Qalandiya, Mon 20.6.11, Afternoon
Qalandiya, 14:50: There were no traffic problems for a change, traffic was flowing in the southern square. Although the vehicle CP was full (and remained so all afternoon), cars were not backed up along the road to Ramallah. There was a line of 20 or so people waiting in the passageway for bus passengers on the western side of the CP. The flow of people to Qalandiya "Terminal" was quite weak and there was no line at all in the northern shed. But the two active inner passageways were very full (about 40 people in each). Despite repeated requests to headquarters and the Passageway Unit, things improved only towards the very end of our shift. A group of 5 people were waiting on line in Passageway 5 to the DCO, some of them only wanted to reach the Post Office. We tried for half an hour to convince the soldiers to open the passageway and, when they finally announced that the passageway was open, they added that the Post Office had already closed.
In the meantime we met a man in his late 70's, an amputee sitting in a wheel chair and accompanied by a young family member. The two were waiting by the Humanitarian Gate, on their way from Jerusalem to Ramallah. We made some telephone calls, trying to reach someone who would help them on their way. We spoke with headquarters, with the DCO, with the DCO representative (who shouted back over the phone that this was not his responsibility and why were we bothering him), with the "humanitarian hotline", whom did I leave out? Everyone promised that help would be forthcoming very quickly, in a minute, shortly….and half an hour passed. After a 40 minute wait, the man stood up on his one leg and hopped over to the turnstile (with difficulty), hung on to it and somehow managed to reach the Ramallah side. I grabbed him and supported him until his grandson (?) managed to get through with the wheel chair. What a horrible experience! How shameful! I still haven't calmed down. As Tamar asked (rhetorically) many years ago: "Is this the way to run the kibbush*?"
Meanwhile the lines in the passageways continued to advance very, very slowly and the people who were hurrying to their day's/night's work were under a great deal of pressure. We saw quite a few people giving up in despair and leaving the CP. When we saw 3 young girls leaving, we stopped them to ask where they were going and they told us that they'd given up on Qalandiya and would try to get to Jerusalem via Hizmeh CP. We called headquarters once again and spoke with Danielle and Shlomi, both of them polite and calm soldiers. They promised that an additional passageway would be opened shortly to deal with the pressure.
16:10: We left the CP and went out to the northern square where we saw on ambulance waiting to deliver a cancer patient from Ramallah to the hospital in Jerusalem. The Jerusalem ambulance was already waiting in the southern parking lot, but the Ramallah ambulance was not allowed through – once again the soldiers claimed there was "no coordination" (although the driver with whom we spoke told us that he had started out only after notification from Beit El that there was coordination). Hannah and I called headquarters and the humanitarian hotline until somehow, someone managed to perform "coordination" (after the ambulance had waited at least 20 minutes in the hot June sun).
16:30: Three passageways were now working and the number of people on line had dropped dramatically.
*kibbush – "the conquest", Israel's status in the West Bank
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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