Script Home

 

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We love animals, we like to take care of them.

 

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Do not treat the donkeys badly.

 

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They notice it when they are treated well

and they will take care of you too.

 

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I'm very persistent.

I was born like that.

 

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I want to become a famous journalist.

 

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Not only in local media,

I also want to go abroad.

 

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For TV stations like Al-Jazeera or Al-Arabia.

I'd like to show everyone I can make it as a journalist.

 

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It is our destiny to work with donkeys.

Ever since I was born I have worked with donkeys.

 

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We have worked with donkeys for generations.

I took this business over from my father and grandfathers.

 

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I transport goods and stuff in Silwan,

for all the people in the neighborhood.

 

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What else can I do?

There are no other job opportunities.

 

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We just dream, that's all we do.

 

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The people here depress me.

 

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They always tell me, Muna, there is no work here.

 

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You will never become a journalist.

You will become a teacher at best.

 

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But since I'm ambitious and persistent, I keep

dreaming of a career as a well-known journalist.

 

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TITEL: Home

 

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I feel strongly related to my neighborhood.

I love it.

 

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PLAATS: Sheikh Jarrah

 

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I was born here.

This is where my neighbors and friends live.

 

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SVO: Muna AlKurd - 18 years old

 

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That's why I'm defending my house so much.

 

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PANCARTE:

Muna lives in Sheikh Jarrah, a neighborhood in East Jerusalem.

In 2009, half of her house was taken over by Israeli settlers

 

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This is the house where we now live.

It is my grandmother's house.

 

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This is still ours, they didn’t take it.

And there is the part the settlers took.

 

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In 2009 the settlers took

everything from here up until the street.

 

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We built this part because our family

got bigger and we needed more rooms.

 

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We applied for a building permit

but they didn’t give us one.

 

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So my dad built it anyway

 

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but after we had finished it,

an Israeli court closed the house.

 

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They took the keys and that's it.

 

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The house remained closed for 10 years.

 

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DISCLAIMER:

Archive footage filmed by Muna and her brother

Provided by B'Tselem

 

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In 2009 the settlers came.

 

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They had been trying

to lay their hands on the house for a long time.

 

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In 2009 the court decided

to give the key to the settlers.

 

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The problem is we

can't understand their logic...

 

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Ok, it was built without a building permit.

We agree on that point.

 

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But it doesn't make sense that the house

is illegal for us but not for the settlers.

 

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We cannot live in it but the settlers can.

 

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It was so hard for me to go through this as a

young girl who is not aware of what is going on.

 

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When I saw my house was taken,

it was so heartbreaking. Really...

 

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That's it. They took it.

 

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PLAATS: Silwan

 

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Silwan has a lot of small streets, full of stairs.

Cars cannot reach it.

 

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Only donkeys can go around

and deliver the stuff to people's houses.

 

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I go wherever I can work.

 

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Some people can afford

to pay me something but others cannot.

 

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People have a hard time here.

 

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I'm proud of doing this job and I love it.

 

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It's kind of helping people and at the same time I earn money to support my children.

 

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It's better than begging , isn't it.

 

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Silwan is a nice neighborhood.

 

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What I love most is when we all gather at night.

 

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We crack jokes and have fun together.

 

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It makes me forget all my problems.

 

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The bad thing here is the occupation.

It's suffocating.

 

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Even at home you are afraid.

They may come and take your house.

 

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SVO: Nayef Abassi

28 years old

 

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It happens a lot.

 

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PANCARTE:

In 1967 Israel occupied East Jerusalem.

Israeli policies in East Jerusalem violate international law and human rights law in a number of ways.

 

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Unfortunately in june 2017.

We are closing 50 years of occupation.

 

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The lack of land

and the lack of housing

 

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SVO:

Nisreen Alyan

Attorney for the Association of Civil Rights in Israel

 

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became the biggest problem of Jerusalem.

 

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Confiscated almost one third of the land of Jerusalem,

building settlements on it and giving almost no permits to Palestinians for building on their own land

 

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That brought people to build houses

without permits

 

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Pancarte:In 2016 the Israeli authorities

demolished 190 Palestinian homes

and other constructions in East Jerusalem.

A record since UNOCHA started recording demolitions in 2009

 

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The numbers are only increasing

 

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You'll have to pay from the moment you build a house without permit

 until they destroy it, which is a lot of money.

 

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Tha means the municipality is getting a lot of money

from the policy of not giving permits to the Palestinians in East Jerusalem.

 

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It all comes down to one policy that is very very clear:

getting Palestinians out of East Jerusalem.

 

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This is the house where we live.

There are nine of us.

 

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There are only two bedrooms.

 

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As you can see, this is the main room.

 

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My grandmother and my aunt

sleep together in one room there.

 

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My grandmother and my aunt

sleep together in one room there.

