Qalandiya - two girls, cancer patients, were late for transport to Gaza
I came to the DCL with two girls, cancer patients, who’d been discharged a few hours earlier from a hospital in Nablus. With them and their mothers. All they wanted was to go home and rest. But what should be so obvious and so simple is between difficult and impossible for Gaza residents, whatever their age.
The girls and their mothers went back and forth for two hours between hope and despair, and I accompanied them.
Two hours during which we heard that transportation departed today at 13:30, and not at 16:00, as usual, that there’s been an incident at Erez Crossing and no one’s there to answer the phone, that a taxi will await them (according to the representative of Salaamitkum) to take them from Qalandiya. But the problem isn’t a taxi, the problem is permission to go through the Qalandiya checkpoint and a procedure instituted last year that specifies patients travel only in pre-arranged group transport.
Why? Because they might remain in Israel illegally.
After an hour and a half, the verdict: Nothing can be done, come tomorrow morning.
You tell them yourself, I said to Omer. I thought, perhaps hoped, that if he looks them in the eye he wouldn’t be able to say what I couldn’t.
But I was wrong. Without hesitation, without looking away, he said: Nothing can be done, come tomorrow morning.
The problem with “nothing can be done” and with “come tomorrow” is, where will the girls and their mothers sleep tonight?
The women kept trying, entered the offices, spoke to whomever they spoke to, and all they heard was “nothing can be done, come tomorrow.”
They will, of course they will.
After two hours of a heart-rending marathon, when despair overcame every glint of hope, each of the women gathered her daughter and picked up their belongings, and the four of them prepared to return to Nablus, hoping the hospital that treated the girls will find somewhere for them to pass the night.
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 FleishmanApr-12-2026Qalandiya. Abdallah at his fruit stand
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