Qalandiya - Today the soldiers are good, they don’t kill
Man bites dog:
“Border Policemen and civilian security officials arrested a woman inhabitant of the Qalandiya refugee camp in her sixties who arrived holding a knife at the Qalandiya crossing. The suspect, on foot in a lane meant for vehicles only, was looking for the security forces to shoot her. They performed a suspect arrest procedure (not including firing) at the end of which she was arrested, and a search on her brought forth a knife.”
https://www.maariv.co.il/breaking-news/Article-876027
One doesn’t need to be a rocket scientist to locate the weakness of this item, that deserves no better than the heading “Man bites dog”…
What does need to be recognized is the place and its procedures, and something of the Israeli armed forces’ advocacy apparatus.
For here, where the weapon reigns, even an elderly woman as the one above is most expected to be victim of “firing to body-mass center” which, in the best case, would wound her, and in a worse case, those firing at her would not enable the ambulance to approach her and she would bleed to death.
And what about the knife? Whoever believes advocacy laundering will believe the generic knife story always photographed near the victim. Basel said it best:
Today the soldiers are good, they don’t kill.
Further away, at the southern edge of the refugee camp, opposite the Separation Wall, stands a house whose construction was never finished and an evil hand set it on fire. The remains of the house mutely tell us that the fire broke out from within and finished it all off.
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 FleishmanJun-28-2026Qalandiya. The bridge leading from Jerusalem to the Qalandiya checkpoint
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