Qalandiya CP, Monday afternoon, 14.3.2011
We arrived at Qalandiya a bit earlier than usual because, due to other obligations, we planned to leave early as well. We expected to see the CP empty before 3 PM, but boy were we wrong. All four passageways were full of people many of whom told us that they had been waiting for hours. Nothing was moving. We saw quite a few people giving up their places at the head of the lines in despair and angrily leaving the CP. We started to phone headquarters and the Humanitarian Hotline. Soldiers who answered our calls explained, again and again, that the unit manning the CP had been replaced by new soldiers and that it would take some time for them to learn their new job. This was not much consolation to the hundreds waiting at the CP after finishing their day's work or studies, nor to those anxiously waiting to get through the CP in order to get to their jobs in Jerusalem. We finished our shift at Qalandiya at 4 PM without seeing any improvement in the situation. Just as when we arrived, all the lines were full and another long line extended across the northern shed. Several people developed the theory that conditions at Qalandiya represented collective punishment for the murder of the Fogel family in the Itamar Settlement on Friday night, a theory that was rejected when others told us that the situation at Qalandiya has been this way since Friday morning with no improvement in sight.
We tried to help those waiting to enter the DCO offices in Passageway 5. We met a male nurse who works in Augusta Victoria Hospital. He was on his way to work when the soldiers in Passageway 4 confiscated his permit to enter Israel. The man told us that he has been working in various hospitals in Jerusalem for the past 10 years without any problem. Two weeks ago he was suddenly detained in one of the passageways and taken for a meeting with a member of the Security Services (Israel's FBI), a man who called himself "Abu Youssef", who played a cat and mouse game with him, asking again and again "What do you want Abu Youssef to do for you?". The man told "Abu Youssef" that he didn't want anything, he just wanted to work and earn a living to feed his family. "Abu Youssef" told him that there was no problem and, for a period of two weeks, all was as before – until Monday, March 14. When we tried to find out what had happened, a soldier from the DCO told us that the man had been designated a security risk by the Security Services and could not enter Jerusalem. And how will he get to work, and how will be feed his children? That's his problem
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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