Qalandiya, Mon 5.12.11, Afternoon
Today, for a change, there were many people at the CP when we reached Qalandiya at 3:50 PM after waiting in the traffic jam in the southern square for 20 minutes.
Two ambulances, one of them intensive care, were standing in the old bus parking lot when we arrived. A Palestinian ambulance was being examined in the vehicle CP. Inside the ambulance we could clearly see that someone was administering resuscitation. We did not find out how long the Palestinian ambulance waited until the ambulances arrived from Jerusalem and it was allowed to enter the CP. However, from the time it entered the CP, things went very fast. The man in the ambulance was transferred to the intensive care vehicle and the resuscitation attempt continued for another half an hour before the team gave up and declared him dead. And then his body was transferred yet again, to the regular ambulance because his family wanted to bury him in Jerusalem. The Palestinian ambulance departed.
Inside the CP, there were three active passageways full of students returning to Jerusalem. One man was waiting to enter the DCO offices in Passageway 5. He told us that he had been waiting for half an hour. We phoned headquarters but that didn’t help, so we phoned again and asked to talk to the DCO representative. The turnstile opened and the man entered the passageway a few minutes later.
At 16:30, when we returned from the ambulances, only two passageways were operating with about 40 people waiting in line in each. The lines were not moving. We phoned headquarters and were answered by Shlomi who promised that another line would be opened shortly. But nothing happened. As far as we could see, the problem was caused by the fact that the soldiers on duty were not working very hard. They were allowing 3 people to enter the examination area together and, when the 3 had passed through, they would take a 5 minute break before letting the next threesome in. That is what we reported in our next phone call to Shlomi. But when we left Qalandiya, the lines were still very long. There was also a very long line in the western passageway for bus passengers, extending way beyond the examination area.
A Palestinian woman stopped to talk with us and said she had a thousand CPs in her heart. She told us how hard people had to work just to pay for the bare necessities like water and electricity and to send the children to school. Life is hard!
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 FleishmanFeb-27-2026Qalandiya: On the way to prayer
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