Qalandiya, Wed 28.12.11, Afternoon
Trans. Judith Green
17:00 Traffic jam from the direction of Route 443 toward the Qalandiya checkpoint. Many heavy vehicles along with private cars, about 100 vehicles in both lanes, making no progress. The vehicles which arrive from the north are not able to get on to the road leading to Beit Haninah. The lanes between the northern traffic circle and that on the south are too narrow to contain this amount of traffic. Standing there is grating on the nerves. (On Route 443, on the contrary, there are 3 lanes and the traffic flows). After a day at work, horns. Even when you have finally passed the checkpoint, you get caught in blocked lanes. The only way to get from Jerusalem to Ramallah is as narrow as an ant. Another way to totally frustrate the souls of the occupied.
The settlement of Kochav Yaakov almost reaches Qalandiya by now.
A bus arrives from the direction of Ramallah. A few soliders and guards get on and take a young man out. They can't manage to read his documents. They ask him to raise his shirt. Three female soldiers check the documents. Then a soldier and a guard bring the youth to the interrogation room. "There is an incident".
Passengers disembark from the bus arriving from Ramallah, go through the inspection track and arrive again to the line getting back on the bus. They tighten their belts so that their pants won't fall down.
A driver approaches us and tells us that the orders change from time to time, and the orders from the various checkpoints are not identical.
At first, pregnant women, elderly people, women with babies are not asked to get out. But today, they are. And they claim this is the law. Once, the elderly and the handicapped were allowed to stay on the bus, today they aren't. It seems as though the laws are dependent on the mood of the soldier. On private buses, bringing children to school, the children are not made to get out; on a public bus, also the little children have to get out. The driver says to the female soldier that it is forbidden to to ask a child to show his certificate (?), and the soldier says "close your mouth."
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 FleishmanJul-21-2026Qalandiya. Conversation in the shadow of the wall
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