Qalandiya, Sun 13.10.13, Afternoon

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Passage Restrictions

Health Problems

Soldiers at checkpoints

Transfer Permits to Israel

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Tamar Fleishman

Oct-13-2013

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Afternoon

Translating: Ruth Fleishman

Every time it seems like we reached bottom of the pit, reality proves there to be an even deeper one.

Perhaps to those who do not stand in front of the ambulances, the stretchers and the back-to-back procedures the pictures seem the same. Each person is a story and on each stretcher is a tragedy. Only the occupation is the same, as well as the rifles, the regulations and the orders. A six year old child had injured his head at ten AM with a metal bar, his father phoned a friend who was a brain expert in Jorden who told him that the child must be on the operation table within the hour, however, he reached the checkpoint only at three PM. By the time the mechanism of the occupation had permitted the child and his mother (not his father) to pass through to a hospital in Jerusalem, five hours had past. Five hours is a time frame that hands out the verdict of life and death. The child was hazy, his eyes were open but there was no look in them, his hands rose without purpose and fell down as though on their own, and the father begged that they take him as well with the child to the hospital, so that he be with his child- but no, only the mother could, and the man stood by the child who couldn't really see him, and touched his body and hands and at the tip of his head that had remain without exposed, as though saying goodbye, and keeping it together until the ambulance drove off and only then did he burst into tears.

And I was left on my own.

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It wasn't easy crossing to the other side of the checkpoint on that hour of no rush:

The turnstile leading inside the complex was locked and the soldier in charge of pushing the button was sitting idly whether out of maliciousness or not, and as they say in the objectifying military lingo: 'she wasn't enabling people to stream inside". A woman standing in the cage in front of the post's window tried getting the soldier's attention: "lady, lady…." she said over and over again: "lady… lady…", and then again, but the "lady" didn't respond and the woman stopped trying and stood among the other silent people who due to tens of years of oppression had been tamed to accept the verdict.

And those who managed to pass the ignoring soldier might have ended up in front of Anastasia at the inspection post, as had happened to a man in his sixties who she ordered to lay the content of his three plastic bags before her, even though they had already been through the x-ray machine. And the man took the contents of each bag out: plastic hollow tubes, some light sockets, rolled up electric wires and some other items that fell on the filthy ground. And Anastasia looked at him and at the items and told him to fill the bags up again and put them on the conveyor belt , so he did what she said and the bags went in and out from the other side, and Anastasia told the man to approach the window and show her a certain item, and only after the fourth examination and after checking and his ID and verifying his identity , Anastasia sent him on his way.

Location Description

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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