Israel/Palestine – The Wall
August 2003 – 35’00”
4.38 - START
(Kibbutz / people / cows)
Kibbutz Metser in the North of Israel has 950 acres of land and 300 heads of cattle. The 500 occupants make their living from milk production and producing pipes and cables for irrigation.
Established in 1953 - when the state of Israel was just five years old kibbutz Metser is located right next to…
(Graphics)
4.55…the green line - the 1949 armistice line. It is - if you like - the international border between Israel and the now fully reoccupied Palestinian West Bank.
(Qaffin)
5.10 Across on the other side of the green line, on a mountaintop is the Palestinian village of Qaffin with 9000 inhabitants. For hundreds of years….
(Olives and trees)
their basic livelihood has been farming - mainly olive oil production. Their village land reaches the green line at the edge of Kibbutz Metser.
(Border stones)
Until recently you had to look closely in order to see whether you were in Israel or on Palestinian territory. Only a couple of border stones and a rickety fence indicated a place where two worlds meet. Israelis and Palestinians moved freely over the border, they worked together and had business with each other. An example of the peaceful coexistence the Middle East is so often lacking.
5.55 - SYNC: DOV AVITAL, leader, Kibbutz Metser--------------------TOPT
(“We have correct relations. Correct neighbourhood relations. In the Middle East if you don’t want to kill your neighbours its supposed to be a very good relationship”)
(Mayor from Qaffin)
6.05The Mayor of Qaffin confirms the good relationship:
6.08 - (Taisir Harashi, Mayor, Qaffin………)
(“Though the Kibbutz is built on the land of Qaffin but still the people of Qaffin live peacefully with the people of the Kibbutz for the last probably 50 years and many people from Qaffin used to have good relations with the people in the Kibbutz and they used to work with them”)
(Pan over house)
6.26But the relationship changed dramatically one evening in November last year.
(Living camera)
6.30 A Palestinian - armed with an automated Kalashnikov rifle - crossed the green line and forced his way into the Kibbutz. He randomly shot two people before he blew the door open to a house where a divorced mother was living with her two children aged four and five. Her ex husband explains what happened:
6.50 (Avi Ochaion speaks) technician, Tel Aviv
(“I was at work I received a phone call from my ex-wife at the time. It was about 11.51 at night. When I answered all I heard was my children screaming and then a loud noise and then the call was hung up. I immediately knew something bad had happened. I went to a friend I knew who was near by and I asked him to take me to Metzer. We arrived at approximately Midnight, when already on the way we heard on the radio that there was a terrorist attack in the Kibbutz. The terrorist after killing two people, one of them the Kibbutz secretary here on the road in the Kibbutz burst into the house. He slammed the door, rushed into my children’s bedroom where their mother was already dead. She helped them, tried to protect them and that is actually the way they found all three of them. While she was hugging them he in cold blood shot three bullets, one in each of them and killed all my family.”)
(pic Kibbutz)
8.17 The terrorist killed five before he, assisted by, escaped over the green line. He’s still at large. Most people thought the killings pointless, but the Kibbutz leader thought otherwise.
8.31 Sync: DOV AVITAL, leader, Kibbutz Metser--------------------TOPT
(“It was intended mainly against the moderate Palestinian leadership and their Israeli friends. So us and the Israeli Left Camp. I think that’s the reason. They choose one of the symbols of potential coexistence, potential friendship to say there is no such thing. We are going to kill each other forever or until one of us prevails. ”)
(Fence divides)
8.52 Today that previous coexistence is destroyed. Qaffin is isolated behind a new, heavily guarded security zone with a tall electric fence, which brings back memories of the iron curtain that once split Germany. Any attempt to pass the frontier would almost certainly be deadly.
(Sign: Mortal danger)
9.15 Death is lurking here too - for any Palestinians attempting to force the fence. Whether it’s terrorists or just the farmers from Qaffin wanting to look after their land and olive fields. As the fence encroaches far into Palestinian territory most of their land is now on the Israeli side of the fence.
9. 33 Sync: Taisir Harashi, mayor, Qaffin-----------TOPT
(“Its our land of course, now they promise that they are going to make a gate but there is no evidence of having a gate.’’)
9. 40 REPORTER: (‘‘But the gate may still come?’’)
9.42 Tasir Harashi, mayor, Qaffin------------
(‘‘Well, I’m not sure. I’m not optimistic.”)
9.45 REPORTER:(‘‘What was the consequence of the village loosing the land?’’)
9.50 Tasir Harashi, mayor, Qaffin------------
(‘‘Well that’s was the last source of income that we ever had. At first a large percentage of the people used to depend on working inside Israel because we are a border area and whoever did not work there works in the trees. Now for two years nobody has worked inside Israel. When the wall was built a large percentage of those in the village who were working in the trees as a source of second income and some as their first source of income have lost that also.’’)
(Jeep - fence / wall)
10.23 That Qaffin has been hit has nothing to do with the terror attack on Kibbutz Metser. The attacker came from another part of the country and the killings happened long after the Sharon government had decided to put up fences and walls in order to separate Israelis and Palestinians and the work was already well under way. The decision was taken last year when the uprising against Israeli occupation, oppression and colonisation was raging with armed resistance and suicide bombings in Israel as well as in the occupied territories. Officially the project was started in order to put an end to the terror, which has killed more than 800 Israelis, while even more Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli forces.
Project leader for the Defence Ministry:
11.13 Sync: Nezah Mashiah, head of the SEAM-project-------TOPT
(“They think, because when it was open there was terror, it was Israeli’s in Palestinians cites, it was not a normal situation.
My son is not going by bus, my wife is taking them from place to place. She doesn’t want them to go where I don’t think its normal. Maybe its like the old British saying ‘Between two good neighbours there is a high fence.’ Or maybe a high fence will make the two good neighbours. This is not a border, this is only a security obstacle because a minority make all the problems and this minority will now find it difficult to cross. They will be monitored and maybe there will be less tendency of war activities”)
(Graphics)
11.59 This was last summer’s plan. First phase: 150 km. of alternating fence and wall from Salem in the north to Kfar Qassam in the south, more or less along the green line, but also mainly on Palestinian land. Second phase: Another 200 km. Price: 1.3 million dollars pr. Km.
