Love and Betrayal in the west Bank
| Publicity: | In Tel Aviv in Israel Mia Anibjar watches her favourite DVD – of her wedding to the man of her dreams. |
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| “I got married with a great deal of love,” she told Middle East correspondent, Matt Brown. “I felt like someone else, no longer a girl anymore. A woman. To think about the future, about children, about a home.” |
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| But Samer Hammad, a young Palestinian from the West Bank city of Jenin just 60 kilometres away was on his first and last mission for Islamic Jihad. |
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| Samer was a suicide bomber. He killed himself and twelve others including Mia’s husband, Lior. |
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| In Jenin among the Jihadis, the so-called holy warriors, there was jubilation - until the Israelis retaliated. |
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| Matt Brown spent many long days in the dangerous streets of Jenin and other parts of the Israeli occupied territory investigating the background to the Tel Aviv bombing. |
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| He reveals a gripping story of mass murder, intrigue, betrayal and revenge. |
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| Unlike the two biggest Palestinian factions, Hamas and Fatah which have renounced suicide bombings, the young volunteers of Islamic Jihad continue to embrace the terror tactic as a way of waging war against Israel. |
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| Brown set off to find the man who ordered the killings – a man being sought by Israeli intelligence and the military; a man deep in the heart of the West Bank who remains in hiding, plotting the next attack. |
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| Restrictions: For security reasons this story is not to be sold to Al Jazeera Arabic or Al Jazeera International or any other Arab-based satellite or cable company. It shouldn't be sold to Israeli TV, Jordanian TV, Egyptian TV etc. or any broadcaster in the region. |
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| Driving in Jenin. Night. | Music | 00:00 |
| Martyr posters | BROWN: When night falls in Jenin, the dead come to life. One after another, Martyrs of the war with Israel light up across the city. | 00:17 |
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| This is the home of Islamic Jihad -- the hardest of the hardcore. | 00:32 |
| Gunmen patrolling | Music | 00:38 |
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| BROWN: Their gunmen are fanning out through the streets. They see themselves as God’s resistance army -- their weapon of choice is the suicide bomber. In the past two years Islamic Jihad has been responsible for every suicide bombing in Israel. | 00:41 |
| Jenin. Night | But the people of Jenin have suffered too. Islamic Jihad’s pursuit if mass murder has brought betrayal and bloodshed to these streets. | 01:03 |
| Walid cleaning weapon |
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| Deep in the heart of Jenin a man is in hiding. He’s the last surviving member of an Islamic Jihad cell that is being hunted down by Israeli Intelligence. | 01:19 |
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| Walid: I don’t care about them [Israelis] but we are taking care and always on the alert. Whatever happens, we leave it to God to protect us. | 01:34 |
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| BROWN: Walid Ubeid is a quiet, carefully spoken man with blood on his hands – he commissions suicide bombings. | 01:47 |
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| Walid: We know our destiny, because this is the way we have chosen. We will be martyrs or we will be in prison. We don't have any other choice. | 01:55 |
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| BROWN: The gun being cleaned so diligently is for good reason -- assassination is a daily fear. | 02:08 |
| Gunmen patrolling | Israeli intelligence are the ones on the front foot in this war – day or night, with aerial surveillance they can pin-point a target and have it eliminated. | 02:19 |
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| The residents of Jenin are Islamic Jihad’s best defence. Safe houses are provided, a network is constantly on the lookout for Israeli incursions. | 02:34 |
| Walid addresses rally | Tonight Walid Ubeid is calling on the local community to remember his brothers who have fallen fighting the Israeli occupation. | 02:53 |
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| Walid at rally: Our best regards to our martyrs, and our best regards to our injured, and our best regards to our prisoners and detainees. | 03:03 |
| Man firing shots |
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| BROWN: The show of unity belies the reality. Israeli agents have been at work within this community. | 03:23 |
| Hassem carries straw to sheep | Hassem Mallah lives a meagre existence on the outskirts of Jenin, scratching out a living with the support of his five sons. One son in particular – | 03:40 |
