Qalandiya Checkpoint: opens alternately for short known periods of time
I returned to Qalandiya a month after the disastrous date.
On my way there I kept looking at the side of the road and calculating where to shelter if and when I hear an alarm siren.
When I got to my destination, my fearful heartbeats were replaced by painful ones in view of reality on the other side of existence.
The Qalandiya Checkpoint, meant for pedestrians and supposed to be open 24/7, that checkpoint through which thousands of people have passed for years, is now open alternately for short known periods of time.
Between 6 a.m. and 8 a.m., and between 4 and 6 p.m.
For the rest of the hours – 20 in all – it is closed and deserted.
This information has not appeared in the media, at least not the venues I frequent.
I reported this to Nir Hasson (journalist) who updated me that a petition in this regard has been lodged with the Israeli Supreme Court on November 7.
I came to the front of the apartheid wall to face the portrait of Marwan Barghouti, the man whom many think was and still is the right kind of leader for the Palestinian people, the man whom Israel has incarcerated so long ago and the Palestinian Authority is afraid of his power – which threatens its own leadership – and does not demand his release.
I found him and it was as though he gradually disappeared, interiorized in the pervasive grayness – the gray wall, the gray roads, the gray faces of people.
Further on I spoke with the cab drivers who stood, workless. The first whom I met and asked how he is now, answered: Zift (= Shitty) . Everything is Zift. A man standing nearby complemented him, saying: Look, everything here is dead. No work, no customers, shops are closed, your friends are gone. All dead.
On the other side of the checkpoint, two back-to-back procedures were taking place.
Four ambulances were congregated side by side: two women were passed from the West Bank to the Muqassad Hospital in East Jerusalem.
Business as usual?
On my way home, I began to sense the meaning of the concept “Uninvolved individuals”, realizing that those whom I met and those whom I did not meet though I did want to – they and people like them stand broken and gray, and they are the uninvolved, the victims, who take no part in the war over this land and only wish to bring food to the family table. They do not accuse, do not condemn, do not identify. They only ask when is this nightmare going to be over. They are the secondary victims of undescribed and unbelievable crimes.
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-27-2025Qalandiya: A beggar woman
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