(Wall and fence)
12.19 The first phase of the construction finished a few weeks ago. Palestinians and Israelis are now completely separated by a concrete wall rising 8 meters from the ground – patrolled by guards and shooting towers with a security zone at least 40 meters wide and an electric fence three meters high. Roads on either side of the fence are only used by patrolling Israeli military vehicles.
(Construction)
12.46 The fence is one of the biggest and most expensive ever built in Israel. The first phase was completed in record time. The supervisor is proud:
12. 57Sync: Nezah Mashiah, not in picture….
(“Yes, you might say this is a huge engineering challenge.
13.03 Sync: Nezah Mashiah, head of the SEAM-project----------TOPT
(“And we have shown in eleven months since the decision of government, since approval of the pass in August last year we have succeeded including design, including solving all sorts of social problems to do it, to build about 145 kilometres mainly out of soil. As you can see about 50 metres wide in eleven months including design and social problems, I think it’s a kind of a record. So this is why I’m proud. I’m not proud that we needed to do such a thing and because of these terrorist attacks we did not succeed to fulfil what was a dream of …”)
(Bulldozer at Zeyta)
13.54 Now the second and following phases are under way. Everything gives way for the bulldozers’ - cactus, trees, old olive groves and fertile soil that has provided food for Palestinian farmers for generations.
The supervisor asserts that everything is legal:
14.14 Sync: Nezah Mashiah, head of the SEAM-project------------TOPT
(“We didn’t go over any walls in Israel. We captured the land according to the law. Anybody from Palestine who wants can go to the Supreme Court or appeal to us, everything was done according to the law. We are compensating people we offer compensation.”)
(Inside the wall)
14.35 On the inside of the wall, the town of Qalqilja stands isolated. Landowners of the area have just been informed that their land will be seized and used as a security zone.
Sync: Jassir, gardener, Qalqilja (Int: farmer on his land: Jassir at Qalqilya)
14.49Translation
1.
He says he lives from the yield of his land..
Translation continues in English.....
Once it has been taken by the Israeli’s it means that he has nothing, he has no other work
2.
And he has no other work?
Not at all.
(In the field)
15.08 Jassir confirms that he has been offered compensation, but the reality is
much more complicated than the one the Israeli military is outlining. Jassir and the many who find themselves in the same situation are only offered compensation for money made from working the land. Officially the land is only temporarily confiscated. And to apply for compensation is seen as an acceptance of the Israeli policy. This is why most people refuse to apply.
Sync: Jassir, gardener, Qalqilja
1/
We will not accept compensation.
2/
What are we being compensated for? The Yields or the soil?
3/
Then you have sold your land, and accepted that they take it.
4/Did you appeal?,
No, they do what they want anyway!
5/
Am I supposed to stand here and cry?
(Checkpoint)
16.01 There can be practical reasons as well. In order to put down the Palestinian terror and the uprising against the occupation, the Sharon government has reoccupied the Palestinian territories and, over the last year, reduced the Palestinians’ freedom of movement to a minimum with control posts, sieges and frequent curfews.
Sync: Jamal Hassouneh, mayor, Zeyta--------TOPT
(“They told us you can complain against these rules, these Israelis rules. They gave the farmers one week to complain and bring their papers. But I’m sorry to say that that Israelis closed Qalqilja for 11 days at that time and no one could bring any papers”)
(Bulldozer again)
16.43 Considerably more land is being confiscated now than that which was outlined in the original plan. The line drawing has been changed several times, most
radically in March when the eyes of the world were set on Iraq.
(Graphics)
16.57 This is the plan as it was, when it was presented last summer. The red line, the first phase of the wall - and fence construction and the green line -
the 1949 armistice line.
(Graphics with extended blue line)
17.19 According to official statements and the Israeli paper Yediot Ahronot the blue line is the equivalent of the Sharon-government’s long-term plan – except not all building-lines and borders in the revised plan have been approved. However, if Sharon insists – as he says he will – it will mean that big chunks of the occupied territories will be on the ISRAELI side of the wall…
(Footage)
17.49 According to the Israeli Human Rights organisation Bt’selem the policy will add an additional 10% to Israel’s annexation of the West Bank – later on it will be around 50%. The plan is completely in accordance with the one that Sharon has been aiming for since the 1970’s. The plan will make it virtually impossible for a Palestinian state to survive on it’s own.
(Muqata)
In reality the Palestinian leader Jassir Arafat has been under house arrest for more than 18 months, in what is left of his headquarters in the surrounded city of Ramallah. Therefore he is unable to follow developments in the Palestinian areas closely. But when we met him it became clear what he believes the modified fence, and wall plan, will mean.
18.30 Sync: Jassir Arafat, Palestinian president, PA
(‘‘This is the map of the West Bank and this is the wall they are building and. They will continue building a wall all around our cities and towns. Look! Which means that 58% of the West Bank will be under their control. It will be confiscated and the rest, look, here is one…..of Ibrahim , Bethlehem, second…. third-----of Ramallah fourth------of Nabluos, and Jenin and one gate in Qaortirin, Qalqilja and one gate in Jericho, what is the meaning of this? who can accept this?”)
(Checkpoints)
19.41One of the many Israeli checkpoints in the Palestinian areas… Palestinians are checked and double-checked… the Jewish settlers are free to move everywhere - including either side of the fence, which the Palestinians refer to as the “Apartheid fence”. Terrorism and the Israeli right wing dream of an Israel including the West Bank have cost the Palestinians dearly – in lives, money and freedom. Today the Palestinians can only pass the fence and wall if they have special authorisation and those are not easy to come by.
(Al Kana checkpoint)
20.16 Not even between the Palestinian villages and local communities on the West Bank can they move freely and without control. Many roads they can’t use… the so-called settlers roads - constantly grow in numbers…
(Gilo Tunnel)
20.30…They are reserved for the Israelis for security reasons.
(Qalqilja)
20.35 With its 42.000 residents Qalqilja is one of the large Palestinian towns on the West Bank and is hard hit by the current situation. It’s not only separated from Israel by one wall – the town is now completely surrounded….
(Checkpoints)
20.49 …and the only access to the outside world is through a single crossing through the wall.
