Qalandiya Checkpoint: queues and overcrowding

A busy morning at the Qalandiya checkpoint.

 We returned to Qalandia for the first time since 7.10 last year. In fact, we were absent for more than a year, because of holidays and travel. We delayedalso because we were worried about  traffic and parking arrangements in the morning, and then for health reasons. But we finally arrived.

We found that the car barrier towards Qalandiya is open without restrictions, as it was in the past. We parked in the Palestinian parking lot where we had parked before. We did not know the two  who young men operating it, from the past. They said that it is difficult to make a living because there are very few permits compared with before the outbreak of the war. In fact, it is  the workers of the nearby Atarot area and the residents of East Jerusalem who are passing through.

 We got off the car to the east side of the checkpoint. In addition to the permanent kiosk, there used to be also a falafel stand on tables. Our friend Abu Ramzi, the pretzel seller, was still standing there with his cart. but doing much less business. Now only the kiosk was open. Apparently there are not enough people justify the falafel stand.

We arrived at about a quarter to six, and to the pedestrian barrier at 5:50. There are 3 entrances to the slalom between fences at the end of which is a carousel and an entrance to the building. There were two  queues before the right and middle entrance. Apparently the people know that the left entrance will not open yet. The queue before the right entrance reaches into the parking lot, and the middle queue extends out of the shed onto the ramp.

Photos and a video from 6:55. (No. 1) The queue before the right entrance

The queue before the middle entrance

At least the gate in the fence surrounding the entire complex and the empty parking lot (only public transportation is allowed to enter), which was locked for years, is now open. Another gate is also open further down the fence. Obvously closing the gates in the past was simply harrasment. People coming from the Qalandiya direction had to go around a long and unnecessary detour. Young people would climb over and enter under and every time the authorities would try to prevent this by closing the lower opening, adding a wire mesh on top, etc. Now finally this nuisance has been removed. The gate next to Qalandia is open The gate also further down the fence and the road is open

After 6 o'clock, a line began to build up near the third entrance, on the left. Apparently people know that it does open after 6. But when they opened, shortly after 6, only the right and middle entrances were opened. This caused people to start running to the middle entrance and push themselves there and a "pile" of people and shouting was created. It hasn't reached the level of what we used to see years ago at the old checkpoint, but still women and older people recoil when it happens. (Video 2). At the right entrance, the orderly queue was maintained at all times.

Later, the left entrance was also opened and an orderly queue began to form there as well (video 3). We asked people if this happens every day and we were told not every day, but many times. We saw people taking pictures of the queues and the mess, probably to show employers why they were late for work.

[When they enter the carousels at the end of the slalom there are lines inside the building in front of 6 carousels that lead to the scanning positions of the objects and the magnetometers. . There, 5 people are admitted each time, and after they are checked, another group is admitted. After each such checkpoint there is another carousel from which you get to the electronic checkpoints that transfer them to the Israeli side. We could not manage to go inside ourselves today because of time constraints.]

 We were happy to suddenly notice among the people our friend Abu Ramzi the pretzel seller. He says that there are few people compared to the past and even fewer who buy. He only brings 30 pretzels and doesn't always manage to sell them all. If he does not sell, the loss is on him, because he cannot return the surplus to the bakery. Besides pretzels, he also sells large falafels and hard-boiled eggs. At the right end of the shed there is a booth for selling phone cards and charging RavKav, and at some point they turned on the loudspeakers announcing their wares.

 [Picture] Chana Stein with Abu Ramzi and his cart sunrise. An acquaintance of Abu Ramzi stops next to him and asks if we are Jewish. We showed him the badges - against occupation and in favor of human rights. "There are no human rights here" he says, and we agree...

At one point they opened only the left entrance and then people from the middle row ran there, and a pile was formed there as well (video 4). As the hour got later we saw more students arriving. Boys and small children too on the way to school.  These are usually residents of Kfar Aqab or others whose parents have citizenship or residency. They show their birth certificates (Koshan) at the checkpoint.

Picture: Children on their way to school, waiting in line at the checkpoint

At around 7 there are three long, orderly queues (video 5), but later they stop opening the left entrance and slowly even those who have already arrived into the slalom retrace their steps and move to another queue. Women and children are usually allowed to join the entrances to the slalom, but when young men try to do so, the others in the orderly queue raise a cry. At about 7:20 the lines had already thinned out a lot. Since we had plans for the rest of the morning, we gave up waiting to pass through the checkpoint. We'll do that next time and then we'll also go up on the bridge to watch the work on the sinking. The queues have shortened We returned to the parking lot and drove east towards A-Ram. We didn't linger this time to see the new roads. We'll do thatou next time too. A little after A-Ram there is the temporary Jib checkpoint, hich is actually a concrete observation tower and on the road there are stations that are sometimes manned and sometimes not. When we approached there the traffic just stopped and did not move. The only progress was when one of the cars decided to turn around. Then the driver turns around and drives on the right side against the direction of traffic. Even in the opposite lane there are those who drive on the sidelines against the direction of traffic. Probably cars turning left towards the north on a dirt road before the Jib checkpoint. After waiting for about fifteen minutes at least suddenly the traffic starts to move forward. When we reach the temporary checkpoint, the positions are not manned and there is no inspection at all. In other words, they just randomly man the checkpoint and delay the traffic... We continued towards the Hizmeh checkpoint and from there to the city center in the morning traffic.