 

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My brother is in the 10th grade now.

He is 16 years old.

 

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My sister Maha sleeps with me in the living room.

 

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I call it my room

but actually I don’t have a room.

 

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You can see it's actually a living room

with the sofas and all.

 

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I sleep here. This is my bed.

 

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I study on this bed, I do everything on this bed

because there is no other place to sit.

 

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My little brothers can be very noisy

when they are playing and fighting.

 

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I put up all these photos...

 

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This is my twin brother and me.

 

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This way it feels more like my room,

a private place to stay.

 

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I don't have any privacy as a girl here.

 

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I can't even change my clothes freely or rest in my room.

The door is always open

 

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I had built a barn for the donkeys.

 

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It used to be here

but the municipality ordered me to take it down.

 

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I told them that this is just a barn for the donkeys

and two sheep. Nothing more.

 

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They said: "We don’t care.

If it is still here next week, we will demolish it."

 

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Next Saturday they knocked at my door at 8 o'clock in the morning.

I was still sleeping.

 

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The police grabbed me and brought me here.

 

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They pushed me around and asked me:

"Will you demolish it or shall we do it?"

 

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A policeman was shouting and pushing me.

 

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When I pushed him back,

he hit me with his gun.

 

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Then I fell down here.

 

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My children were up there.

They started crying.

 

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Look at my teeth.

They broke my teeth.

 

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I'm 28 years old, married and I have two children.

 

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I'm ashamed to look like this

in front of my children.

 

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I built this barn on my own land.

Why does it bother them?

 

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Hurry, hurry. I want a hug!

 

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A kiss, I want a kiss!

 

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One more.

 

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The strategy in Jerusalem from the planning authorities

is to divide it as much as possible

 

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To make sure that there is a clear cut line

between the Arabs and Jews in the city.

 

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And this means that the city cannot function

like any normal city would.

 

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Be it business wise or everyday life.

 

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PANCARTE: Omar Abdelqader studies art and design

at the Bezalel Academy in Jerusalem.

He is 25 years old.

 

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So yes of course I feel that in the academy too.

The view from the cafetaria of this academy specifically is Issawiya.

 

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Issawiya is an Arab village that is very much under priviliged

and very much segregated from its area.

 

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Where people don't get permits to build, the population cannot develop properly, where people don't get proper education.

 

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And when that's my view when I'm getting my coffee, as a priviliged Arab student in the B'tselem Academy of Arts and Design, yeah I feel the racism.

 

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The neighborhood is very crowded.

We have no parks inside the neighborhood.

 

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We have no empty places or room to build

new buildings for a new generation

 

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SVO: Hanni Issawi

Director of the local committee to protect Issawiya

 

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So it is very difficult to keep living

a normal and good life in this neighborhood.

 

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We are surrounded from all the sides.

We are like an island in this area.

 

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PANCARTE: Issawiya is one of many overcrowded

neighborhoods in East Jerusalem.

Residents are contesting the government's plans to build

a national park on the empty land surrounding Issawiya,

fighting for their only remaining chance to develop the neighborhood.

 

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So behind us you can see the area that is intended to be a national park.

This is the land that is between Issawiya and At-Tur. At-Tur to the South, Issawiya to the North.

 

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SVO: Sari Kronisch

 

Bimkom - Israeli planners and architects

for democracy and human rights

 

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The idea of these national parks is to prevent the growth

and the possibility improvement of the Palestinian neighborhoods next to them.

 

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Both Issawiya and At-Tur are neighborhoods that have basically detoriarated to become slums because of lack of any city investment.

 

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But there is also a shortage of just about everything

from infrastructure to class rooms to the opportunity to build, to building permits.

 

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There is the fear of demolition orders.

The neighborhoods are both very over crowded

 

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And in order to provide for the needs already today and for future growth,

more land is needed.

 

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It's almost a cliché now,

saying that Jerusalem is dead.

 

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The thing about the occupation is that it self destructs.

So it kills itself basically.

 

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Jerusalem is an occupied city so it's dying.

It's dying from the inside.

 

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In order to change the situation

a number of things need to happen.

 

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But from a planning perspective,

plans need to include the needs of the residents and the neighborhood.

 

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An this can only happen if they are included

 and really seen as players and partners.

 

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Issawiya and At-Tur are examples

but in East Jerusalem there are a little bit more than 20 previous villages that all suffer from more or less the same problems

 

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It's very difficult to receive building permits, the demolition occur in various neighborhoods.

 

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What happens is that people end up building without permits,

building what is considered to be in Israel illegaly but this is the only option really that they have.

 

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And they end up facing demolition orders

and living with the fear of actual demolition.

 

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I'm in my first year at university

where I study media.

 

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I wake up three hours before my class starts

just to arrive on time.

 

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Because there is chaos

and checkpoints on the road.