(Locked up shops)
20.55 The consequences are catastrophic. Previously Qalqilja had a flourishing commercial life – tens of thousands of customers – not only from the surrounding Palestinian areas, but also from Israel. Now many shops have closed and the road – the main artery- is closed. The mayor is furious:
21.15 Sync: Maaruf Zahran, Mayor, Qalqilja
(‘‘It is like putting the town inside a prison, inside a gate we feel like a noose is around our neck. It confiscates about 45% of our agricultural land it has eliminated 19 wells about 70% of our water. It has prevented 6000 people going to their daily work outside the town. The whole civil society activities of the town, the economy of the town has been paralysed. We feel as if are in a prison now. It has affected all sectors of life.’’)
22.00 REPORTER: (‘‘The people how can they sustain a life?’’)
22.02 Maaruf Zahran, Mayor, Qalqilja (‘‘This is what we told the United Nations 5500 families rely on baskets from the united nations 1400 from the Red Cross, 500 from Charitable organisations in the Gulf area and Saudi Arabia which means 7500 families 80% of the population are living on 40 dollars monthly for food, for catering but life is more than just food, rice, oil and bread. This affects the life of people, it affects the spirits of people. The extremists have benefited from this and are stronger because the situation is hopeless, there is despair and there is no vigil for the people ”)
23.00 (Peasant eating)
Hundreds of thousands of people have been hit hard – all of the three million Palestinians in the occupied territories have been affected by the Israeli precautions. 75-year old Ibrahim, his daughter and cousin feel it more than most.
(Cucumbers)
23.09 Ibrahim and his daughter are obstinately trying to maintain their greenhouse nursery…
(Goats and sheep)
23.14 … and cousin, Jussef, his sheep and goats. But it’s difficult. Their rightful homes are in the village of Zeyta close by. But the fence, which runs on the border of Zeyta, is separating their land from their homes.
(Gate and women)
23.30 There is a gate here – meant for those with land on the wrong side of the fence. But many Palestinians say, that most places lack gates and if there are any, they are not working properly. They are always closed or only opened by the soldiers for a limited amount of time at irregular hours.
23.47 Sync: Old Arab woman:
I got through the fence this morning,
And now I have waited for three hours -
But they won’t open it again,
And I can’t get home.
(Shack and sheep)
23.55 Because of all the hassle Jussef and Ibrahim have decided to settle in the no-mans land between the village and the border to Israel, which is close by. But then they have to live separated from their families, who are in the village, and that causes further problems.
24.03 Sync: Yussef Abdul Izz, farmer, Zeyta
1/
I am alone up here. I have two children,
13 and 8 who can help me.
2/
But if it continues like this,
And they don’t even open the gate at 6 am -
3/
how can I even send my kids to school?
4/
If they don’t open the gate,
They will be too late for school.
5/
I can’t manage alone so I will
Have to take them out of school anyway
6/
Either I take them out of school,
And keep my sheep here -
7/
or I let the kids continue in school,
but then the sheep can’t feed off the field.
(Checkpoint Zeyta)
24.48 On top of the constant control – and the psychological pressure. Nobody gets through on the road to Zeyta unhindered – and now that Jussefs land is a declared military zone he’s frequently getting unannounced visits from Israeli soldiers.
25.01 Sync: Yussef Abdul Izz, farmer, Zeyta
1/
The soldiers came around 8.30
And asked -
2/
how long I had been here, and
whether I had noticed who had passed over.
3/
I said no. They said I lied, and
that I had to have seen something.
4/
Then they threatened to throw me in
Prison.
(More checkpoints)
Prime minister Sharon’s official spokesman admits that the fence will great inconvenience.
25.33 Sync: Ra’anan Gissin, spokesman for Ariel Sharon
(“Given the fact that the fences is going to create hardship for people. There is no doubt it creates hardship both to the Palestinians and Israeli farmers. we will errect gates and passages so that the farmers can move back and forth with due necessary inspections of course. The real final solution for this problem is when there will be no fence when terrorism no longer relevant for the daily life of the Palestinian people .”)
(Apartheid demonstration)
On a mountain top on the West Bank – Palestinian and foreign activists are protesting. But wall and fence are expanding by the day and it is now costing the strained Israeli economy double the estimated amount – 2.3 million dollars per kilometre. Few Palestinians believe that this is only a security fence – and that it will be moved or removed if the miracle of ‘peace’ should happen.
26.22 Sync: Maaruf Zahran
(“It has nothing to do with security. It is only to serve the strategy of the military leadership of Israel and for the benefit of nearby settlement areas. We have 23 settlements around the area here.
26.38 Sync: Maaruf Zahran, in picture
(‘‘To extend these settlements to, enlarge them was announced 2 weeks ago by Mr. Sharon in the Israeli newspapers, plans to enlarge 600 homes. So this is the main reason, it has nothing to do with security. We are ready to participate and to work together with the Israeli’s and care for the security of the Israeli people but there is Another security problem, security should be for both sides.”)
Statement: Ole Sippel, Middle East Correspondent, Qalqilja
On this hill top here on the left, is one of the largest Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories – and here on the other side are two Palestinian villages. The wall will go behind the mountaintop – including the Palestinian side – and the villages will then be inside the Israeli fence. According to the Palestinians here, walls will be built around the two villages – just to make sure the Palestinians don’t bother the settlers – even though the reverse is more often the case.
(Mountaintops)
During the last year more and more mountaintops have been embellished with mobile sheds – the settlers’ practical and symbolic way of marking the annexation of new land. In accordance with Ariel Sharon’s request two years ago – but against the international community’s demands.
27.45 (Al Kana Settlement)
In the meantime the existing Jewish settlements are growing. 40.000 – 50.000 Jewish families are living in the Palestinian territories and the growth in the number of settlers is well above the average Israeli increase in population.
Sync: Thomas Leibowitz
1/
This is the land God promised the Jews.
We have lived here for centuries.
2/
The fact that the Jews were spread
during the Diaspora, was a disaster for us.
3/
But now we have returned to our
Homeland and we are not going to leave again.
28.50 Thomas Leibowitz is originally from Sweden. He came to the AlKana settlement eight years ago. Like most settlers he is against the roadmap to peace – just as they opposed the Oslo peace process. The reason being that both involved the creation of a Palestinian state.
29.10 Sync: Thomas Leibowitz, school psychologist, Alkana
1/
We have nothing against them.
We didn’t start the intifada.
2/
Before someone, high up in the Palestinian
Leadership decided, -
3/
to start throwing stones, to shoot and the kill
lots of Jews, -
4/
we had good relations with all the
Arab villages around here.
