Tag: Qalandia Checkpoint

Second Friday of Ramadan at Qalandia Checkpoint

22 March 2024 | International Solidarity Movement | Qalandia checkpoint

Women performing mid-day prayers outside Qalandia checkpoint. @ISM

Palestinians perform Friday mid-day prayer outside of Qalandia checkpoint this morning while held at gunpoint by Israeli occupation soldiers, after being forcefully denied their right to enter Al-Quds to pray at Al-Aqsa.

People trying to enter were again met with an intensified militarisation of Qalandia checkpoint of heavily armed occupation border police, some of them masked, and vehicles.

Israeli occupation forces at the checkpoint. @ISM

While the Occupation Force officially has announced that men above 55 years, women above 50 years and children below 10 years from the West Bank are allowed to enter, today numerous people in the applicable age group were denied entry by Israeli occupation forces (IOF) claiming that “too many” had entered.

Close to 12 noon, IOF completely shut the checkpoint entrance.

In resistance, and under surveillance and held at gun point by IOF border police, denied women gathered in front of the closed gate to perform the midday Friday prayer, joined by a group of men.

One of the women stated: “We will pray here, what else can we do? Allah will understand that this is the closest we can get to Al-Aqsa”.

She had come from Al-Khalil with a permission to enter, but was denied entry at two attempts, and so was her 66 year old father; IOF told both that “too many” had entered.

Another 60-year old man who had been denied was told that now he had to apply online a week prior.

As the women were praying, a masked IOF border police officer shouted to disturb the prayers, while another masked officer made dance moves towards the prayers. During the IOFs surveillance of people trying to enter, a border police officer was observed removing the safe on their gun.

A large amount of Palestinian medics were present wearing fluorescent vest saying: “Don’t shoot me, I’m not a target. I am a health care provider”.

IOF dancing and disturbing prayers. @ISM

IOF closing Qalandia checkpoint. @ISM

IOF soldier removing safe from gun. @ISM

Deceptively “quiet” first week of Ramadan in Jerusalem: a result of restrictions at Qalandia checkpoint

19 March 2024 | International Solidarity Movement | West Bank/East Jerusalem

Stories from Israeli and international press extoll a safe and unencumbered celebration of the first week of Ramadan for the thousands of Palestinians with Israeli or Jerusalem ID cards, who were allowed entry to Al-Aqsa in most cases with minimal delay.

Unfortunately, Palestinian Muslim prayergoers from the West Bank encountered conditions very different from the story distributed by the press.

Instead of open access, the vast majority of Muslim Palestinians were denied entry to Jerusalem at a heavily militarized Qalandia checkpoint—the largest, most-trafficked access point out from the West Bank. This resulted in a chaotic scene of delay, frustration, and service taxis offering early long-distance rides home to Palestinians who traveled from far away for prayer, only to be immediately rejected at the gate.

After much debate in the executive branch of Israeli government, it was recently announced that only Muslim men over 55, women over 50, and children under 10 would be granted passage through Qalandia. These parameters exclude more than 90% the West Bank population—and, of course, all of Gaza. For comparison, the Ramadan 2023 restrictions on passage from West Bank permitted all men over 45, and all women.

But the constraints and confusion did not stop here; even among those who met the age requirements, West Bank residents could not enter through Qalandia unless they had been previously approved for a special entry ID.

Regarding his exclusion under the entry ID restriction, a Palestinian man in his early 60s shared: “They told me I needed a special permit. But no one here knows they need this permit. And even when you apply, they use any reason to deny you.” Absence of this “entry permit” was used as an excuse to turn away thousands of prayergoers on the first Friday of Ramadan. Another man denied entry (he was twenty days shy of 55) added that those standing outside Qalandia represented only a small fraction of those rejected, because “mostly everyone don’t bother to try. With the [Gaza] war, people don’t feel like celebrating. They don’t think they will be let in.”

For many Palestinian Muslims, praying at the holy Al-Aqsa Mosque is considered a special religious responsibility.

A group of women who had been banned from meeting this responsibility staged a protest Friday morning outside Qalandia. Together, standing meters away from heavily armed IOF soldiers, these women gathered and chanted—in the shadow of the wall, 10 kilometers from Al-Aqsa, as close to the Dome of the Rock as Israeli authorities would permit them to stand.

Photos and videos @ISM.

