Qalandiya - first Friday of Ramadan

Tamar Fleishman; Translator: Tal H.


Human beings are not statistics, not numbers.

Human beings are the sum total of their aspirations, hopes, desires, values and power.

On Ramadan Fridays, at Qalandiya, that which turns an individual into a human being is simply being erased.

On Ramadan Fridays, it’s statistics that count, and ‘lightened’ conditions are made well known.

Ramadan Fridays are operated with nauseatingly right, perfect order.

An order so perfect that no cracks appear, and without any cracks light cannot possibly seep in and human beings have no way out.

In this system of control and oppression cracks are very important in their ability to provide points of escape from desperation.

תורים ארוכים בכניסה למחסום

After human beings, men and women, were inspected at the entry points into the sterileinfo-icon compound, where the un-allowed are not allowed to tread, in the compound ruled by armed men, the humans were then channeled in long lines that neither the eye nor the camerainfo-icon could contain, and proceeded like a winding human snake, as if they were one body with a single personality, uncomplaining, never an attempt at disorder.


נשים עוברות לבדיקה חוזרת במחסום הישן.

The men were led to a repeated, careful inspection in the new installations freshly introduced at the checkpoint, and the women – about whom the authorities had notified the public that ‘women enjoy free passage’ – were led to a repeated, careful inspection at the checkpoint’s old installations.

Such order, never before so perfect, is outstandingly nauseating, as well, because of the unprecedented presence of collaboration by the Palestinian Authority, whose functionaries directed and explained and led the Palestinians as they were instructed by their Israeli masters.