Qalandiya: "at five on Thursday", armed men raided the vendors' stands at the checkpoint
What looks like a pile of junk through the bars are actually the remains of human lives who for years made their livelihood selling trifles along the way to and from the checkpoint.
“It was a Thursday”, said one of the victims, “at five on Thursday”.
Indeed, on Thursday at 5 p.m. an enforced group of armed men broke out of the checkpoint. Its members raided the vendors’ stands whose life and livelihood cart stood on ways around Qalandiya Checkpoint. Under threat of their rifles they confiscated everything possible – wares, accessories, food stuff, weights as well as the carts, stands and platforms on which the wares were presented.
With their rifle butts they hit vendors whom they did not like.
“Look what they did to me” said a man who lives in Bani Naim, taking off his cap and showing me the back of his skull, swollen to the size of an apple.
“Anan (not present), too, was beaten up here” he said, pointing to his ribs.
After the raiders finished looting and beating up. they fined each of their victims with 475 shekels.
“My wares were worth thousands of shekels” said Bassel, continuing to court drivers and offer wares that are no longer on concrete blocks but carried in his arms – he, as others, has a family to feed. Children, parents, a wife. Life that needs nurture.
What and who were looted:
- Abu Amir’s Kebab stand
- Ashraf’s coffee stand
- Old Abu Sliman’s toy and sweets cart
- A hot corm vat belonging to man whose name I do not recall
- Wares on platforms belonging to my friends from Bani Naim
- And others…
Only deserted coffee cups remained on the concrete blocks diving the traffic lanes.
I tried to approach the thrown-away carts, see and touch the remains of familiar and dear persons’ lives, smell again what remained of Anu Amir’s Kebab stand – his sons used to offer me a chair to sit in the shade. But the armed men stopped my advances with the hollow, false excuse: “This is a security area, a military zone”.
Not security, not military – just wounds upon wounds upon wounds.
Location Description
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-16-2025Qalandiya: summer fruit
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