Qalandiya
Qalandi
We arrived at Qalandiya at 4 PM, after a two-week absence due to the kidnapping and the closure, and found the CP operating as usual. Three passageways were open with only a few people waiting in line. Two were waiting in the DCO passageway. The soldiers, who saw us walking into the passageway, immediately opened the turnstile allowing the two into the inspection space before they could even answer our question as to how long they had been waiting. A few minutes later another man appeared and once again the turnstile was opened immediately. But this man only wanted to reach Jerusalem and so came out again after a few minutes. Before he left to get on line in one of the Jerusalem passageways, he told us that Qalandiya CP had been open all last week and that conditions had been horrible with a line of hundreds waiting in the one open passageway. We checked his version against the candy-man at the CP entrance and he corroborated what we had been told.
Another two men got in line in the DCO passageway, but they only wanted to reach the social security office in the adjacent building to find out when the office was open.
We called all available phone numbers (headquarters, DCO, DCO representative, etc.) and not one person could tell us the office hours or phone number of the office.
Natanya met an older Palestinian woman who told her that her husband had undergone heart surgery in Muqassad Hospital (East Jerusalem) last week and that the family had not heard from him since the operation. She was very upset and tearful. The woman herself received a permit to enter Jerusalem, but she wanted her son to accompany her (she really looked quite unable to cope with the demands of a big city). We exchanged phone numbers with her and saw her on her way, but when we tried to make contact several hours later to learn how she fared we discovered that the phone number was wrong and so we never heard the end of the story.
We returned to Jerusalem via Hizmeh CP. En route we passed the northern entrance to A-Ram which looked like a war-zone. The entire traffic circle was covered in small stones (that had been thrown at soldiers) and the remains of burnt-out tires.
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 FleishmanJul-21-2026Qalandiya. Conversation in the shadow of the wall
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