| Photos. Bassam | Bassam --was the poorest amongst the poor – that made him vulnerable, and helped turn him into a traitor. | 03:52 |
| Islamic Jihad Video of Bassam. Slow motion | Music | 04:01 |
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| Bassam: My name is Bassam Radi Mallah from Fako’a village and I am 26 years old. I have been connected with the Mukhabarat [Israeli Intelligence] for 5 months | 04:08 |
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| BROWN: Bassam Mallah was an Islamic Jihad gun runner – until Israeli intelligence caught up with him. | 04:19 |
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| Bassam: They took me to the Israeli Intelligence and they asked me where I got the weapons from. Then they asked me to work for them. | 04:29 |
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| BROWN: When the Israelis caught Bassam Mallah he could have been jailed or banned from working in Israel. The threats were clear, but the Israelis offered an alternative. | 04:39 |
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| Bassam: They gave me 1,000 shekels, sometimes 1,500. Then they would take me to their offices and show me pictures of wanted people and ask me about them. | 04:51 |
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| Music | 05:03 |
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| BROWN: His father refuses to believe his son could ever become a collaborator | 05:06 |
| Hassem. Super: Hassem Mallah Collaborator’s father | Hassem: That he was working with Israel, or working with the other side doing operations in Israel, I will never be convinced of that, even if I saw it with my own eyes. | 05:12 |
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| BROWN: But collaborate he did. Eight months ago Bassam Mallah became a spy inside Islamic jihad for the Israelis, just as Islamic Jihad was doing its own recruiting for a suicide bomber. | 05:34 |
| Photo. Samer | Music/Singing | 05:50 |
| Paradise restaurant |
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| BROWN: The Paradise restaurant in Jenin is one of the biggest and best. The locals come to eat and chat and smoke the nergilleh. | 06:12 |
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| One of the waiters especially enjoyed tending to the smokers’ needs, keeping the coals hot and fresh. | 06:24 |
| Photo. Samer | Samer Hammad was always courteous, always on time. | 06:31 |
| Mufwid | The restaurant’s owner, Mufwid Ghranem, remembers him well. | 06:35 |
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| Mufwid: I told him I will work with you here and anything you needed I will give it to you. I’ll -- if you want go to university I’ll pay it for you. If you want to marry, if you want a house, you are like my son. | 06:39 |
| Photo. Samer | Music | 06:53 |
| Brown with Samer’s father looking at photo’s. | BROWN: At home, as at work, Samer Hammad was a pillar of strength. | 07:00 |
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| Samer’s Father: This is him when he was a child, and this is when he was 22. | 07:06 |
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| BROWN: He was a studious young man, doing his best to break out of the family’s poverty, studying social work by correspondence -- and he had the marks to make a go of it. | 07:12 |
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| Samer’s Father: He was a good student and a hard worker -- not only in his studies, he was good in everything. | 07:24 |
| Samer’s Father | He used to love all the people and never hurt anyone. Nobody in our village or in the street had any complaint about him, everybody used to praise him and his ethical behaviour. | 07:35 |
| Islamic Jihadists | BROWN: But Samer Hammad had a secret life, one that he kept from his family. | 07:55 |
| Photo. Samer in Jihad outfit | He had joined Islamic Jihad. To them his low profile, his studious nature, made him ideal for just one job. | 08:00 |
| Martyr posters | Walid: Naturally he [a suicide bomber] should be a normal and calm person | 08:12 |
| Walid | and not display anything. Naturally he should live a normal life and not show any signs. | 08:17 |
| Photo. Samer | BROWN: Samer Hammad would soon be sent to the heart of Israel to kill for Islamic Jihad. | 08:33 |
| Fade up from black: Mia and Lior’s wedding footage | Music/Singing | 08:41 |
| Mia watches footage | BROWN: In Tel Aviv, Mia Anibjar has a favourite DVD – it’s of her marriage to the man of her dreams. | 08:53 |
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| Mia: It’s not what I imagined. I got married with a great deal of love. I got married not because I always wanted to get married, but because I wanted to marry HIM. He was the love of my life. | 09:04 |
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| Music/Singing | 09:20 |
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| BROWN: Mia and Lior Anibjar had met just eight months before – on their wedding night, he serenaded her. | 09:29 |
