Qalandiya - first Friday of ramadan
First Ramadan Friday
Emptiness – that is what was first encountered.
A visual trompe-l’oeil of no hundreds of thousands of people whose innermost desire on that day is their prayer at the Al Aqsa Mosque.
The first human appearance was a Palestinian woman, her hands in metal shackles behind her back, led against her will and welfare by Border Policewomen towards the inner compound of the checkpoint, and no more to be seen.
The police version of an explanation: she attacked a policeman.
An entire hour went by until I managed to break the wall of instructions for this particular day and reach the other side of the apartheid wall, a distance that for the eye is rather less than a stone’s throw.
All ways and gates between here and there were locked and blocked. We went back and measured and crossed the entire length of the elevated bridge, and saw only locks and fences everywhere.
We are locked in, all the time and everywhere, a desperate young Palestinian said who had joined me.
After crossing the turnstiles and policemen and armed security guards – chaos appeared. No one knew who is allowed through and who isn’t, who would cross to get to the Al Aqsa prayer and who wouldn’t.
Gates for women on the right, for men on the left, and in between – a ‘sterile’ area untrodden by human feet.
Both openings, the women’s and the men’s, were run carefully and callously.
Both are crowded from the outside by human masses, most of whom were chased away by brutal words and hearts.
As the heat grew and the sun intense, before the passages were closed and the metal barriers dragged in, I entered a dark and cool grocery shop of an acquaintance in the refugee camp, and asked if it was alright for me to sit and drink something at the bottom of the shop, he answered:
“Do what you want. Think that if you fast on Yom Kippur, I too have to fast?”
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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