Qalandiya CP 7.3.2011 PM
When we spoke with one another on Monday morning we more or less agreed that there was very little to accomplish at the checkpoints. Although they are still dirty and repulsive, and the behavior of the soldiers often leaves a lot to be desired (to say the least), the checkpoints do seem to function somehow and our presence does not usually add (or detract).
And then we arrived at Qalandiya at 3:30 PM and, as if in a recurrent nightmare, we saw all three passageways packed with people waiting to go to Jerusalem and the turnstiles operating in a miserly manner, opening only to let people through one by one. Those on line complained to us that they had been waiting for hours already (one said he had been waiting for 2 hours and another said 3), that they were sick and tired of such treatment, and how could anyone treat human beings in such a manner? Natanya and I made endless phone calls to Headquarters and to the Humanitarian Hotline, but nothing seemed to make a difference. However, by about 4:15, it looked as though some progress was being made. And then the western-most terminal, for bus passengers with blue ID cards, was closed and another 100 people came running to the CP and filled the passageways up again. The line continued out into the northern shed and got longer and longer. Why was the bus passageway closed? No one seemed to know, not even the bus driver whom we asked. But several people told us that conditions on Monday were far better than they had been on Sunday, and that today's lines were much shorter than the ones they had seen yesterday.
In one of the lines we met a man from Givat Mikhmash who held a permit to enter Israel. He was trying to deliver produce to a shop keeper in Givat Ze'ev (an Israeli settlement near Jerusalem). He told us that his permit was no good for Bethlehem or Zeitim Passage, but he had managed to get through Qalandiya several times in the past. But not yesterday – the soldiers in the aquarium refused to let him through. We called to the DCO representative, Taha, but that was no help either. Taha told him that he had just been lucky to date and that he needed another permit. Ali, who is well into his fifties if not older, was angry and waved his two valid permits in our faces, asking rhetorically how many permits a person needed.
In the DCO passageway we met Ma'amoun, a young man who didn't know how he could get his mother, who is suffering from cancer, to Augusta Victoria Hospital where she was invited for treatment while he is denied entrance to Jerusalem as a security risk. The Civil Rights Hotline told us to send him to Physicians for Human Rights which we did this morning.
We left Qalandiya at 5:15 PM and joined a long line of vehicles on the road through A-Ram to Lil/Jabba CP and from there to Hizmeh CP. There was nothing much to report.
A-Ram
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two kilometers south of Qalandiya and 300 metres north of Neve Yaacov Junction, in Dahiyat el-Barid Quarter. Checkpoint has operated since 1991, in a Palestinian area annexed to Jerusalem in 1967. The checkpoint has been inactive since the middle of 2009.
The wall was built on the road that led to Jerusalem. Since then the situation in the town has deteriorated. Houses are abandoned and half finished, most of the businesses have closed. Severe neglect around the fence and on the streets. Those who could left. Updated January 2024
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Hizma
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Hizma
A checkpoint at the north-eastern entrance to the Jerusalem area which was annexed in 1967, at Pisgat Zeev. The passage is allowed to bearers of blue IDs only. Open 24 hours a day.
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Jaba' (Lil)
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Jaba' (Lil) In fact, the Jaba checkpoint is east of the Qalandiya checkpoint. Its declared purpose is the prevention of Israeli citizens from entering Area A. A road checkpoint for vehicles, located on Road 65, borders the southern fence of Kfar Jaba, about three kilometers east of the Qalandiya checkpoint, on the road leading to the settlement of Adam on Road 60. Archaeological excavations within the village found the remains of a cloth house from the First Temple period. The events that led to the construction of the checkpoint are precisely here: on the day of the abduction of Gilad Shalit and before the outbreak of the Second Lebanon War, a 17-year-old man from one of the settlements was abducted by a Palestinian cell. His body was found several days later at the entrances to Ramallah. A military investigation revealed that his abductors had taken him along this route. The checkpoint was set up to prevent future kidnappings and to warn settlers from traveling to Ramallah and entering Area A (which is forbidden for Israelis). The checkpoint that operates around the clock. Usually only vehicles traveling in the direction of Ramallah are inspected. (November 2016): Every morning, when the settlers en masse travel to Jerusalem on Route 60 and every afternoon they return from Jerusalem on Route 60, the army initiates a traffic jam at the entrance to the Jaba checkpoint and stops the movement of Palestinians traveling toward Route 60. (February 2020): In the last two years the checkpoint has not always been manned. Sometimes the soldiers come and just stand, sometimes they come and stop and check those who enter the village, sometimes they patrol the alleys of the village, sometimes they fire stun grenades and gas and sometimes they invade houses and stop young people, say those passing through the Hazma checkpoint. (Updated February 2020)
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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-12-2026Qalandiya. Abdallah at his fruit stand
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