UN-Truth

Qalandia checkpoint — which Israeli officials like to call a “border crossing”, though it is not on Israel’s official list of international border crossings — is a place that could be called one of the points of hell on earth.

Qalandia checkpoint cuts off what was the main road between Jerusalem and Ramallah — and it used to take about 15 minutes to travel between the two cities.

Today, it took my friend and colleague two hours, in the middle of the day — usually, a quieter time. Driving from Jerusalem to Ramallah, she got all the way up to the traffic circle at the entrance to Qalandia, before trouble started. Apparently because some stones were being thrown, the Israeli forces at the checkpoint opened up with what they call “crowd control measures”: rubber bullets, tear gas, and stun gas.

And, they closed the checkpoint. With the unfortunate drivers who had entered at that time stuck in the middle. Thousands of people were stuck…

My friend’s car was one of many hit and damaged by two stones thrown by Palestinians. [The Israeli soldiers are usually protected by their gear, or in armoured cars. But Palestinian television nightly news showed one Israeli soldier suffering the effect of blown-back Israeli gear gas, while nevertheless maintaining his hold on his rifle, which he was aiming at the Palestinians].

It is a terrifying, infuriating, and exhausting experience.

Yesterday, she crossed at the same time, and told me then: “It was eerily quiet”.

She had just come back from covering clashes between Palestinian protesters and reinforced Israeli Border Police and National Police in East Jerusalem — but said: “Qalandia is the most volatile and scary place of all”.

The Israeli soldiers say they are only responsible for protecting themselves, and for screening prospective entrants into Israel, NOT for anything else — they say they are not responsible for the child beggars who assault waiting cars who are trying to enter from the Ramallah side lives, they are not responsible for the lack of traffic control for cars coming from the Jerusalem side. They are not responsible for the delays. They are not responsible for the fighting at the checkpoint. They are not responsible for the lives, property, time or well-being of the people they oblige to use this checkpoint.

Today, there were three episodes of fierce clashes between Palestinians and Israeli forces at Qalandia checkpoint — morning, midday, and at 8 pm at night.

Qalandia is especially bad around 7 in the morning and around 6 in the evening, every day. It is especially bad on Thursday evenings, and on Saturday afternoons. It is very bad on Israel Independence day (as marked on the Jewish calendar). It is very especially bad on Friday mornings during the special month of Ramadan, when Palestinian Muslims long to pray at Al-Aqsa Mosque in the Old City of East Jerusalem. And it is very, very, very bad when there are clashes between Palestinian boys and Israeli soldiers.

Filed under: Boundaries & Borders, Israel, Palestine & Palestinians