Qalandiya
Once Sami had dreams. Not any more.
“When I come home I want to have enough money to buy milk and look my son in the eye.”
Not much, you might say. For Sami, however, it’s a lot.
Once Sami had dreams. But since the day three soldiers attacked him, cursed his mother, beat him, abused him and tossed him away bleeding, bones broken – he no longer has dreams. Since then he’s simply been surviving.
The marks of that day are still visible on Sami’s body: the scar above his eye from rifle blow (“I can’t see so well with that eye”) and the one near his ankle from the kick that shattered the bones in his foot.
Sami also told us that last Friday (23.5.14), when the army dispersed a Palestinian demonstration at the entrance junction to the town of A-Ram, the soldiers fired a great deal of tear gas, and not just gas, and one youth was shot in the leg – “His leg has an entry and exit wound,” Sami said.
The people who’d waited hours in the entry shed to the DCL at the Qalandiya checkpoint, some of them sprawled on the metal benches, others crowded around the gate, had no dreams either. The offices within were deserted; no one answered the phones. More than half an hour went by but no one was admitted.
Many – too many – Palestinian youths, some still alive, others not, with entry and exit wounds dream no longer.
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-11-2026Qalandiya. Ambulances wait in front of a closed checkpoint
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