate was opened about five minutes later and thereafter each time a group of people gathered in front of it.
At 6:10 we began following a man at the end of one of the lines; it took him 25 minutes to reach the security check.
At 7:00 we too joined one of the by-now short lines and completed the security check 25 minutes later. The woman soldier on the other side of the window divided her time between us and her cell phone. Perhaps that was the reason why the pace forward into her station was especially slow.
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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