'Anata-Shu'afat, Qalandiya

Place:

Qalandiya

'Anata-Shu'afat

Tags:

Slow passage

Crowding

Turnstile

Observers:

Annelien, Ronit D, Rachel A (reporting); Translator: Mike S.

Nov-29-2015

Morning

It was a quiet day at Qalandiya. At Isawiyya, the road going up from the village was controlled by the military police, who directed the traffic without examining permits. In the Shuafat refugee camp it was a different world.

05.00 Qalandiya Checkpoint

The checkpoint was open for workers to enter, meaning that two “sleeves” (enclosed passageways) were open and the incomers arrived at a run from the car-park into the sleeves. They waited until the turnstiles were opened and then entered at a run towards the inspection area. This was repeated again-and-again. There was already no crowding and everything was calm and quiet. There were groups of worshipers at various places in the area. The pastry-seller hoped for buyers. Ronit, who accompanied us (we were at Qalandiya for the first time), told us that this was unusual for Sundays or in general. At about six a.m. the queues lengthened and a third sleeve info-icon was opened.

At 06.17 we entered the queue to leave the checkpoint. It took us a quarter of an hour to pass, like the workmen at our side. This was an experience that we don’t have at the checkpoints in the center of the country. No-one approached us for any kind of help.

From there we travelled to Isawiyya to a road-block in the area of French Hill. A number of policemen directed the traffic in both directions; we didn’t see that inspections were being performed. A truck with goods was turned back and the driver was told to arrive at another entry, from the direction of Ma’aleh Adumim. We did not ask why.

07.30 The Shuafat Refugee Camp

A general view : It was terribly polluted and squalid, with heaps of trash next to the pavements – an unbearable sight. Cars crawled from the checkpoint towards the exit. People were trying to hitch-hike to the town in order to avoid the pedestrian-passage through the checkpoint. A young woman whom we met at the exit told us that there was crowding and inadvisable to go inside. Nevertheless, we entered. We walked about for a bit at the entrance to the town and also there it was dusty and neglected. There were multi-story buildings and rubbish from the construction next to them. As is well-known, these structures were built without planning permission, and all the lack of planning was planned meticulously.

07.44 We entered the checkpoint on-foot, through the path that leaves the camp. 50-60 women, men, children and babies were squashed inside the entry-space, and also students and school-children, and everyone who needed to exit the camp towards the town. This was an initial basic experience. We have already been going to the checkpoints for 15 years, but we (or at least I) have never stood in a checkpoint together with Palestinians and waited for the conqueror to open the turnstile. There are two openings in the room, which enable an exit through turnstiles towards a continuation of the inspection. Only one opening was in fact open, and we were told that the second one is never opened.

The turnstile which serves those coming out, was opened once every few minutes for one person at a time. The large crowd stood like one block (without a defined queue) and everyone waited quietly for his turn. It was amazing to be inside this patient queue. No-one complained or even made an exclamation. From time-to-time someone went outside for a smoke. If you are good at arithmetic and if you have a calculator you can understand that that you still have many hours to stand here until you see the light.

After 10 minutes we had advanced only one meter (there remained another 6 meters), and I telephoned the civilian administration office for the Jerusalem area and requested the soldier there to find out why things were moving so slowly. He said he would check. After another 10 minutes and moving another meter, I phoned the office again, and the soldier said that there had been a terrorist attack at the Nablus gate and there were severe warnings. I asked him what this had to do with the speed of the queue here . . . and the questions-and answers led to the conclusion that he couldn’t be of any help. In the meantime we chatted with the people standing next to us. The slow and frustrating passage continued after the start of these last events. Beforehand it was faster. The silence of those standing in the queue continued, as if this was just a part of life. Students who should have been at university at eight, a greengrocer who should have opened his shop, a teacher who should have . . . . a mother with her baby info-icon

and two small children who were on their way to . . . ., a schoolboy . . . , and all the time more and more people entered. And at the turnstile, every 2 or 3 minutes the green light flashed and the happy ones tried to revolve it with all their might, which didn’t help but in the end it ejected them. And then two people started to come out together through the clearance of the turnstile, and the queue speeded-up slightly.

