Qalandiya - meetings, conversations, allegations, and no consolation
Many encounters, many talks, much resentment, many curses, not a single consoling word.
Summing up:
- A man I haven’t seen for quite a while said he spent a year and a half in jail. For what? “Stones”, he said smiling proudly, his head raised high. Because here, in occupation territory, unlike in Israel where jailtime is a shame one tries to conceal, here jailtime is a model of courage, loyalty and defiance of the occupation rule.
- A man – whose home is in Bani Naim, and here, in front of the Qalandiya Checkpoint, he and other members of his family find their livelihood peddling things – told me about the siege that the Israeli army has laid on his home town since war broke out, so that although in ‘normal’ times he would get back to his family at home every week, for the past few months he prefers to stay here, meaning in an apartment that the members of this family have rented in a refugee camp near Ramallah, from which they come every morning to try their luck with livelihood near the Checkpoint. He also said that the army plans to demolish the home of the Ra’anana terrorist attack perpetrators.
I also had a talk with a veteran security guard who came running to free me from his buddies who were about to open “procedures” against me, so he said. He just got back from a long haul of reserves duty, and disclosed that the reason the Checkpoint is closed most hours of the day is the fact that “there is not enough manpower” as many of the guards were called up by Edict 8 to serve in the war. He expounded his worldview, claiming that the main responsible for the current situation is Bibi, that the Hamas is not going anywhere and that the situation is bad and getting worse. I also learned from him that the vehicle barrier that is supposed to be open and active 24/7 is closed to traffic from 5 p.m., opening again 12 hours later, at 5 a.m.
Last but not least:
It was heart-rending to see a woman in such a manly space passing among car windows and trying to convince drivers to buy some of her poor wares.
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 FleishmanMay-13-2025Qalandiya: Back-to-back procedure for transferring patients
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