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| Lior [singing]: “I will love you forever, I won’t leave you on your own, I will be yours until the day I die” | 09:38 |
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| Mia: I felt like someone else, no longer a girl. I am going to be a woman. Not a girl anymore. A woman. To think about the future… about children... About a home. | 09:49 |
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| BROWN: The video of their wedding night has captured forever that hope for a new beginning | 10:08 |
| Samer recording suicide video | In Jenin, Samer Hammad was making his own video – one that would herald his end. | 10:14 |
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| Samer: To raise up the name of the Prophet Mohammed, as a response to a series of killings and massacres by the Zionist enemy committed against our people in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. | 10:21 |
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| Music | 10:33 |
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| BROWN: On the 17th of April Samer Hammad set out on his first and last mission for Islamic Jihad. | 10:38 |
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| Music | 10:45 |
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| Samer’s Father: He was laughing and playing as normal, | 10:49 |
| Samer’s Father | he left the house normally. We didn’t notice anything unusual about him. | 10:52 |
| Traffic | BROWN: He managed to escape a ring of Israeli military checkpoints and barricades, driving past the symbols of a life he could never hope to know or, probably, understand. Samer Hammad was closing in on the bus station in south Tel Aviv. That’s where | 11:00 |
| Mia still | Mia Anibjar was working, that day, at a shop just up the way from the Roash Ha’ire fast food restaurant. | 11:21 |
| Photo. Lior | Her husband Lior dropped by on a surprise lunchtime visit. He went to the fast food shop get a bite to eat. The two had been married just ten days. | 11:33 |
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| Mia: He said he'd grab something- and he hurried over there he hurried over there. It was as if something was drawing him there. He wasn’t supposed to be there. | 11:47 |
| Restaurant/Explosion | BROWN: Samer Hammad arrived at the restaurant at exactly the same time. | 11:58 |
| Photo. Samer. | Samer Hammad detonated his 13 kg suicide vest, killing himself and twelve others. It was the deadliest attack in a year and a half. | 12:12 |
| Mia | Mia: Lior's not going to die. God won't let a bridegroom die. That's what I said, they’re the words I used. And then they described a young man with a wedding ring on his finger. | 12:25 |
| Brown with Samer’s father | BROWN: The family of a martyr is supposed to hail their son, and his sacrifice in the name of a Free Palestine. | 12:40 |
| Samer’s father | Samer’s Father: It was as if lightning, or a bomb, struck me, and my house… and our children. I saw my house destroyed at this moment. | 12:48 |
| Jenin | Music | 13:00 |
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| BROWN: A new round had begun, the next phase in the war was underway. The Israelis struck back and killed two of Islamic Jihad’s leaders in a ground operation south of the town. Islamic Jihad remained defiant. Three surviving commanders gathered in a Jenin safe house and plotted their next move. | 13:01 |
| Night shots on patrol with jihad men | The ever present threat of an Israeli attack is something Islamic Jihad is only too aware of. Every night the militants block every entrance to the Jenin Refugee Camp with booby traps and bombs. | 13:26 |
| Laying traps at refugee camp | Islamic Jihad member: This is a fragmentation bomb -- it spreads into pieces and is full of metal parts. It’s for the protected jeeps and armed jeeps. It’s a very strong bomb, and we put it in the places the Israeli soldiers always use to enter the camp. | 13:49 |
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| BROWN: But the elaborate defences counted for nothing in keeping out the Israelis seeking revenge for the Tel Aviv bombing. | 14:10 |
| Islamic Jihad Video of Bassam. Slow motion | In fact, Islamic Jihad unwittingly made it easy for the Israelis -- contracting none other Bassam Mallah - the Israeli collaborator - to take the next suicide bomber into Israel. | 14:21 |
| Walid. Super: Walid Ubeid Islamic Jihad | Walid: He came to the house. He came around twice. He was in contact with the Israeli Intelligence. He inspected the house, and counted all the rooms - and he told the Israeli Intelligence. | 14:38 |
| Jenin | Music | 14:59 |
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| BROWN: After he had been to the safe house Bassam Mallah, received a signal from his Israeli handler -- | 15:03 |
| Islamic Jihad Video of Bassam. | he wanted to talk. | 15:09 |
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| Bassam: The officer asked me about the house, and I said it had two rooms. He asked me if there was a kitchen or bathroom, and I said yes. | 15:11 |