5/
And I have never noticed,
That they had anything against the fact
6/
that we arrived here and helped in
developing the land and area.
(Jerusalem)
However a majority of Israelis support the separation fence. According to the opinion polls they want peace with the Palestinians – but they don’t believe it will happen and consequently they see the fence as the best protection against terror. The shrinking so- called peace camp is opposed to the fence, and proposes a different solution.
Sync: Reuven, business consultant, Tel Aviv
(“All those things are ridiculous if you think of the fact that you cannot control 3.5 million people and oppress them and try to negate their basic rights. No fences will help, nothing will help only good will and peace and a return to the 67 borders”)
Piece to camera: Steffen Gram
30.30 It’s been two months since the two sides met Bush in Sharm El Sheik.
They agreed – among other things – on the release of Palestinian prisoners, a freeze on Israeli settlements and a crack down on Palestinian terror organisations.
On top of that the Palestinians introduced a three-month cease-fire.
The two parties have been negotiating with Bush in the US.
The results have first and foremost shown a dramatic drop in terror attacks.
But the Palestinians are frustrated – they say that the Israelis are too slow when it comes to the release of the prisoners – that they still maintain the roadblocks in the occupied territories – and that construction of the fence is continuing.
And now the fear is spreading – on both sides of the conflict – that the fence and the mutual mistrust between the two parties – the lack of fast and perceptible changes will jeopardise the entire international negotiating process.
(Arafat and Abbas at Muqatta 29 april 2003)
31.18 Change of guard in the Palestinian camp. As a result of international pressure Mahmud Abbas – Arafat’s long standing number two - was appointed first ever Palestinian Prime Minister in April. Bush and Sharon no longer want anything to do with Arafat – the democratically elected Palestinian president is regarded as irrelevant. Instead they hope that Mahmud Abbas is a man they can talk to and negotiate with – and get the road map to peace back on track.
(Abbas and Bush)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
31.48 Abbas soon achieved what Arafat never got – a presidential reception at the White House and the president was full of praise.
31.59 Sync: George W. Bush, president, USA
(“I’m gaining confidence in the Palestinian Prime minister and his great cabinet’’)
It was important for Abbas that the generally very pro-Israeli President launch a strong volley at a corner stone in Sharon’s politics: The separation fence which Bush referred to as ‘the wall’ – the Palestinian phrase.
32.20 Sync: George W. Bush, president, USA
(“I think the wall is a problem and I have discussed this with Ariel Sharon. It is very difficult to develop confidence between the Palestinians and Israel. Israel with a wall snaking through the West Bank”)
(Bush and Sharon)
But a few days later, when President Bush received Ariel Sharon in the White House for the ninth time – the tone changed. Now the wall was a fence and no longer a problem – just a sensitive subject.
32.46 Sync: George W. Bush, president, USA
(“What I would like In the long term the fence would be irrelevant the fence is a very sensitive issues, I understand and the Prime minister has made it very clear to me.”)
(At the White House)
If Bush had hoped he could persuade Sharon to bring the construction of the fence to an end he was disappointed. Sharon was clear on this:
33.05 Sync: Ariel Sharon, Prime Minister, Israel
(“The Security fence will continue to be built with every effort to minimise the infringement on the daily lives of the Palestinian population.”)
(Fence and Abbas)
33.16 The statement was a blow for Mahmud Abbas who is demanding a stop to the wall-construction on Palestinian soil – out of concern for the roadmap to peace. We asked him what he makes of the Bush position now:
(out of picture)
33.55 question in English
Sync: Mahmud Abbas
1/
I am convinced that his attitude
to the wall in unchanged.
2/
To us the wall is extremely dangerous.
3/
It is not only as dangerous as the settlements.
It is even more dangerous.
4/
That is why we challenge the whole world
to demand, that the Israeli government -
5/
- not only stop the construction of the wall,
but that they tear it down.
Q in English about the Roadmap.
Mahmoud Abbas in picture:
6/
That is true. If the Prime minister
Continues the construction of this wall -
7/
then he destroys the whole Roadmap and
every chance for -
8/
a continuation of the efforts of carrying
out the plan.
34.28 Sync: Ra’anan Gissin
‘‘This does not in anyway pre-empt or prejudge the final boundaries between the future Palestinian state/entity and Israel. This does provide for the time being the necessary measure to stop terrorist activity in light of the fact that The Palestinian authority is not doing what it is required to do at this stage yet of dismantling the terrorist infrastructure. We cant rely on the so called tenuous susna sort of a cease-fire forever because underneath simmering, and building up is the infrastructure of a renewed Islamic Jihad and Hamas capability to launch terror attacks against Israel.’’)
35.10 (Checkpoint archive)
Both parties say they want peace and that they accept the roadmap as it was introduced by the international community, led by the Americans, last year, though with a few reservations from Israelis. But after more than a year the conclusion is that the roadmap has hardly even got under way yet – with either side accusing the other of not fulfilling their commitments.
For now the bloodshed is at a three-year low. In agreement with Mahmud Abbas the Palestinian militant organisations have declared a three-month cease-fire.
35.45 Sync: Ariel Sharon
(“We are concerned that this welcomed quiet will be shattered any minute as a result of the continued existence of terror organisations with the Palestinian authority doing nothing to eliminate or dismantle it”)
(Interview with Yassir Arafat)
36.08 REPORTER:
(‘‘The Palestinian authority has to crack down upon the roots of terror.’’)
36. 12 Sync: Yassir Arafat, President, PA
(‘‘On what?’’)
36.14 REPORTER:(‘‘The roots of terror, to uproot’’)
36.18 Sync: Yassir Arafat, President, PA
(“Yes, I am using it because you are using depleted uranium, Yes? Because you are using the F15 and the F16 against the cities, because you are using our tanks against their people,”)
36.33 REPORTER Q:
(‘‘Sharon also said when he was together with Bush that Yes, the situation has become calmer but the Palestinians are doing nothing to uproot the terrorists organisations.’’)
36.45 Sync: Mahmud Abbas,
1/
We have made our position clear.
We have said that we will do our part -
2/
to stop the violence,
but in our own way.
3/
We will not be engaged
In a civil war -
4/
between us and the rest of
the Palestinian people.
