Shots taxi cab driving at night/George in taxi/taxi at border post | Music
| 01.00.00 |
| George: I last crossed this border from Israel into Gaza four years ago. The sense of hope and anticipation then was palpable.
| 01.00.25. |
George shows border guard i.d/ soldiers/George in car at Palestinian border post | George: Peter George, ABC Australia...
| 01.00.35 |
| George: Israeli soldiers were delighted to be ending their occupation of this foreboding and dangerous place.
| 01.00.39 |
| FX: Dogs barking
| 01.00.47 |
In the car | George: A hundred metres away, on the other side of this border, Palestinians four years ago, were ecstatic that their long dreamed of State seemed within reach.
| 01.00.58 |
Shots moving shot of street at night time.
Dissolve to: | George: But what a change four years has wreaked. Optimism has evaporated. The mood in Gaza has turned bleak once more.
| 01.01.26 |
Map of Middle east. Gaza Strip and Gaza highlighted.
| Music
| 01.01.36 |
Shots hand on steering wheel/Abu Hussein in car/Gaza street scenes |
| 01.01.57 |
| George: He's a big man in every sense of the word. Arafat loyalist, resistance leader, jailed by Israelis. He's a genuine Palestinian hero. Abu Hussein welcomed the peace four years ago. But he's not happy with the new Palestine.
| 01.02.05 |
Abu at wheel of car/George and Abu walk on street | Abu: During the Intafada, even when the Jews were here despite the pressure of occupation all these shops were open.
| 01.02.24 |
| George: Rather than the prosperity Abu Hussein had hoped for, peace has brought him economic disaster.
| 01.02.40 |
Abu and George look at machinery in garage/boy sweeping floor/Gaza street scenes | Abu: This automatic machine as you can see, is idle. It hasn't been working for seven months.
| 01.02.46 |
| George: Abu Hussein's construction business, and his confidence, have collapsed.
| 01.02.58 |
| Abu: Israel has managed to seal off all possible means to a good life. It's suffocating us.
| 01.03.05 |
Shots men on building site/Abu talking to builders/poster of Arafat in window | George: He's no doubt the main blame lies with the Israelis, but even a loyalist like Abu Hussein knows Israel is not his only problem. Whatever work there is, is being snapped up by monopolies run by the new Palestinian Authority. Monopolies that are lining pockets of a special chosen few.
| 01.03.23 |
Abu | Abu: The people who were overseas with positions came here looking for higher positions. Their only thought is how to make money-how to profit from building. For them, if a battle happens they just buy a ticket. Their suitcases are packed ready to leave the country.
| 01.03.45 |
Shots Abu and George with Abu's family/ |
| 01.04.02 |
| George: It was thinking of his family's future that sustained Abu Hussein through the long years of Israeli occupation and imprisonment.
| 01.04.13 |
Abu at home with child/George and Abu with Abu's children | Abu: I was put in a freezer for eight continuous days at minus three degrees. Another family from the Masri family was put next to me. He survived three hours. I stayed eight days.
| 01.04.23 |
| George: If he's tormented today, it is because, instead of the freedoms he fought for, there is corruption, nepotism and abuse of power by the very leaders to whom he was so loyal for so long.
| 01.04.37 |
Shots George and Abu walks down lane way and look at building/people on street | George: Just at the end of the lane way there's an example of how the powerful are grabbing what they want for themselves.
| 01.04.52 |
| Abu: These buildings are owned by well known people in the Palestinian Authority. The buildings are privately owned. But it was supposed to be public land-for the use of the people.
| 01.04.59 |
Shots George and Abu talk to soldiers and security guard on street/ | George: But as soon as we try to look more closely, the heavy hand of Authority reveals itself.
| 01.05.26 |
| Abu: I want to explain why they are filming.
Guard: I have orders.
| 01.05.30 |
| George: You can argue, but it's to deaf ears. This is military intelligence. His Authority is the pistol he wears in his waistband. Once powerful, Abu Hussein finds himself powerless.
| 01.05.40 |
Abu talks to security guard.
Fade to black | Guard: We have orders from the general to confiscate the tapes immediately. I am telling you, I will take the tapes by force.
| 01.05.53 |
George. Sea in b/g | George: What happened next we can't show you, but it's the sort of thing that should never happen in the open, democratic state that Yasser Arafat promised his people. Our cassettes were confiscated, and we were all bundled off to the central prison, where only Abu Hussein's undoubted status as a hero saved us from further trouble. And in this part of the world, it was a pretty trivial affair. But it's just one more example of the sort of thing that Palestinians have come to fear.
| 01.06.07 |
Saraj and George talk | Saraj: Real power is in the hands of the security forces. And of course, ironically, I think that with all the - whether you like it or not - it is Arafat who is controlling them. Perhaps if he wasn't there, we would have real hell.
| 01.06.39 |
| George: Dr. Saraj, who's been locked up and tortured himself for protesting human rights abuses, says it's crucial the security forces are reigned in quickly.
| 01.06.59 |
| Saraj: I said this to Yasser Arafat, I want a Palestinian Authority that is very strong, so I can feel secure. I don't want this Authority to be challenged by armed groups. On the contrary, I want a strong Palestinian authority, but I want it strong within the law, with the law, so I can be proud of it.
| 01.07.09 |
Shots helicopter/soldiers/ | George: In the best of times, the road from revolution to democracy is a hard one. Israeli belligerence makes it harder still. For all his promises of democracy, the man Palestinians call Abu Ammar - father of the revolution - has had no practical experience of it.
| 01.07.35 |
Yasser Arafat appears surrounded by soldiers | George: Surrounded by acolytes, Yasser Arafat seems more remote than ever from his people. Yet their hopes for peace and democracy lie entirely in his hands.