 

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I decided to study media

because I love to work with cameras.

 

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I like to film.

 

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Journalism is such a powerful thing.

 

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That's how my voice

and the voice of my people can reach the world.

 

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I've been playing with cameras

together with my twin brother since I was a child.

 

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When they took our house in Sheikh Jarrah

and the neighborhood fell into chaos,

 

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we filmed it

to document what was happening.

 

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We recorded videos every single day.

 

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DISCLAIMER: Archive footage filmed by Muna and her brother.

Provided by B'tselem.

 

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We filmed the support we got from foreign activists

as well as cases of forced eviction in the neighborhood.

 

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We filmed our house

and how the settlers attacked us.

 

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I hope that with this work I can show everyone

the suffering of the Palestinians and the Jerusalemites.

 

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Have at look at this beautiful scenery.

I come here every morning.

 

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I drink my morning coffee here

and I smoke a cigarette.

 

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I like to watch it, it's a nice view.

 

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It is calm.

 

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A week ago, I woke up

to the noise of big trucks.

 

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I thought they were working at my house.

I was afraid it would be demolished.

 

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Wouldn't you feel scared about

your house if you saw something like that?

 

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Look at him, the poor guy.

It must have broken his heart.

 

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He may have lost all his money on it.

 

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God knows how hard he worked

to save money for this house.

 

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PANCARTE: Nayef's house wasn't built with a full permit.

He has already received a fine for it.

There is an ongoing legal case

about the building permit of his house.

 

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Look at us.

One room, a kitchen, a toilet and a living room.

 

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Where can I go

if the Israeli government comes to destroy it?

 

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I don't want much.

I just want a shelter for me and my family.

 

00:19:50,074 --> 00:19:51,074

 

 

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PANCARTE: Every week Muna follows

a video workshop in Bethlehem.

She wants to use her video reporting skills

to tell the story of her house and her family.

 

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When there are lines

that are not straight in the background,

 

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the tripod may not be properly balanced.

 

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I follow this course for two reasons.

 

00:20:16,800 --> 00:20:21,600

Firstly, it matches

my journalism studies at university.

 

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Secondly, it allows me to talk about

forced displacements and tell the story of my house.

 

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In this course we discuss the forced displacements

that are happening in Jerusalem

 

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and how we can show them

to the world by film making.

 

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In Sheikh Jarrah you can find

a lot of stories, for sure.

 

00:20:42,760 --> 00:20:45,400

Indeed, we will tell

the story of my house.

 

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I thought about the main storylines.

We will talk to my grandmother about 1948.

 

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Maha will talk about the current situation.

And we will talk with an expert.

 

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As I told you,

we didn’t plan exactly what we would film.

 

00:21:09,600 --> 00:21:14,520

Inshallah, my children's future

will be better than ours.

 

00:21:14,920 --> 00:21:19,160

We work hard

and we do everything we can for our children.

 

00:21:19,880 --> 00:21:24,880

But reality is quite different.

It says we will stay the way we are.

 

00:21:25,680 --> 00:21:26,760

That’s what reality tells us.

 

00:21:26,880 --> 00:21:29,040

My children's future will be similar to mine..

 

00:21:29,640 --> 00:21:33,880

Our parents lived under occupation

and we live under occupation.

 

00:21:34,080 --> 00:21:37,040

But we will continue to walk this road.

 

00:21:41,062 --> 00:21:49,062

I don't think I'll stay in Jerusalem.

My plan for now is to go to Jaffa because that is where i can integrate the best

 

00:21:49,062 --> 00:21:55,582

and that's the place i feel I can relate to most at this specific time.

Who knows...

 

00:21:59,432 --> 00:22:04,433

Somtimes we take to much pride

in being able to withstand pain and suffering.

 

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So yeah maybe in that sense I feel like it's a little bit

running away from Jerusalem but I'm a human being.

 

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I do want to have a good time

and I do want to fulfill my potential in whatever I stride to do

 

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As of right now I see myself doing that in Jaffa.

Maybe one day I'll come back to Jerusalem.

 

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Maybe my persistence is the result

of what has happened to me.

 

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Because of my house. Because of what is going

on in Sheikh Jarrah and Jerusalem in general.

 

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It has given me strength.

 

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We are under occupation and we have

to put up with the settlers and the Israeli army.

 

00:22:54,200 --> 00:22:57,000

But we are strong in the end.

We will survive.

 

00:23:02,454 --> 00:23:24,239

Credits:

A film by Berber Verpoest (director)

Camera - Filip Huygens

Montage - Frederik Jassogne

Research – Hans Bontinck

 

This film was developed in cooperation with Danish Church Aid and Palvision.

However, its content does not represent the official position of these organisations

 

This documentary film was produced with the financial assistance of the European Union.

The contents of the film are the sole responsibility of the beneficiaries

and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the European Union.