Qalandiya - only the mother gets to accompany her child to hospital
This is a tale of fathers, present-absentee fathers, who ache the pains of their ill child but who, because of the ruling power’s orders, are not allowed to be with him, sit by his bed, care of all his needs, caress his head and hold his hand as he takes his last breath.
We know that only the mother gets to accompany her child to hospital, said a medical team member when I asked where the father of the cancer-ill baby was.
- It is a known fact… that’s how it is… Can’t do a thing about it… say the Palestinians.
- And the soldiers? – I don’t make the rules… it’s procedure… I only follow orders.
The absence of the fathers hurts not only the person who is denied the possibility to accompany his child – this resembles a stone thrown into the water, that causes ever-widening circles.
Not only the child misses his father – no less hurtful is the state of the mother who finds herself alone, helpless, in a strange environment, without knowing anyone.
This is a tale about a child named Ali, and his parents.
11-month-old Ali came to Qalandiya all the way from Tulkarm and is on his way to the Augusta Victoria hospital in East Jerusalem. Ali has cancer in one of his kidneys and is accompanied only by his mother, a young and frightened woman who has never been in the strange city to which she is headed, does not know how far that hospital is, has never heard anything about it and has no idea whom she might turn to if she needs any kind of help.
In her distress, she spoke with the medical team member, but he too – as resident of the Occupied Territories – is not only forbidden from continuing the journey with Ali and his mother, but he too knows no one in Jerusalem.
The man asked me whether I had any contacts there, but even if I know where the hospital is located, I don’t know anyone there.
Seeing the woman’s fallen face, I called my friend Vivy Sury who gave me the phone number of an acquaintance of hers who works as a nurse in the hematological ward of Augusta Victoria.
Perhaps this was no great relief, but the mother’s desperate situation still saw a crack of hope that brought half a smile to her pursed lips – even this was a touch of grace.
At the same time, in the same place, another ambulance carrying a young man from Burkin – wounded in the eye while working in the wood shop – was detained for 3 hours until the bureaucratic holdup was solved between the ‘yes, we have permits’ as the ambulance team said, and the ‘no, you have no permits’ as the checkpoint soldiers claimed.
The whole time, the wounded man sat in the closed ambulance with his mother and a medic, and since the West Bank has no proper medical facility to treat this kind of injury, no doubt it was important to get to the St. John Hospital, specializing in eye-surgery. Three hours of waiting and the long drive did not improve matters…
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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