Qalandiya, Sun 1.8.10, Afternoon
Four hours, forty minutes and three Jewish women- that's all it took to help a father pass Qalandiya checkpoint so he could identify the body of his deceased son
– How to write of the death of a young man whose name we don't know because during the whole while we were with his father and uncle, not once was the name mentioned? – "Ibni" mumbled the father.
– How to relate about a father who had waited for hours, patiently and silently, with only soft sobs escaping his lips, and with his brother to speak on his behalf- for he was lost for words?
– How to describe his hunched down appearance, his facial expressions which reflected uncertainty whether he fully grasped that his son, who the police had told him over the phone was: "badly injured…", was no longer among the living?
– After all perhaps was still some hope that he had yet to take his last breath, as the formal words hadn't actually been said?
– How to write of the uncle, the father's brother, who told us in secret, for fear his brother might hear that: "He is dead. They want us to come and recognize him…"?
Would our inquiry make it possible for us to understand this reality? A reality in which every action which seems simple to us, for the Palestinians is really an excruciating procedure?
A reality in which nothing in their life is simple, and everything is either extremely complicated or utterly impossible?
If that is not enough, in this reality, they must over and over again express their gratitude to those at the end of the endless waiting, those who with their insolent and hostile faces open the gate, and the person who inspects their documents and then orders without a sound but with the movement of his finger: "proceed…"
And they don't forget to thank us as well, for seeing them, simply for having seen them and having been with them in their time of pain and sorrow.
The banality of the checkpoint and the roaring orders heard for above had dried our tears. The father, whose tears ran down the wrinkles in his cheeks, couldn't hear those sounds or see those sights.
The chronological events:
A man, who had yet turned 25 and had been working at Burnim which is Har-Homa, fell to his death from a height of eight meters.
At 13:00 the family at Ramalla was notified over the phone by the police. The father was requested to arrive at Qalandiya checkpoint and from there (so he was told) he would be taken to Jerusalem, where his son was to be found. – The father and his brother immediately headed off.
It was only at 17:40 that the father and uncle had passed through the checkpoint, they had been taken in a police car to the police station, where they identified the deceased's body.
At 20:00 that evening they passed the checkpoint together with the body, and headed back to Ramallah. For these, two ambulances were needed.
The bodies of the dead, like those of the living, can't pass directly through the checkpoint, but must be taken out of the first ambulance and then into the other.
That evening (the uncle told me over the phone), in accordance with their religious, and with the commandment of our religion that the deceased must not rest before burial, the young man was buried.
"He was building over there for the Jews", the uncle said, "The constructor was an Arab from Zeitim, from forty eight".
Freezing the constructions?
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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