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| BROWN: This was the sort of information needed to make a precision strike. | 15:19 |
| Traffic/Driving | On the very morning Walid Ubeid was due to send the next suicide bomber into Israel, he received a crucial call from a fellow Jihadist. | 15:24 |
| Walid | Walid: We were sleeping. It was around 9.30am. Brother Hussam Jaradat contacted me and told me there were planes in the air -- but I didn't pay any attention because the planes had been here for a week, and I told myself this was a routine action, because they used to do it daily. | 15:36 |
| Helicopters | Music | 16:01 |
| Jenin street | BROWN: Walid Ubeid went back to sleep, but not for long. | 16:06 |
| Helicopters | Music | 16:10 |
| Aftermath of attack |
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| BROWN: Such was the precision of the attack, the Israelis were able to dedicate a missile for each bedroom. Walid Ubeid had the luck of the devil, he was sleeping outside on the verandah. Walid: I was woken by the sound of the explosions. | 16:23 |
| Walid | The brothers inside had become martyrs. I was hit by debris and rocket shrapnel. I got out of the house. | 16:42 |
| Night time funeral rally | BROWN: That night the people of Jenin camp mourned yet more martyrs – Walid Ubeid began to trace the source of the leak. | 16:49 |
| Interrogation video | The turncoat’s time was up. He was brought in for questioning by the very men he had betrayed. | 17:01 |
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| Interrogator: What should be the punishment for a person who did what you did? | 17:10 |
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| Bassam: Naturally he’d have to be killed. | 17:17 |
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| BROWN: His interrogators assured Bassam Mallah they only wanted the truth. Walid: We told him to speak freely, | 17:24 |
| Walid | that we were not going to harm or hit or kill him. So he confessed the whole story and his involvement. | 17:37 |
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| BROWN: But they lied. | 17:48 |
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| Walid: I asked his father what he thought about the fate of a collaborator who caused the death of two people. He told me that he should be killed. I said, “Your son’s fate is death and he’ll be executed by us. | 17:50 |
| Interrogation video | BROWN: Bassam Mallah made a last ditch bid for a more honourable death. | 18:04 |
| Hassem. Super: Hassem Mallah Collaborator’s father | Hassem: He swore to God four times and said “Give me a suicide belt. I’m ready to go to Israel.” | 18:09 |
| Execution video | BROWN: It was to no avail – Islamic Jihad executed Bassam Mallah four days before he was due to be married. | 18:23 |
| Samer’s father in garden | The killings have achieved nothing -- Samer Hammad’s father is sorry for his own loss and for his son’s victims. Samer’s Father: If I knew that Samer… | 18:42 |
| Samer’s father | it's impossible I would have allowed him to do what he did . I wouldn’t allow him to do it. If I felt just one per cent that he was going to do such a thing… | 18:58 |
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| BROWN: But that regret cannot penetrate the grief in Tel Aviv. | 19:13 |
| Mia | Mia: It's hard to believe he would have stopped him, because they simply hate the Jews. That's the truth, they hate the Jews. | 19:19 |
| Walid | BROWN: Islamic Jihad put their case less passionately. | 19:29 |
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| Walid: Killing is not a hobby for us, we are not fighting the Jews because they are Jews, but because they are occupying us, stealing our land, and our homes. | 19:34 |
| Hassem and son at cemetery | Music | 19:44 |
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| BROWN: Bassam Mallah’s family has been ostracised -- forced to lay their son to rest outside their village. The Israeli spy now lies buried just inside the barrier Israel has built to seal in the Palestinians. His father wants his killers brought to justice. | 19:52 |
| Hassem | Hassem: I just complain about them Islamic Jihad to Allah. Allah will give my son his rights. I can’t get justice myself, but Allah will follow them because the killer must be killed, and our God will kill him. | 20:14 |
| Hassem and son at cemetery | BROWN: He prays for revenge not only against those in Islamic Jihad who pulled the trigger but those who pull the strings – his son’s Israeli spy masters. | 20:30 |
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| Hassem: I will never forget him. | 20:42 |
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| Every day I go to his grave like a madman. The Jews come and ask me what I am doing here. I tell them, “My son is here. You killed him.” | 20:45 |
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| Music | 20:55 |
| Credits: | Reporter: Matt Brown Camera: Brant Cumming Editor: Garth Thomas Research: Tal Dvir Producer: Wayne Harley Production Company: ABC Australia: Foreign Correspondent
| 21:00 |