Qalandiya, Mon 27.5.13, Afternoon
At 3:45 PM there were hardly any people at the CP. There was a small line in one of the passageways and none at all in the other two active passageways. A handwritten sign was hanging in the passageway leading to the DCO offices. It said that the DCO would only deal with emergencies on May 27 and 28. We phoned headquarters to ask what was happening and were told that there were no soldiers or officers at the DCO offices.
About 10 minutes later a weeping 47 year old woman stood at the entrance to the DCO passageway. We approached her and asked if we could be of help and she told us that she had requested a permit to accompany her 20 year old daughter to the American Consulate in Jerusalem. She said she had paid money for several documents which she had presented to the female soldier who “took care of her” and the soldier had crumpled the papers as if to discard them and finally stamped them that the request was refused. The woman was very anxious about her daughter who had never been to Jerusalem and would not know how to find a taxi and get to the Consulate. She didn’t know how to deal with the situation. She told us that her daughter was to be engaged to a young man who was coming from the States and would take her back with him after the marriage. The woman couldn’t understand the refusal in view of the fact that she regularly receives permission for treatment at a Jerusalem hospital. We tried to phone Anan, the DCO representative whose name was stamped on the refusal, but the phone was not answered. So we called Alon, another representative. Although he was not at the CP, he phoned and spoke to the soldiers at the DCO and arranged for the woman to receive the permit.
A few minutes after the woman had gone, a couple from Hizmeh arrived at the DCO passageway carrying an invitation to present themselves for an examination at another Jerusalem hospital. They told us that they had already been to Qalandiya several hours earlier but the soldiers were unwilling to deal with them and sent them first to Beit El and from there to Ofer – in short, a wild goose chase that ended up back in Qalandiya. Once again we phoned Alon who arranged for the two to enter the DCO offices and receive their permit.
Apart from the problems with the DCO, the CP appeared to be working efficiently during our shift. So what was the problem with the DCO?
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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