5/ (Not in picture)
The important thing must be the results,
CREDITS
Producer = Steffen Gram
Reporter & Camera = Ole Sippel
For DR Danish TV
August 2003 – 35’00”
4.38 - START
(Kibbutz / people / cows)
Kibbutz Metser in the North of Israel has 950 acres of land and 300 heads of cattle. The 500 occupants make their living from milk production and producing pipes and cables for irrigation.
Established in 1953 - when the state of Israel was just five years old kibbutz Metser is located right next to…
(Graphics)
4.55…the green line - the 1949 armistice line. It is - if you like - the international border between Israel and the now fully reoccupied Palestinian West Bank.
(Qaffin)
5.10 Across on the other side of the green line, on a mountaintop is the Palestinian village of Qaffin with 9000 inhabitants. For hundreds of years….
(Olives and trees)
their basic livelihood has been farming - mainly olive oil production. Their village land reaches the green line at the edge of Kibbutz Metser.
(Border stones)
Until recently you had to look closely in order to see whether you were in Israel or on Palestinian territory. Only a couple of border stones and a rickety fence indicated a place where two worlds meet. Israelis and Palestinians moved freely over the border, they worked together and had business with each other. An example of the peaceful coexistence the Middle East is so often lacking.
5.55 - SYNC: DOV AVITAL, leader, Kibbutz Metser--------------------TOPT
(“We have correct relations. Correct neighbourhood relations. In the Middle East if you don’t want to kill your neighbours its supposed to be a very good relationship”)
(Mayor from Qaffin)
6.05The Mayor of Qaffin confirms the good relationship:
6.08 - (Taisir Harashi, Mayor, Qaffin………)
(“Though the Kibbutz is built on the land of Qaffin but still the people of Qaffin live peacefully with the people of the Kibbutz for the last probably 50 years and many people from Qaffin used to have good relations with the people in the Kibbutz and they used to work with them”)
(Pan over house)
6.26But the relationship changed dramatically one evening in November last year.
(Living camera)
6.30 A Palestinian - armed with an automated Kalashnikov rifle - crossed the green line and forced his way into the Kibbutz. He randomly shot two people before he blew the door open to a house where a divorced mother was living with her two children aged four and five. Her ex husband explains what happened:
6.50 (Avi Ochaion speaks) technician, Tel Aviv
(“I was at work I received a phone call from my ex-wife at the time. It was about 11.51 at night. When I answered all I heard was my children screaming and then a loud noise and then the call was hung up. I immediately knew something bad had happened. I went to a friend I knew who was near by and I asked him to take me to Metzer. We arrived at approximately Midnight, when already on the way we heard on the radio that there was a terrorist attack in the Kibbutz. The terrorist after killing two people, one of them the Kibbutz secretary here on the road in the Kibbutz burst into the house. He slammed the door, rushed into my children’s bedroom where their mother was already dead. She helped them, tried to protect them and that is actually the way they found all three of them. While she was hugging them he in cold blood shot three bullets, one in each of them and killed all my family.”)
(pic Kibbutz)
8.17 The terrorist killed five before he, assisted by, escaped over the green line. He’s still at large. Most people thought the killings pointless, but the Kibbutz leader thought otherwise.
8.31 Sync: DOV AVITAL, leader, Kibbutz Metser--------------------TOPT
(“It was intended mainly against the moderate Palestinian leadership and their Israeli friends. So us and the Israeli Left Camp. I think that’s the reason. They choose one of the symbols of potential coexistence, potential friendship to say there is no such thing. We are going to kill each other forever or until one of us prevails. ”)
(Fence divides)
8.52 Today that previous coexistence is destroyed. Qaffin is isolated behind a new, heavily guarded security zone with a tall electric fence, which brings back memories of the iron curtain that once split Germany. Any attempt to pass the frontier would almost certainly be deadly.
(Sign: Mortal danger)
9.15 Death is lurking here too - for any Palestinians attempting to force the fence. Whether it’s terrorists or just the farmers from Qaffin wanting to look after their land and olive fields. As the fence encroaches far into Palestinian territory most of their land is now on the Israeli side of the fence.
9. 33 Sync: Taisir Harashi, mayor, Qaffin-----------TOPT
(“Its our land of course, now they promise that they are going to make a gate but there is no evidence of having a gate.’’)
9. 40 REPORTER: (‘‘But the gate may still come?’’)
9.42 Tasir Harashi, mayor, Qaffin------------
(‘‘Well, I’m not sure. I’m not optimistic.”)
9.45 REPORTER:(‘‘What was the consequence of the village loosing the land?’’)
9.50 Tasir Harashi, mayor, Qaffin------------
(‘‘Well that’s was the last source of income that we ever had. At first a large percentage of the people used to depend on working inside Israel because we are a border area and whoever did not work there works in the trees. Now for two years nobody has worked inside Israel. When the wall was built a large percentage of those in the village who were working in the trees as a source of second income and some as their first source of income have lost that also.’’)
(Jeep - fence / wall)
10.23 That Qaffin has been hit has nothing to do with the terror attack on Kibbutz Metser. The attacker came from another part of the country and the killings happened long after the Sharon government had decided to put up fences and walls in order to separate Israelis and Palestinians and the work was already well under way. The decision was taken last year when the uprising against Israeli occupation, oppression and colonisation was raging with armed resistance and suicide bombings in Israel as well as in the occupied territories. Officially the project was started in order to put an end to the terror, which has killed more than 800 Israelis, while even more Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli forces.
Project leader for the Defence Ministry:
11.13 Sync: Nezah Mashiah, head of the SEAM-project-------TOPT
(“They think, because when it was open there was terror, it was Israeli’s in Palestinians cites, it was not a normal situation.
My son is not going by bus, my wife is taking them from place to place. She doesn’t want them to go where I don’t think its normal. Maybe its like the old British saying ‘Between two good neighbours there is a high fence.’ Or maybe a high fence will make the two good neighbours. This is not a border, this is only a security obstacle because a minority make all the problems and this minority will now find it difficult to cross. They will be monitored and maybe there will be less tendency of war activities”)
(Graphics)
11.59 This was last summer’s plan. First phase: 150 km. of alternating fence and wall from Salem in the north to Kfar Qassam in the south, more or less along the green line, but also mainly on Palestinian land. Second phase: Another 200 km. Price: 1.3 million dollars pr. Km.
