Qalandiya - a sad, tense quiet of closure
A sad, tense quiet of closure.
Only holders of blue – Jerusalem resident – IDs were allowed to cross from the West Bank into Jerusalem.
The transit permits are not valid during closure.
From Jerusalem to the West Bank traffic flows freely, no inspection, no curfew, no limitations. As in any other part of life – there’s no symmetry between here and there.
There is something terrifying in the forced disappearance of so many people.
The echoes of the girl-soldier killed at the Shu’afat Checkpoint hovered over the whole essence of this place, with feelings of dread on both sides.
- Ahmad said: She was shot because of the colonists (Ahmad calls them conists and I don’t correct his or anyone’s Hebrew). It’s all because of the conistsl We want peace but they steal our lands, enter our Al Aqsa Mosque and kill us. The guy who killed the soldier, he saw them beating up a girl at Al Aqsa, so he came to the checkpoint and fired.
- Abdallah said: What we want is to live, just to live.
As Albert Memmi writes:
“The country paces itself according to the colonizer’s holidays, even the religious ones, and not by those of the colonized: the weekly day of rest is that of the colonizing state, its flag is the one flying over memorial sites, its language is the one enabling social communication: even its garb, accent, customs are all meant to be dictated to and imitated by the colonized…”
Being carried from one ambulance to the other by the medical staff member, her head and hands dropped – one would think the guy was carrying a rag doll.
Only when she was laid on the stretcher on which she was placed in the ambulance that came to take her from Jerusalem, with her whole body stretched out, did it become obvious that here was a very ill girl who does not respond to her surroundings.
She is one year old, said her mother who would not move away from her daughter.
She has a case of serious pneumonia, said the paramedic.
No doubt the infant needed to get to hospital as quickly as possible. But she didn’t.
True, she was not delayed or harassed. “Only” orders were followed, and procedures – and the orders and procedures are the manifestations of policy and not to be weighed by the local echelons that are themselves the constant inspection and harassment.
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 FleishmanApr-26-2026Qalandiya. Things you see on the way
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