Qalandiya

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Health Problems

Observers:

Tamar Fleishman; Translator: Tal H.

Apr-29-2018

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Afternoon

A cancer patient who was sent for radiation treatment to the Mutala clinic in Augusta Victoria

A cancer patient who was sent for radiation treatment to the Mutala clinic in Augusta Victoria

Photo:

Tamar Fleishman

The Red Crescent ambulance that arrived from Tulkarm transferred to a another Red Crescent ambulance from Jerusalem a cancer patient who was sent for radiation treatment at the Mutala hospital in Augusta Victoria (East Jerusalem).

Why? Because in all of Palestine there is not even a single radiation treatment apparatus.

Why? Because the Israeli occupation authorities do not allow hospitals in the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip to purchase such equipment.

The patients from Gaza and their accompaniers, numbering 12 persons – 4 children, their mothers, another 3 women and one man named Raed who was on his way back home to Gaza after 7 months of hospitalization at Al Najah Hospital in Nablus where he was treated for leukemia. His doctors recommend he undergo bone marrow transplant procedure at the Israeli hospital of Shiba, Tel Ha-Shomer. If this recommendation is approved and lobbying will succeed, and if Raed receives a permit to exit Gaza to the West Bank in order to get to Tel Ha-Shomer inside Israel, and if the funds will be found to finance this treatment, and if the treatment succeeds – if and if and if, then perhaps, just perhaps Raed has a chance of recovering.

When everyone was already seated in their transport vehicle, and their IDs and transit permits already handed over to the Gazan coordinator who counted and rechecked and made sure the list he received from DCO Qalandiya corresponds to the persons actually inside the vehicle, only then – when all the official procedures were duly performed – did the vehicle take off its way to return the patients home to Gaza.

And hour or so later, when I returned to the Jerusalem side of the checkpoint… they were right back there where they had started! What happened was that after driving for some kilometers, a phone call came in from the Civil Administration DCO people in Qalandiya, instructing them to return because there were two more passengers who needed to get on.

The Civil Administration info-icon instructs – the Palestinians do ass they’re told. They came back. They’re here again. Same vehicle. Same platform.

They said that what was going on inside the vehicle was hell. “The children are hungry, the children need to pee, the children are crying, so are their mothers.”

The Gaza coordinator called those inside (the Israeli officials) every several minutes and kept getting the same answer: “Wait a little, perhaps another 10 minutes…” After several more rounds of “10 minutes”, knowing their journey was long and that at Erez Checkpoint (entry into the Gaza Strip) there’s a set closing time too, the driver started the engine and they took off again for Gaza.

“They have no heart” said an old acquaintance who witnessed this long-drawn-out saga, about the Israeli officials. “They have no heart.”

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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