International and Palestinian Journalists Tear Gassed

November 17, 2018 | International Solidarity Movement, Ramallah team | Ramallah, occupied Palestine

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) decided to hold its annual meeting in Palestine this year, where they demonstrated at the infamous Qalandia checkpoint on Saturday. The dozens of journalists, holding only international press cards, were immediately met with canisters of tear gas.

“We went peacefully, wearing IFJ uniforms and carrying IFJ cards. It’s obvious that it was journalists who were demonstrating,” explained Nasser Abu Baker, Chairman of the Palestinian Journalist Syndicate, a representative to the IFJ. Nasser was one of the many journalists fired upon at Qalandia.  “In the last four years there were three 3000 crimes committed against journalists, 26 of which were murders… It’s obvious that the Israeli leadership couldn’t accept our demand for freedom of movement, and the scene of IFJ being there, standing with Palestinian journalists.”

Lack of freedom of movement is a common experience for Palestinians in the West Bank, most of whom are unable to leave. The few who leave the West Bank for work face the physical torment of waiting in line for hours, crammed together in zig-zagged cages, and facing the high probability of Israeli aggression.

Qalandia checkpoint is the subject of much reported abuse, though none of this would be known if it wasn’t for the Palestinian press. But their reporting has come with a price: It has created huge controversy and caused them to suffer incredible abuse. Today’s demonstration was no exception.
In Nasser’s words: “This was a crime against Palestinian journalists… It was crime against the international press.”

Residential buildings in Qalandia facing demolition

6th July 2017 | International Solidarity Movement, Ramallah Team | Qalandia, occupied Palestine

map_demolitions qalandia — *Israeli authorities have decided to demolish four buildings in Qalandia in order to expand the apartheid wall and build a “security road”*

Four buildings are at risk of being demolished by Israeli authorities close to Qalandia checkpoint, occupied West Bank. One of these buildings is still under construction, and the other three are undergoing major renovations, yet most of the apartments have already been sold or rented.

*All four buildings face the apartheid wall*

The decision to demolish the houses is justified by Israeli authorities with the need to both expand the apartheid wall, part of the Qalandia checkpoint, and to build a “security road” alongside the wall. The apartheid wall already separates Palestinians living in Qalandia from several dunums of their land, which were confiscated and turned into a military airbase, no longer in use, or for other military purposes. According to the Israeli plan, 18 meters (9 meters for the expansion of the wall and 9 meters for the construction of the road) of Palestinian private land are to be confiscated.

*Qalandia checkpoint, along with a deactivated military airbase, are only a few meters away from the residential buildings*

Around 80 households will be affected if the demolition is implemented and a few Palestinians families have already moved in. The owners have received the demolition orders on 14^th May and the construction hasn’t stopped. Along with the four residential buildings, a children’s playground, situated next to one of the gates Israeli forces often uses to make incursions into Qalandia, is also going to be destroyed.

*The demolition orders were issued to the owners on 14th May, and a petition to suspend it has been filed to Israeli courts*

The residents and future residents of the four buildings have filed a petition to prevent the demolition and even if a first ruling from an Israeli Court ordered its suspension there is still the fear that the demolition and further expansion of the apartheid wall will indeed take place, vaguely justified by “security reasons.”

*A children’s playground is also at risk of being demolished*

This is not the first time that Qalandia (located in both areas B and C, according to the 1995 Oslo II Accord) has been subjected to house demolitions. In July 1996, 15 structures were destroyed in the village, which remains under the municipal boundaries of Jerusalem but separated from the rest of the city by the apartheid wall.

ISM activist shot in the head with rubber-coated steel bullet

2nd November 2014 | International Solidarity Movement | Ramallah, Occupied Palestine

Today during a protest at Qalandia checkpoint, an Italian ISM volunteer was shot in the head with a rubber-coated steel bullet.

The injury is just two centimetres above her left eye.

Giulia, the ISMer, stated, “I was just standing on the side of a street, and the military was firing tear gas at the protesters. I was photographing the army when I felt the bullets strike me, one in the head, and another in my leg, and then all I could see was blood.”

At least one other Palestinian teen was hospitalized after being shot with a rubber-coated steel bullet.

Giulia was immediately transferred to Ramallah Hospital for medical treatment, requiring stitches for her injury.

Approximately 100 people attended the demonstration, where Israeli forces fired stun grenades, tear gas canisters, and rubber-coated steel bullets.

The protest was called today to commemorate the 97^th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration.