Jaba (Lil), Qalandiya

Place:

Jaba (Lil)

Qalandiya

Observers:

Tamar Fleishman; Tarasnlator: Tal H.

Sep-13-2022

Afternoon

This was one of those days when people wish to talk and I listen, ask and learn.

I learned from Jihad that he makes his livelihood with two jobs – working as a hired driver in a cab company as well as stone cutting and creating in stone.

I learned from Basel that two families in Bani Na’im had a fight, a very violent one during which a 7-year-old child was shot and wounded. The shooter is a teacher in one of the community schools, and he and his family escaped to Nablus.

I drove to the Jab’a road checkpoint situated on the way between A-Ram and the colony Adm, to hear about an incident that took place two days earlier, and which according to a summary news item a Palestinian woman neared the checkpoint, soldiers searched her body and found a knife. The woman was transported for questioning.

The Jabba roadblock

Photo:

Tamar Fleishman

Fearing to be shot or being treated the way this woman was, when I neared the policeman standing on road, I said to him through my open window:

- I shall park at the edge of the checkpoint and come on foot to ask you a few questions. Don’t shoot me.

- No problem, you won’t be shot, we don’t shoot just anyone, he answered.

There were many police cars at the checkpoint, many policemen and much activity.

Upstairs in the pillbox watchtower, soldiers observed and used their walkie-talkies to instruct the policemen which vehicles to detain and inspect.

Activity took place on both sides of the road, the one leading to from Ramallah.

- We search and arrest smugglers, thieves, robbers and such, the policeman answered my question.

I asked the question for which I had stopped, about what happened with the woman taken for questioning, but none of those at the site had heard of it.

I remained wondering about her identity, where she was from, why she came here and what had happened to her.

For the woman had vanished as if she hadn’t existed, and except for a marginal item on the news, nothing.

I felt there is an overt and a covert layer which, as in Greek tragedy based on the three unities – time, place and plot – this one is missing and unknown.

And the questions whether there had been a woman, whether there had been a knife, and how the plot developed, remained unanswered.

Location Description

Jaba (Lil)

See all reports for this place

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-5-2024

Tamar Fleishman

Qalandiya: Four women from Nablus are refused crossing the checkpoint to pray

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