This exhausting standing for a long period is the essence of the Occupation. You stand like this and an unendurable anger inside you intensifies. To my sorrow, the Palestinian who stood beside me had learned to endure this, and he was smiling. Only one young woman started to shout at the youngsters who tried to jump the queue, but no uproar developed because it was clear to everyone that she was right. After you stand-and-stand like this, time loses its meaning. You don’t know if it is a minute or an hour, or whatever.

After an hour and a quarter of standing, our turn arrived. Annelien and I, and another woman were pressed through the gap in the turnstile which ejected us on the other side where there is a room for inspecting belongings (the magnometer wasn’t working). The soldiers’ window is where you have to present your permit and have your bags examined. You should ask the soldiers there what came out of my mouth . . . .

Annelien, who was so happy to come out, that she had already managed to forget how hard it had been to stand in the queue (like how one forgets one’s pain immediately after the birth), and I stood furiously opposite the window and started to shout at the soldiers with all the anger which had accumulated inside me : “You should be ashamed of yourselves ! you are treating human-beings like animals! There are women here ! Children ! Human-beings ! And so-on and so-forth, in all kinds of variations. It was not in the least planned, but it burst-out of me like a volcano. The soldiers stood and listened and didn’t answer. But maybe yes. It seemed to me that the Palestinians also stood and listened.

I don’t know if I have succeeded in conveying the Essence in this report. So here it is again : standing like this in the queue with the Palestinians was many times stronger than all my efforts to imagine the situation during recent years.

This is not something that human-beings are supposed to suffer and be silent about.

Addition by Annelien: Shuafat checkpoint

The procedure that vehicles exiting the camp have to stand at quite a distance from the inspection station caused traffic-jams at the cross-roads from all directions. Vehicles entering the camp were stuck, together with buses which conveyed school children who were late for their lessons. The children waiting for the jammed buses gathered around us. And they read with interest what is written on our tags, but it was clear that the conditions of their forcibly humiliated lives are leading them and their families along a narrow passage with no hope at it’s end.

Anyone who wants to know if the checkpoints prevent terror or create it, is invited to visit Shuafat during the hours of the morning.

Location Description

Shu'afat-Anata

See all reports for this place

The Shu’afat checkpoint is located in the northern part of East Jerusalem at the exit from the village of Anata and the Shu’afat refugee camp, which are located in the area annexed to Jerusalem in 1967. The refugee camp borders the Shu’afat neighborhood to the west, Pisgat Ze’ev to the north, the French Hill neighborhood to the south and the planned expansion of Ma’aleh Adumim to E-1 in the east. It was established in 1966 for 1948 refugees from the West Bank and was populated after the Six Day War by persons who had been expelled from the Jewish Quarter. Today its population comprises some 25,000 people holding blue ID cards and some 15,000 people with Palestinian ID cards. The camp lacks adequate infrastructure and services, and suffers from poverty, neglect and overcrowding. All its buildings are connected to the public electricity and water infrastructure, but not all are connected to the sewer system. The camp’s services are provided by UNRWA, except for those such as health clinics and transportation of pupils to schools in Jerusalem. In 2005, the Israeli High Court of Justice rejected a suit by the residents requesting that the route of the separation fence be drawn such that the camp would remain on the Israeli side, but conditioned its approval of the route on the establishment of a convenient and rapid crossing facility for the inhabitants of the neighborhood, most of whom are residents of Jerusalem.

A temporary checkpoint operated there until December, 2011. It was extremely congested during rush hours, and dangerous for pedestrians (especially children) because of inadequate safety provisions. The new checkpoint was inaugurated south of the old one, for public and private transportation and for pedestrians, intended solely for the residents of the camp – holders of blue ID cards, and those with Palestinian ID cards who possess appropriate permits. There are five vehicle inspection stations at the checkpoint, and two for pedestrians (one of which is currently closed) where scanners have been installed but are not yet operating. According to the army, representatives of government agencies will also be present to provide services to residents of the neighbourhood. The pedestrian lanes are very long, located far from the small parking lots, and accessible through only a single revolving gate.

Dec-20-2023

Anat Tueg

Anata: new traffic circle at the exit junction

View the full album

Qalandiya Checkpoint

See all reports for this place

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

View the full album