Very busy morning in Qalandiya
05.15. Dark and cold. Already as we approached from the Israeli side we could see lines stretching into the parking lot. The kiosk was already open. The beigel seller told us that already at 4.30 there were queues. Today workers returned after the closure that had started on Saturday night.
The soldier in the aquarium did not open all the turnstiles and people started shouting – which he heard in the end.
At the 6 o’clock ‘change of guard’, there also arrived guards, police and a D.C.O. soldier. We tried to ask our acquaintances what exactly happened in the stabbing incident, but no one could tell us. The beigel seller had already gone outside and our other friends had passed either before or after the stabbing.
The humanitarian gate opened at about 6.10. As there was such heavy pressure, the D.C.O. officer remained until after 8 o’clock. At 7.50 he began to allow in the older folk who are allowed to pass without permits, but after 8.At one stage, earlier, a woman arrived with a baby in a stroller and an older child. She had to take them for a medical appointment and showed documents to the soldier and guard. As far as we could understand, she had no permit as the D.C.O. was closed. By lucky chance, our forces were sensitive and, after consulting by phone, they allowed her to pass. The guard accompanied her to the checking station and arranged for the gates to be opened for the stroller to pass.
On the whole the queues kept order, though now and again the left-most line collapsed. This line always lends itself to chaos: the beginning is open, which makes it easy for women to insert themselves (which the men always allow them to do), but when people who are turned away from the humanitarian gate try to enter there, and when anyway everyone is tired and irritable from waiting in line, people start pushing and shoving, and soon the line collapses. Often this leads to the collapse of all three queues and we see the awful sight of bodies piled up on one another. Today, only the left line collapsed each time.
We met our acquaintance H. He told us that he is at present in conflict with his employer of many years, in Mahane Yehuda. In a previous closure he stayed at home and closed his telephone. His employer was angry and said he could reach work in spite of the closure. Since then they have not spoken, though H. of course continues to work. Speaking to people at the checkpoint, we came across a few who, during the closure, had slept in Israel, at friends’ or relatives’ homes, so as to continue working.
It was only towards 8 o’clock that the lines began to get short enough to be inside the shed. We joined the left queue which now seemed to be moving fast. But this turned out to be a mistake. Each turn of the turnstile allowed through only 4-5 people, while others moved faster. It is unclear if the turnstile itself was faulty, or if the soldier was doing this on purpose. The humanitarian gate closed at 8.20. The moment the D.C.O. officer left, a man arrived in a wheelchair. The police and guards who were still there were now inside the aquarium and it took a while until they noticed him – then of course they opened the humanitarian gate for him.
Our queue advanced slowly and it took us almost an hour(!) to pass. It was only a few minutes before 9 that we finally reached the Israeli side, exhausted. Our luck – in contrast to the Palestinians – that we didn’t have a hard day’s work ahead of us …
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 FleishmanMay-13-2025Qalandiya: Back-to-back procedure for transferring patients
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