Qalandiya, Mon 29.4.13, Afternoon
We arrived at Qalandiya at 15:45. There was a small line in Passageway 1. All the other passageways were empty, but we noticed that 2 soldiers were sitting in the aquarium at 4-5. We stationed ourselves near the turnstile and the soldiers immediately let us in. We asked them to announce that their passageway was also open and they did so even before we finished asking. The male soldier was very friendly, but his female counterpart had a problem with our presence. She couldn’t understand how we had arrived from the Palestinian side of the CP and repeatedly said that she was responsible for our safety. We gave a short lecture on MW and continued on our way.
A bit later we saw a woman pushing an invalid in a wheel chair. Instead of dealing with the turnstiles and locked gates inside the CP, she used the roadway to Ramallah and went straight through the vehicle CP – a much simpler route. The soldiers and security personnel in the CP didn’t try to prevent her from crossing (as they have in the past).
At about 4 PM, an ambulance arrived from Ramallah and drove straight into the CP. He waited there for about 20 minutes in the summer heat, but no ambulance arrived from Jerusalem. The soldiers told him that he must continue waiting outside the CP in the northern square. And just as he finished parking in the square, two ambulances arrived from Jerusalem and another one arrived from the north. One of the Jerusalem ambulances drove through the CP and parked in the parking lot. This was a bit confusing, but in the end it turned out that there are new procedures in place and ambulances returning patients released from hospitals in Jerusalem to the PA are allowed to execute the transfer on the Palestinian side. But ambulances bringing patients for treatment in Jerusalem must make the exchange on the Jerusalem side.
At 4:45 we noticed a Palestinian woman waiting in the DCO Passageway. It turned out that her sister was waiting in the DCO shed but was not being taken care of. We phoned Alon, the DCO representative, who had already left Qalandiya. He promised to phone the DCO office and tell the soldiers to take care of the woman and another man waiting with her. And he kept his promise – within 2 minutes the two were called into the office. We left before we found out what happened.
Qalandiya Checkpoint / Atarot Pass (Jerusalem)
See all reports for this place-
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 FleishmanJun-28-2026Qalandiya. The bridge leading from Jerusalem to the Qalandiya checkpoint
-