Saraj: Suddenly there is a group of people who have the power...
| 01.07.59 |
Saraj and George talk | ...who have the Authority, who have the money, and we are left to rot. When the people who came from abroad, the tourists, are having the senior posts, senior jobs. That did not go well with the people.
| 01.08.16 |
Shot band/wedding party and celebration/guests arriving/people in poor neighbourhood | FX: Drums
| 01.08.31 |
| George: The fear is that Palestine may be on a slide towards becoming just one more Arab state ruled by a small powerful autocratic elite.
| 01.08.43 |
| Tonight a young Gazan bride has married well. He's the son of a general almost always by Arafat's side, another exile returned to wield almost unquestioned power.
| 01.09.04 |
| Music
| 01.09.17 |
| George: Even the way they look tells a story. The bride's relatives are, for the main part, dressed in the conservative Gazan manner.
| 01.09.20 |
| The groom's friends and family brought with them their fashion sense and their self confidence and their power from their exile abroad.
| 01.09.33 |
families on the street | For those with no influence, those who lived through the occupation, the birth pangs of statehood have brought little reward. Getting by is hard, getting help from the new Palestinian Authority, a bureaucratic nightmare.
| 01.09.49 |
Shots girls in office/Dr. Kronz | Dr. Kronz: Did you write a letter to the President?
| 01.10.06 |
| George: These young women want help to pay for their education. But all their elected representative, Dr. Kronz can do, is pass a recommendation up the line right to the top. President Yasser Arafat demands ultimate control over every decision.
| 01.10.12 |
Shots donkey cart/Gazan streets/George and Kronz on street | George: But while many struggle to raise the $20 a year now necessary to send a child to a UN school, millions of dollars of international aid have been wasted, misused and misappropriated.
| 01.10.35 |
George and Dr. Kronz walking on the street | It was Dr. Kronz who headed a parliamentary investigation into the disappearance of these funds.
| 01.10.50 |
Dr. SA'ADI AL KRONZ | George: It must have been a great disappointment...
Kronz: Exactly.
George: ...to find that this money had been misspent, misused. | 01.10.59 |
Dr. Kronz | Kronz: Yeah, of course. It was a great disappointment. And also, you know, when the people look at some on the government, those people used to struggle for the sake of Palestine to struggle to have independence and today they are misusing their position, or they do something which is against the interests of their own people. You know, this makes the people feel disappointed, to feel that this is not what we want, this is not what we struggle for.
| 01.11.06 |
Shots night traffic/soldiers in back of truck/ | George: There are more ominous developments still. From cops on the street, to the sinister intelligence agencies, the myriad arms of state security too easily turn menacing. And in this authoritarian climate, few dare complain, or even talk about such matters.
| 01.11.38 |
Shots George and unlit victim/ | Victim: They covered my face with a bag and forced me to take off my shoes. They told me to sit on the floor.
| 01.11.59 |
| George: Accused of various misdemeanours, but with no proof against him, the police simply tried to beat a confession out of this man, and to mete out some rough justice.
| 01.12.09 |
| Victim: They started beating me with sticks and a cable. They hit my head on the wall. If the country stays like this we will leave-we will leave it for them.
| 01.12.18 |
Shots security forces at night road block | George: After long years of often brutal Israeli treatment, reports of Palestinian forces beating, torturing, even killing their own people, seem a tragic irony.
| 01.12.41 |
Sabawy/George and men at meeting | Sabawy: We are human beings. Only yesterday we came down from the mountains and out of the trenches.
| 01.12.53 |
| George: As a former guerrilla commander himself, General Sabawy acknowledges that the transition from freedom fighter to policeman is not an easy one.
| 01.13.02 |
| Sabawy: We are in the process of building our security forces. Mistakes have been committed-violence took place. Some officers did not know the law, others violated it. But the punishment by the President has been done.
| 01.13.11 |
Sabawy/shots security forces on Gaza streets | George: There are genuine attempts to shore up police procedures. But within the complex web of multiple security forces, some branches operate with few controls and fewer scruples. Opponents of the regime - or merely critics - take their lives in their hands, especially when they offend the powerful clique around Yasser Arafat.
| 01.13.43 |
Sabawy | Sabawy: This is a serious problem, the clique around the ruler.
| 01.14.08 |
| George: And if someone tells Arafat, if someone in the clique tells Arafat, that someone is an enemy, what happens to that person.
| 01.14.16 |
| Sabawy: Well, the reaction we get is really imprisonment.
| 01.14.24 |
George and unlit victim talk | Victim: When they first arrived we were happy that they returned to us but now we are not because the situation is not as we imagined. We thought there would be stability, life, laws-but there is no stability and now law.
| 01.14.31 |
Shots wedding guests dancing/bride and groom/guests
ENDS | George: Four years ago, Gaza seemed a place full of rich promise. And for those with the right connections, it still is. To some Palestinians the future seems assured. There's no doubt that Yasser Arafat's intention has always been freedom for the Palestinians. Within the troubled path from revolution to democracy they may find that instead of freedom they have nearly changed from one system of oppression to another.
| 01.14.59
01.15.44 |