(Wall and fence)
12.19 The first phase of the construction finished a few weeks ago. Palestinians and Israelis are now completely separated by a concrete wall rising 8 meters from the ground – patrolled by guards and shooting towers with a security zone at least 40 meters wide and an electric fence three meters high. Roads on either side of the fence are only used by patrolling Israeli military vehicles.
(Construction)
12.46 The fence is one of the biggest and most expensive ever built in Israel. The first phase was completed in record time. The supervisor is proud:
12. 57Sync: Nezah Mashiah, not in picture….
(“Yes, you might say this is a huge engineering challenge.
13.03 Sync: Nezah Mashiah, head of the SEAM-project----------TOPT
(“And we have shown in eleven months since the decision of government, since approval of the pass in August last year we have succeeded including design, including solving all sorts of social problems to do it, to build about 145 kilometres mainly out of soil. As you can see about 50 metres wide in eleven months including design and social problems, I think it’s a kind of a record. So this is why I’m proud. I’m not proud that we needed to do such a thing and because of these terrorist attacks we did not succeed to fulfil what was a dream of …”)
(Bulldozer at Zeyta)
13.54 Now the second and following phases are under way. Everything gives way for the bulldozers’ - cactus, trees, old olive groves and fertile soil that has provided food for Palestinian farmers for generations.
The supervisor asserts that everything is legal:
14.14 Sync: Nezah Mashiah, head of the SEAM-project------------TOPT
(“We didn’t go over any walls in Israel. We captured the land according to the law. Anybody from Palestine who wants can go to the Supreme Court or appeal to us, everything was done according to the law. We are compensating people we offer compensation.”)
(Inside the wall)
14.35 On the inside of the wall, the town of Qalqilja stands isolated. Landowners of the area have just been informed that their land will be seized and used as a security zone.
Sync: Jassir, gardener, Qalqilja (Int: farmer on his land: Jassir at Qalqilya)
14.49Translation
1.
He says he lives from the yield of his land..
Translation continues in English.....
Once it has been taken by the Israeli’s it means that he has nothing, he has no other work
2.
And he has no other work?
Not at all.
(In the field)
15.08 Jassir confirms that he has been offered compensation, but the reality is
much more complicated than the one the Israeli military is outlining. Jassir and the many who find themselves in the same situation are only offered compensation for money made from working the land. Officially the land is only temporarily confiscated. And to apply for compensation is seen as an acceptance of the Israeli policy. This is why most people refuse to apply.
Sync: Jassir, gardener, Qalqilja
1/
We will not accept compensation.
2/
What are we being compensated for? The Yields or the soil?
3/
Then you have sold your land, and accepted that they take it.
4/Did you appeal?,
No, they do what they want anyway!
5/
Am I supposed to stand here and cry?
(Checkpoint)
16.01 There can be practical reasons as well. In order to put down the Palestinian terror and the uprising against the occupation, the Sharon government has reoccupied the Palestinian territories and, over the last year, reduced the Palestinians’ freedom of movement to a minimum with control posts, sieges and frequent curfews.
Sync: Jamal Hassouneh, mayor, Zeyta--------TOPT
(“They told us you can complain against these rules, these Israelis rules. They gave the farmers one week to complain and bring their papers. But I’m sorry to say that that Israelis closed Qalqilja for 11 days at that time and no one could bring any papers”)
(Bulldozer again)
16.43 Considerably more land is being confiscated now than that which was outlined in the original plan. The line drawing has been changed several times, most
radically in March when the eyes of the world were set on Iraq.
(Graphics)
16.57 This is the plan as it was, when it was presented last summer. The red line, the first phase of the wall - and fence construction and the green line -
the 1949 armistice line.
(Graphics with extended blue line)
17.19 According to official statements and the Israeli paper Yediot Ahronot the blue line is the equivalent of the Sharon-government’s long-term plan – except not all building-lines and borders in the revised plan have been approved. However, if Sharon insists – as he says he will – it will mean that big chunks of the occupied territories will be on the ISRAELI side of the wall…
(Footage)
17.49 According to the Israeli Human Rights organisation Bt’selem the policy will add an additional 10% to Israel’s annexation of the West Bank – later on it will be around 50%. The plan is completely in accordance with the one that Sharon has been aiming for since the 1970’s. The plan will make it virtually impossible for a Palestinian state to survive on it’s own.
(Muqata)
In reality the Palestinian leader Jassir Arafat has been under house arrest for more than 18 months, in what is left of his headquarters in the surrounded city of Ramallah. Therefore he is unable to follow developments in the Palestinian areas closely. But when we met him it became clear what he believes the modified fence, and wall plan, will mean.
18.30 Sync: Jassir Arafat, Palestinian president, PA
(‘‘This is the map of the West Bank and this is the wall they are building and. They will continue building a wall all around our cities and towns. Look! Which means that 58% of the West Bank will be under their control. It will be confiscated and the rest, look, here is one…..of Ibrahim , Bethlehem, second…. third-----of Ramallah fourth------of Nabluos, and Jenin and one gate in Qaortirin, Qalqilja and one gate in Jericho, what is the meaning of this? who can accept this?”)
(Checkpoints)
19.41One of the many Israeli checkpoints in the Palestinian areas… Palestinians are checked and double-checked… the Jewish settlers are free to move everywhere - including either side of the fence, which the Palestinians refer to as the “Apartheid fence”. Terrorism and the Israeli right wing dream of an Israel including the West Bank have cost the Palestinians dearly – in lives, money and freedom. Today the Palestinians can only pass the fence and wall if they have special authorisation and those are not easy to come by.
(Al Kana checkpoint)
20.16 Not even between the Palestinian villages and local communities on the West Bank can they move freely and without control. Many roads they can’t use… the so-called settlers roads - constantly grow in numbers…
(Gilo Tunnel)
20.30…They are reserved for the Israelis for security reasons.
(Qalqilja)
20.35 With its 42.000 residents Qalqilja is one of the large Palestinian towns on the West Bank and is hard hit by the current situation. It’s not only separated from Israel by one wall – the town is now completely surrounded….
(Checkpoints)
20.49 …and the only access to the outside world is through a single crossing through the wall.
