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Qalandiya Military Checkpoint:: MachsomWatch Summary Report, September 2013
Roni Hammermann
Machsomwatch
September 2013



MachsomWatch volunteers travel to the Qalandiya Military Checkpoint on a daily basis to observe, monitor and report on conduct and policies. Reports and photos documenting these visits are posted on the MachsomWatch website (www.machsomwatch.org).

Qalandiya is the largest and probably the most infamous checkpoint in the Northern West Bank. Located between Ramallah and Jerusalem 15,000–20,000 people have to cross it daily on their way to work, to study, for medical treatment and family visits.

As at all military checkpoints, the Qalandiya Checkpoint restricts the freedom of movement of the Palestinians and contributes immensely to the uncertainty of the Palestinians` fabric of daily life under the Occupation.

The route of the separation barriers in the Jerusalem area deviates from the official 1967 border and as a result has and left ten to 15 thousands of Jerusalem Palestinians (Jerusalem residents who are holders of a Jerusalem ID card) on the `other` side of the wall. They are cut off from the rest of the city, and in order to travel to and from their homes need to pass through the Qalandiya checkpoint. Qalandiya serves Jerusalem residents as well as Palestinians from the West Bank. Thousands of people need to acquire entry permits from the army to enter Jerusalem, the center of their personal, professional, spiritual, educational and medical life.
The permit system (there are dozens of different permits for each aspect of life) is one of the army`s most frequently used methods to maintain constant control over the Palestinian population. Permits are granted or denied without rhyme or reason. Frequently the army makes use of the Palestinian’s urgent need to earn a living and recruits collaborators in exchange for work permits.

Permits are given for a limited time period and can be cancelled at any time. The existence of a permit is no guarantee for a Palestinian that he or she will be able to cross over to Jerusalem. Sometimes a permit is revoked at the checkout window at the checkpoint terminal. There, military personal check the computer and find that for some unknown reason the permit has been cancelled. The Palestinian has no choice but to turn back unable to get to work, to the doctor or to any one of dozens of chores.
The Qalandiya Checkpoint remains a place of intolerable traffic jams in the early morning hours. This is due to the fact that Palestinian from the entire northern West Bank are obliged to use Qalandiya as their entry point to Jerusalem. Between 5 to 7 am over 3000 laborers must cross the checkpoint in order to get to work on time. Crossing at the early morning hours can take from 45 minutes to 2 hours. We know that workers often need to leave their homes at 2 or 3 am in order to get to and through Qalandiya.

Palestinians travelling by bus from Ramallah to Jerusalem are also subjected to long delays. Travellers disembark from the bus at Qalandiya, queue up at the pedestrian checkpoint, wait for their turn (from several minutes to over an hour) and only then, continue the bus journey to Jerusalem. The time wasted by thousands of Palestinians is disregarded, has no value. Time, a commodity that can never be restored.

The transport of the infirm from the West Bank into East Jerusalem for medical care is impacted in a very negative way due to restrictions of movement. A medical transfer requires that seriously ill patients be driven by ambulance from the West Bank to the Qalandiya Checkpoint. There, the patient waits to be transferred to a second ambulance on the Jerusalem side.

Arrangements for these medical transfers need to be coordinated with the army in advance and the formalities at the checkpoint are not quick to say the least. MachsomWatch volunteers have witnessed emergency cases delayed for an hour or more. An hour’s delay in an emergency medical situation is intolerable, inexcusable and unforgiveable and always with consequence.



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