Qalandiya, Mon 8.7.13, Afternoon
Last week we saw a military unit checking the documents of people returning from Jerusalem to the Palestinian Authority at the entrance to Qalandiya CP, but forgot to put this in the report. We were reminded this week as the unit is still there and any Palestinian wishing to enter the CP is required to present his papers. One member of the unit is a police officer who has been working at Qalandiya for a long time. He was checking the papers in a booth stationed at the CP entrance and handing them back to two Border Police soldiers who returned them to the Palestinians.
Almost all the passageways in the CP were active and there were many more people at the CP than we have seen for quite a while, perhaps because of the approaching holiday – Ramadan. Although lines were longer they moved quite quickly.
Two men were standing in the DCO passageway, one of them very angry. He complained that he had been waiting for 2 hours to enter the DCO offices and that each time he reached the turnstile he had been told to stand in another line. The other fellow was a US citizen without Palestinian papers. He was holding an Israeli visa that was "valid until 09072013". He said that a soldier in one of the passageways had told him that the visa was not valid and that the numbers were a code and not a date. All the young man wanted was to reach the post office to pay a fee, something that anyone can do so it wasn't clear why he was not immediately allowed to enter the CP.
Before leaving we went to wish our friend Suleiman a good holiday and found out that he was worried that because the fast fell in the heat of summer it would be very difficult, especially not being allowed to drink water all day.
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 FleishmanJul-21-2026Qalandiya. Conversation in the shadow of the wall
-
