Qalandiya, Wed 27.1.10, Afternoon
15:15 At the entrance before the CP in the route for cars going north, we saw a new little house with 'Police' written on it in Hebrew and in English. Border Patrol soldiers placed a jeep there with its side facing the road. They are inspecting various permits, documents of the cars, and so forth. Because of this, there are long queues on the A-Ram road and on Road 443. There are tremendous traffic jams in the direction of Jerusalem.
Pedestrian Crossing in the Direction of Jerusalem
From the sign posted by the community administration: Employment Service open only one day a week for a few hours.
Passage of cars going south: An ambulance of the Red Crescent arrives to take a patient to Nablus. It stands in the path that is usually for cars and waits for ten minutes. The ambulance does not have right of way. They transfer the patient from ambulance to ambulance on a stretcher in the cold. Four security guards with rifles at the ready are overseeing the transfer. A soldier reads the medical document.
16:20 Two sleeves are open. About 80 people are standing. A student from Bir-Zet tells us that he has been detained in queues for hours. A soldier put his feet on the table and spoke with him 'through' his feet. "In Jordan I get a bit of respect but here it's my home." Once he was taken to an interior room and they asked him: "Do you want to work with us? Do you know anybody from the Hamas?"
It takes 20 minutes to go through. Route 2 is closed. When we asked why, Palestinians told us that the woman soldier is inspecting the electricity, that is to say, the machine that keeps whistling. And indeed, wonder of wonders, we heard a whistle from the magnometer even though nobody went through. Five women students from Bir Zet went through with a blue ID and the machine whistled. They took off some clothes and remained dressed in light clothes (if there is a need to undress because of some security suspicion, it is appropriate to heat the place.) There were some who took off their belts in advance and even their shoes and the machine still whistled. The girls said: 'We laugh it off. If we won't laugh that will cause us trouble." The girls think that the women soldiers are causing the whistling.
We, on the other hand, went through with a lot of metal on us, like the Children of Israel in the Red Sea, and there was no whistling whatsoever. A technological wonder, does the machine identify Jews by their smell?
.
Qalandiya Checkpoint / Atarot Pass (Jerusalem)
See all reports for this place-
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-14-2026Qalandiya. Clothing remnants on the barbed wire atop the Kalandia wall
-