Qalandiya
09:25 We arrive at the checkpoint. Hardly anybody is crossing. No people are standing in the roofed area. Maybe that’s why the place is less filthy than usual. The toilets stink. The 5 interior check posts are open. One exterior sleeve is kept open all the time.
In the past people used to be running straight from the sleeve to the check post. Now people are waiting in line for their turn to approach the interior crossing. Apart from one soldier inside the dark concrete building we don’t see any soldiers in the interior area of the checkpoint.
According to a volunteer from the ecumenical organization, who arrived half an hour before us, there has been little traffic all morning.
A taxi driver tells us that there is no traffic because of the olive picking season. There is no school and everybody is picking.
An elderly man, above 70, who was born in Palestine but with a Brazilian passport (he lives in Brazil), is not permitted to cross and returns the same way he came.
A woman who tries to cross also has to turn back. This is not the first time it happens to her. She has not been permitted to cross for twenty years. She needs medical care at the Muktsar Hospital, where she has had a back operation, but she has no choice but to travel a long and difficult way to get there.
65 year old Dr. Muhammad Ali from Nablus stops next to us. He lectures at the An-Najach University. When he isn’t permitted to cross at Qalandiya he has to reach the Zeitim checkpoint.
Once in a while, a wave of people crosses quickly and disappears.
The traffic at the vehicle crossing is flowing almost without delays. The soldiers have no idea about what Machsomwatch is. They call to check if it’s all right to let us return to Tel Aviv. They check the trunk and tell us to drive on.
Qalandiya Checkpoint / Atarot Pass (Jerusalem)
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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)
Tamar FleishmanFeb-27-2026Qalandiya: On the way to prayer
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