(Locked up shops)
20.55 The consequences are catastrophic. Previously Qalqilja had a flourishing commercial life – tens of thousands of customers – not only from the surrounding Palestinian areas, but also from Israel. Now many shops have closed and the road – the main artery- is closed. The mayor is furious:
21.15 Sync: Maaruf Zahran, Mayor, Qalqilja
(‘‘It is like putting the town inside a prison, inside a gate we feel like a noose is around our neck. It confiscates about 45% of our agricultural land it has eliminated 19 wells about 70% of our water. It has prevented 6000 people going to their daily work outside the town. The whole civil society activities of the town, the economy of the town has been paralysed. We feel as if are in a prison now. It has affected all sectors of life.’’)
22.00 REPORTER: (‘‘The people how can they sustain a life?’’)
22.02 Maaruf Zahran, Mayor, Qalqilja (‘‘This is what we told the United Nations 5500 families rely on baskets from the united nations 1400 from the Red Cross, 500 from Charitable organisations in the Gulf area and Saudi Arabia which means 7500 families 80% of the population are living on 40 dollars monthly for food, for catering but life is more than just food, rice, oil and bread. This affects the life of people, it affects the spirits of people. The extremists have benefited from this and are stronger because the situation is hopeless, there is despair and there is no vigil for the people ”)
23.00 (Peasant eating)
Hundreds of thousands of people have been hit hard – all of the three million Palestinians in the occupied territories have been affected by the Israeli precautions. 75-year old Ibrahim, his daughter and cousin feel it more than most.
(Cucumbers)
23.09 Ibrahim and his daughter are obstinately trying to maintain their greenhouse nursery…
(Goats and sheep)
23.14 … and cousin, Jussef, his sheep and goats. But it’s difficult. Their rightful homes are in the village of Zeyta close by. But the fence, which runs on the border of Zeyta, is separating their land from their homes.
(Gate and women)
23.30 There is a gate here – meant for those with land on the wrong side of the fence. But many Palestinians say, that most places lack gates and if there are any, they are not working properly. They are always closed or only opened by the soldiers for a limited amount of time at irregular hours.
23.47 Sync: Old Arab woman:
I got through the fence this morning,
And now I have waited for three hours -
But they won’t open it again,
And I can’t get home.
(Shack and sheep)
23.55 Because of all the hassle Jussef and Ibrahim have decided to settle in the no-mans land between the village and the border to Israel, which is close by. But then they have to live separated from their families, who are in the village, and that causes further problems.
24.03 Sync: Yussef Abdul Izz, farmer, Zeyta
1/
I am alone up here. I have two children,
13 and 8 who can help me.
2/
But if it continues like this,
And they don’t even open the gate at 6 am -
3/
how can I even send my kids to school?
4/
If they don’t open the gate,
They will be too late for school.
5/
I can’t manage alone so I will
Have to take them out of school anyway
6/
Either I take them out of school,
And keep my sheep here -
7/
or I let the kids continue in school,
but then the sheep can’t feed off the field.
(Checkpoint Zeyta)
24.48 On top of the constant control – and the psychological pressure. Nobody gets through on the road to Zeyta unhindered – and now that Jussefs land is a declared military zone he’s frequently getting unannounced visits from Israeli soldiers.
25.01 Sync: Yussef Abdul Izz, farmer, Zeyta
1/
The soldiers came around 8.30
And asked -
2/
how long I had been here, and
whether I had noticed who had passed over.
3/
I said no. They said I lied, and
that I had to have seen something.
4/
Then they threatened to throw me in
Prison.
(More checkpoints)
Prime minister Sharon’s official spokesman admits that the fence will great inconvenience.
25.33 Sync: Ra’anan Gissin, spokesman for Ariel Sharon
(“Given the fact that the fences is going to create hardship for people. There is no doubt it creates hardship both to the Palestinians and Israeli farmers. we will errect gates and passages so that the farmers can move back and forth with due necessary inspections of course. The real final solution for this problem is when there will be no fence when terrorism no longer relevant for the daily life of the Palestinian people .”)
(Apartheid demonstration)
On a mountain top on the West Bank – Palestinian and foreign activists are protesting. But wall and fence are expanding by the day and it is now costing the strained Israeli economy double the estimated amount – 2.3 million dollars per kilometre. Few Palestinians believe that this is only a security fence – and that it will be moved or removed if the miracle of ‘peace’ should happen.
26.22 Sync: Maaruf Zahran
(“It has nothing to do with security. It is only to serve the strategy of the military leadership of Israel and for the benefit of nearby settlement areas. We have 23 settlements around the area here.
26.38 Sync: Maaruf Zahran, in picture
(‘‘To extend these settlements to, enlarge them was announced 2 weeks ago by Mr. Sharon in the Israeli newspapers, plans to enlarge 600 homes. So this is the main reason, it has nothing to do with security. We are ready to participate and to work together with the Israeli’s and care for the security of the Israeli people but there is Another security problem, security should be for both sides.”)
Statement: Ole Sippel, Middle East Correspondent, Qalqilja
On this hill top here on the left, is one of the largest Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories – and here on the other side are two Palestinian villages. The wall will go behind the mountaintop – including the Palestinian side – and the villages will then be inside the Israeli fence. According to the Palestinians here, walls will be built around the two villages – just to make sure the Palestinians don’t bother the settlers – even though the reverse is more often the case.
(Mountaintops)
During the last year more and more mountaintops have been embellished with mobile sheds – the settlers’ practical and symbolic way of marking the annexation of new land. In accordance with Ariel Sharon’s request two years ago – but against the international community’s demands.
27.45 (Al Kana Settlement)
In the meantime the existing Jewish settlements are growing. 40.000 – 50.000 Jewish families are living in the Palestinian territories and the growth in the number of settlers is well above the average Israeli increase in population.
Sync: Thomas Leibowitz
1/
This is the land God promised the Jews.
We have lived here for centuries.
2/
The fact that the Jews were spread
during the Diaspora, was a disaster for us.
3/
But now we have returned to our
Homeland and we are not going to leave again.
28.50 Thomas Leibowitz is originally from Sweden. He came to the AlKana settlement eight years ago. Like most settlers he is against the roadmap to peace – just as they opposed the Oslo peace process. The reason being that both involved the creation of a Palestinian state.
29.10 Sync: Thomas Leibowitz, school psychologist, Alkana
1/
We have nothing against them.
We didn’t start the intifada.
2/
Before someone, high up in the Palestinian
Leadership decided, -
3/
to start throwing stones, to shoot and the kill
lots of Jews, -
4/
we had good relations with all the
Arab villages around here.
