Qalandiya, Wed 12.12.12, Afternoon
Translating: Ruth Fleishman
It was only after a hold up on and hour and twenty minutes that a child suffering from excruciating pain was able to pass through the checkpoint, on her way to a hospital in East Jerusalem.
"Her stomach has to be operated on", the ambulance driver said.
Hopeless, the little child lied attached to tubes and machines, some were out in the open and others hidden beneath a blanket, only a bump at the center of her body indicated their existence.
When the soldiers demanded that her mother leave the child so as to open the bags and display their content before all, to prove there is no bomb in them, the little one sobbed faintly and cried: "mama…mama…"
We stood for a long time at the inner parking lot of the checkpoint, waiting for the ambulances to connect. During that time we saw how a resident of East Jerusalem was denied permission to drive through with his vehicle (which had Israeli yellow plats) with two citrus trees in it, and was forced to head back. We saw a Jewish orthodox that had already arrived at the Palestinian side of the checkpoint when the soldiers hurried to stop him, they explained his error to him and guided him back.
We saw three women pushing a wheel chair of a paralyzed child, together they had to lift the chair to the sidewalk and pass through to the other side of the checkpoint while preforming acrobatic moves between the fences and the barriers, because the gate that are supposed to serve the handicapped wouldn't open.
We saw BP officers leading to the Palestinian side of the checkpoint five Palestinian laborers who were caught at Jerusalem without a work permit, and only once they were sure that the "outlaws" had crossed the imaginary line of separating the prohibited from the permissible they handed their IDs back.
We saw a long line of mothers, women, sisters and young children returning from visitations at Ofer prison. We didn't see any fathers, husbands or older children.
-Are their grief and longing not as strong as that of the women?
And we saw that the missing parts in the wall parallel to the separation wall had been replaced, so that the path leading between the two would allow army forces to exit unnoticed from the checkpoint complex to the pillbox, from where they shoot at young Palestinians during protests, the like of which we had seen from up close and of which we are expected to see more.
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-27-2025Qalandiya: A beggar woman
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