Back to reports search page
Donate
Qalandiya - a baby, sedated and ventilated, is detained
Observers: Tamar Fleishman; Translator: Tal H.
- What do you call it, when bureaucracy takes precedence over health?
What do you call it, when in the minds of those control the life and death of people procedure takes priority?
What do you call it, when human life does not take priority?
I don’t know what you call it when a baby, sedated and ventilated, is detained at Qalandiya checkpoint on his way to Maqassed Hospital, the only hospital in East Jerusalem capable of carrying out delicate, complicated surgery, for all hospitals in the West Bank do not possess the ability and knowledge needed to operate the rib-cage of a s-month old baby and give it life.
The infant – tube criss-crossing his thin arms and tiny body – lay there motionless, his eyes shut, resembling a miniature version of the Jesus on the Cross.
A woman-doctor and a nurse from Ramallah were with him to care for his survival, and from the other side – East Jerusalem – an emergency ambulance arrived, the only one possessed by the Red Crescent, carrying a specialist-paramedic who had undergone training for such extraordinary cases.
It was obvious for everyone that the infant’s fragile condition requires special, swift treatment.
Everyone? – Not exactly. The armed personnel operating the checkpoint, who rule even without prior knowledge who is to live and who is to die, have their own order of priorities in which procedure comes first.
They detained the ambulance carrying the infant with his mother, doctor and nurse, until they verified beyond all reasonable doubt that the documents were ‘kosher’ and that the infant is really the one registered in those documents, his mother is really his mother, and photographed all these documents one by one.
But even a baby, his life hanging on a limb, does not pass directly to a hospital where a special team awaits him – one had to exchange his oxygen tank that came with him from Ramallah, one had to switch the medical team that had come with him from Ramllah with a team that came to him from East Jerusalem, and the former had to update the latter about the condition of the infant and the procedures that would take place in his body.
When the baby would arrive, it begins anew.
While we were waiting for the ambulance to arrive from Ramallah, and during the nerve-wracking time as we waited for the meticulous checks to be completed, I heard from the medical team members some of what was happening all the while near the Damascus Gate and inside the Al Aqsa Mosque during the obscene march that was defined as the main event of Jerusalem Day.
They said that 6 Red Crescent ambulances were advanced by their teams, their hands filled with work rescuing and caring for victims of attacks perpetrated by the marchers with the Israeli flags, that Border Policemen violently entered the Al Aqsa Mosque, and that a Red Crescent volunteer was arrested in the area of the mosque.
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 FleishmanMay-13-2025Qalandiya: Back-to-back procedure for transferring patients
-