5/
And I have never noticed,
That they had anything against the fact
6/
that we arrived here and helped in
developing the land and area.
(Jerusalem)
However a majority of Israelis support the separation fence. According to the opinion polls they want peace with the Palestinians – but they don’t believe it will happen and consequently they see the fence as the best protection against terror. The shrinking so- called peace camp is opposed to the fence, and proposes a different solution.
Sync: Reuven, business consultant, Tel Aviv
(“All those things are ridiculous if you think of the fact that you cannot control 3.5 million people and oppress them and try to negate their basic rights. No fences will help, nothing will help only good will and peace and a return to the 67 borders”)
Piece to camera: Steffen Gram
30.30 It’s been two months since the two sides met Bush in Sharm El Sheik.
They agreed – among other things – on the release of Palestinian prisoners, a freeze on Israeli settlements and a crack down on Palestinian terror organisations.
On top of that the Palestinians introduced a three-month cease-fire.
The two parties have been negotiating with Bush in the US.
The results have first and foremost shown a dramatic drop in terror attacks.
But the Palestinians are frustrated – they say that the Israelis are too slow when it comes to the release of the prisoners – that they still maintain the roadblocks in the occupied territories – and that construction of the fence is continuing.
And now the fear is spreading – on both sides of the conflict – that the fence and the mutual mistrust between the two parties – the lack of fast and perceptible changes will jeopardise the entire international negotiating process.
(Arafat and Abbas at Muqatta 29 april 2003)
31.18 Change of guard in the Palestinian camp. As a result of international pressure Mahmud Abbas – Arafat’s long standing number two - was appointed first ever Palestinian Prime Minister in April. Bush and Sharon no longer want anything to do with Arafat – the democratically elected Palestinian president is regarded as irrelevant. Instead they hope that Mahmud Abbas is a man they can talk to and negotiate with – and get the road map to peace back on track.
(Abbas and Bush)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
31.48 Abbas soon achieved what Arafat never got – a presidential reception at the White House and the president was full of praise.
31.59 Sync: George W. Bush, president, USA
(“I’m gaining confidence in the Palestinian Prime minister and his great cabinet’’)
It was important for Abbas that the generally very pro-Israeli President launch a strong volley at a corner stone in Sharon’s politics: The separation fence which Bush referred to as ‘the wall’ – the Palestinian phrase.
32.20 Sync: George W. Bush, president, USA
(“I think the wall is a problem and I have discussed this with Ariel Sharon. It is very difficult to develop confidence between the Palestinians and Israel. Israel with a wall snaking through the West Bank”)
(Bush and Sharon)
But a few days later, when President Bush received Ariel Sharon in the White House for the ninth time – the tone changed. Now the wall was a fence and no longer a problem – just a sensitive subject.
32.46 Sync: George W. Bush, president, USA
(“What I would like In the long term the fence would be irrelevant the fence is a very sensitive issues, I understand and the Prime minister has made it very clear to me.”)
(At the White House)
If Bush had hoped he could persuade Sharon to bring the construction of the fence to an end he was disappointed. Sharon was clear on this:
33.05 Sync: Ariel Sharon, Prime Minister, Israel
(“The Security fence will continue to be built with every effort to minimise the infringement on the daily lives of the Palestinian population.”)
(Fence and Abbas)
33.16 The statement was a blow for Mahmud Abbas who is demanding a stop to the wall-construction on Palestinian soil – out of concern for the roadmap to peace. We asked him what he makes of the Bush position now:
(out of picture)
33.55 question in English
Sync: Mahmud Abbas
1/
I am convinced that his attitude
to the wall in unchanged.
2/
To us the wall is extremely dangerous.
3/
It is not only as dangerous as the settlements.
It is even more dangerous.
4/
That is why we challenge the whole world
to demand, that the Israeli government -
5/
- not only stop the construction of the wall,
but that they tear it down.
Q in English about the Roadmap.
Mahmoud Abbas in picture:
6/
That is true. If the Prime minister
Continues the construction of this wall -
7/
then he destroys the whole Roadmap and
every chance for -
8/
a continuation of the efforts of carrying
out the plan.
34.28 Sync: Ra’anan Gissin
‘‘This does not in anyway pre-empt or prejudge the final boundaries between the future Palestinian state/entity and Israel. This does provide for the time being the necessary measure to stop terrorist activity in light of the fact that The Palestinian authority is not doing what it is required to do at this stage yet of dismantling the terrorist infrastructure. We cant rely on the so called tenuous susna sort of a cease-fire forever because underneath simmering, and building up is the infrastructure of a renewed Islamic Jihad and Hamas capability to launch terror attacks against Israel.’’)
35.10 (Checkpoint archive)
Both parties say they want peace and that they accept the roadmap as it was introduced by the international community, led by the Americans, last year, though with a few reservations from Israelis. But after more than a year the conclusion is that the roadmap has hardly even got under way yet – with either side accusing the other of not fulfilling their commitments.
For now the bloodshed is at a three-year low. In agreement with Mahmud Abbas the Palestinian militant organisations have declared a three-month cease-fire.
35.45 Sync: Ariel Sharon
(“We are concerned that this welcomed quiet will be shattered any minute as a result of the continued existence of terror organisations with the Palestinian authority doing nothing to eliminate or dismantle it”)
(Interview with Yassir Arafat)
36.08 REPORTER:
(‘‘The Palestinian authority has to crack down upon the roots of terror.’’)
36. 12 Sync: Yassir Arafat, President, PA
(‘‘On what?’’)
36.14 REPORTER:(‘‘The roots of terror, to uproot’’)
36.18 Sync: Yassir Arafat, President, PA
(“Yes, I am using it because you are using depleted uranium, Yes? Because you are using the F15 and the F16 against the cities, because you are using our tanks against their people,”)
36.33 REPORTER Q:
(‘‘Sharon also said when he was together with Bush that Yes, the situation has become calmer but the Palestinians are doing nothing to uproot the terrorists organisations.’’)
36.45 Sync: Mahmud Abbas,
1/
We have made our position clear.
We have said that we will do our part -
2/
to stop the violence,
but in our own way.
3/
We will not be engaged
In a civil war -
4/
between us and the rest of
the Palestinian people.
5/ (Not in picture)
The important thing must be the results,
CREDITS
Producer = Steffen Gram
Reporter & Camera = Ole Sippel
For DR Danish TV