Ar-Ram, Atarot, Jaba (Lil), Qalandiya, Sun 21.9.08, Afternoon

Place:

Qalandiya

Ar-Ram

'Atarot

Jaba (Lil)

Tags:

Slow passage

Observers:

Natanya G. and Phyllis W. (Phyllis reporting)

Sep-21-2008

Afternoon

15:15
A-Ram CP: There was no activity at the checkpoint.

15:30 Atarot:
The line of vehicles was very long but the traffic jam did not appear
to have been caused by the soldiers who were standing aside and not
interfering. We did not stop because we were hurrying to a meeting
at Qalandiya.

15:45 Qalandiya:
Two passageways were operating and there was a line in each. However,
there was no line in the northern shed because the soldier on duty was
paying attention to what was going on and opened the carousel each time
the lines inside the CP shortened.

Just as we arrived a worried-looking
young man approached us. He told us that his wife (who holds the
blue I.D. card of a Jerusalem resident) had taken two young cousins,
Palestinians residing in France, on a shopping spree to the Pisgat Zeev
Shopping Center in Jerusalem without bringing their passports, I.D.
cards or permits. The three had been stopped on their way to the
shopping center at 10 AM at the Hizmeh CP and the 2 young girls, Rosanne
(14) and Malak (15), had been detained. The driver was freed and
sent on her way. When we reached Qalandiya at 4 PM the family
was quite hysterical, not knowing where the girls were and what was
happening to them. We called the police and were told to contact
the police station at Shu'afat. The people there told us that
the girls were in their custody and would shortly be returned to Qalandiya.
And that's what happened.

16:25: Only one passageway is working
(No. 2). The soldiers have apparently taken a coffee break.
There are now 20 people waiting on line in the northern shed to get
into the CP.

Another man approaches us and tells us
that his little brother, who sells bottled drinks at the entrance to
the CP, had been arrested two hours earlier by a policeman accompanied
by two bodyguards. The family had been informed by telephone and
told to bring the child's documents to the Qalandiya CP. The man
had no idea what he was supposed to do and where he was supposed to
deliver the documents. We phoned several policemen whose numbers
we had been given but none of them answered the phone, so we called
their commander, David A', who told us authoritatively that
the child had been released already and that the police had no idea
where he had gone. The brother was still very worried, so we attempted
further inquiries with a phone call to Qalandiya Headquarters where
we spoke with Alex who confirmed that the child was in their custody
(contrary to what Abuhazeira had said). He instructed the brother
to enter the CP passageway and ask the soldiers on duty to call him
(Alex).

Meanwhile a man pushing a baby info-icon carriage
was trying to enter the CP on his way to Jerusalem. The soldier
on duty at the northern entrance tried, without success, to find a way
to open the "Humanitarian Gate". Finally the man took
the baby out of the carriage and carried it through the carousel.

A bit later a disabled man on crutches
tried to enter the CP. Once again we witnessed an ineffectual
attempt to open the "Gate". This time there was a female
soldier on duty who called headquarters to request that they send someone
to open the "Gate" but she was told that headquarters was
too busy and understaffed to deal with such problems. After waiting
10 or 15 minutes, someone suggested that the man try to pass the CP
by boarding a bus in the vehicle CP. We assume that he succeeded
because we didn't see him again.

16:40: Only one passageway is working
at the CP and the line there is very long. Another 40 people are
waiting on line at the northern CP entrance. We called the hotline
to complain and another passageway was opened after several minutes.
However, this passageway was quickly closed again when the soldiers
discovered there were technical problems with the X-ray machine.
We called Alex at headquarters to ask him to help and he replied that
they were working on the problem. We suggested that he open one
of the other passageways, No. 4 or No. 1 for example, while they were
fixing their equipment.

16:50: Passageway 4 was opened
relieving some of the congestion in the northern shed. But people
will soon be finishing work and the end of the daily fast is approaching,
and the flow of people trying to pass the CP on their way to Jerusalem
is getting stronger and stronger.

Suddenly "Policeman Saul" arrives
to visit the northern CP entrance. We talked to him about the
way the CP was operating and the long wait on lines for people who were
fasting in Ramadan. We asked him how Jewish people would feel
if they were forced to wait on line on their way home from synagogue
after their Yom Kippur fast. "Policeman Saul" made light
of Palestinian suffering and ended the conversation by saying that he
had wasted his entire "monthly quota of niceties" talking
with us.

17:00: There are now 50 men, women
and children on line in the northern shed waiting to enter the CP.

17:10: The lines continue to lengthen.
We called Alex once again. He told us that he did not have enough
soldiers to open more lines. We left Qalandiya and went to Bir
Nabala where we observed once again that this CP has been removed.

18:00 Lil CP: Traffic was
flowing.

Location Description

Jaba (Lil)

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In fact, the Jaba checkpoint is east of the Qalandiya checkpoint. Its declared purpose is the prevention of Israeli citizens from entering Area A.
A road checkpoint for vehicles, located on Road 65, borders the southern fence of Kfar Jaba, about three kilometers east of the Qalandiya checkpoint, on the road leading to the settlement of Adam on Road 60.
Archaeological excavations within the village found the remains of a cloth house from the First Temple period. The events that led to the construction of the checkpoint are precisely here: on the day of the abduction of Gilad Shalit and before the outbreak of the Second Lebanon War, a 17-year-old man from one of the settlements was abducted by a Palestinian cell.
His body was found several days later at the entrances to Ramallah. A military investigation revealed that his abductors had taken him along this route. The checkpoint was set up to prevent future kidnappings and to warn settlers from traveling to Ramallah and entering Area A (which is forbidden for Israelis).
The checkpoint that operates around the clock. Usually only vehicles traveling in the direction of Ramallah are inspected.
(November 2016): Every morning, when the settlers en masse travel to Jerusalem on Route 60 and every afternoon they return from Jerusalem on Route 60, the army initiates a traffic jam at the entrance to the Jaba checkpoint and stops the movement of Palestinians traveling toward Route 60.
(February 2020): In the last two years the checkpoint has not always been manned. Sometimes the soldiers come and just stand, sometimes they come and stop and check those who enter the village, sometimes they patrol the alleys of the village, sometimes they fire stun grenades and gas and sometimes they invade houses and stop young people, say those passing through the Hazma checkpoint.
(Updated February 2020)

Qalandiya Checkpoint

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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)

Apr-17-2024

Tamar Fleishman

Qalandiya: Ibrahim and behind him Abu-Abdallah

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Ar-ram

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two kilometers south of Qalandiya and 300 metres north of Neve Yaacov Junction, in Dahiyat el-Barid Quarter. Checkpoint has operated since 1991, in a Palestinian area annexed to Jerusalem in 1967. The checkpoint has been inactive since the middle of 2009.

The wall was built on the road that led to Jerusalem. Since then the situation in the town has deteriorated. Houses are abandoned and half finished, most of the businesses have closed. Severe neglect around the fence and on the streets. Those who could left.
Updated January 2024

Atarot

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Atarot was a workers' settlement destroyed during the War of Independence, where the Arab village of Qalandiya now stands, in the southwestern part of Atarot Airport, built by the British Mandate. After 1967, the Atarot industrial zone was established nearby, and until the completion of the wall from the Qalandiya checkpoint to Road 443, a checkpoint was in place. A new Jewish neighborhood is currently planned for the old airport area.