Qalandiya - first Ramadan Friday
First came the mourner. Her feet were anchored beside the soldiers’ post, whereby the rules from this day on she is forbidden to proceed, holding a Koran and mourning the massacre Gazan children.
Her cry was private and public at one and the same time.
There was nothing but the powerful mourning of that woman, for those over there are in the hearts of these over here.
The sadness was in everyone’s faces. The massacred Gazan children are no longer numbered individually, nor by dozens or hundreds. Their bodies are counted in thousands. They lie in rows on behalf of endless vengeance.
The public space outside the checkpoint compound was filled mainly with emptiness and grief.
In previous years at the same time, the passage lanes – in an installation that is in fact a corral – are too narrow to fit the thousands who knocked on the gates of Jerusalem on their way to Al Aqsa to observe the rules of their religion.
This time the place was silent, the crowd vanished.
Few did show up. The inspection of their ID was thorough and meticulous. Whoever did not answer the conditions of old age or childhood dictated by the regime was turned back shame-facedly.
This year did not see the traditional separation of men and women which the regime used to uphold, a custom that had made me wonder every year and I asked why only one month a year does the ruler consider the modesty of women. Well, here’s the truth – the essence is one and it’s a matter of rule, not of morality.
In the photo: brothers who according to their looks and ID are older than ten, so they and their pre-80-year-old parents had to turn back.
The smiles on acquaintances’ faces were more gestures of politeness than actual gladness to see me.
As Mohammad said, my acquaintance of many years who makes his living driving a cab:
“There’s nothing. No work, no livelihood. The day’s fuel costs me more than I make that day.”
And one couldn’t ignore a man sitting alone all the while beside the road, concentrating on the Koran, for he and the likes of him attest to the sentence that Israel’s leaders like to cite, and is acted out by the army and its activators – everything happening in Qalandiya on Ramadan Friday is a mirror of the ‘freedom of worship’ that is customary here.
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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