Louis Theroux s01e15 Episode Script
Ultra Zionists
You say it's your land Which What makes it your land? The words of God say very clearly this land is given to us.
Most of these people here, they want to annihilate us.
You think they just want this area of the West Bank? They say it very openly, they want the whole thing.
Why are you disputing these facts? These are facts.
'I was deep inside the West Bank, the largely Arab area that Israel has occupied since 1967, 'spending time in a tiny and controversial sub-culture of ultra-nationalist Jewish settlers.
' Do you view Palestinians and Jews as equal? Er, no.
No? No.
They believe these lands were promised to Israel by God, and have made it their life's work to increase the Jewish presence here and oppose any sovereignty for Palestinians.
What I tell you is that the story of the Arabs having rights in the whole land are stories and lies.
Many are religious extremists, and yet they are protected by one of the world's most powerful armies.
Is it a little bit tense? I don't feel tense.
'And they are ready to resist any onslaught to re-establish the greater Jewish nation.
' Life in the Yemenite village.
Sounded like big ones.
This programme contains some strong language I was in Jerusalem, a city divided between Jews in the west and Arabs in the east, all of them under Israeli authority.
'With me was Daniel Luria, part of an ultra-religious Jewish organisation called Ateret Cohanim.
' Where is the most conflict? We're just about to go into it.
These intersections have had tons of incidents.
This one right here.
'We were in the heart of Silwan, one of the most deprived areas 'of East Jerusalem, populated by several thousand Palestinians 'and 60 Jewish settlers under heavy protection.
' These are security guys in here now? Um Are they doing patrol or are they ferrying passengers? It could be that they're coming to pick someone that's leaving or they're bringing someone back.
It's hard to know.
Well, there's your answer.
'Israel's control of East Jerusalem is considered illegal under international law, 'and yet Daniel's mission is to help Jewish donors buy up more Palestinian properties 'and find Jewish families to live in them.
' As you can see, it's very easy for the Arabs who live in close quarters here to just be across there, a few metres away, to throw across a concrete block, throw across a Molotov cocktail.
It doesn't matter whether there's kids here or not.
The hatred is so extreme it's just unbelievable, and it's unbearable.
Don't you feel you're partially responsible for putting those kids in harm's way? We are responsible to make sure that the Arabs don't get away with what they're doing.
This is a hot spot, isn't it? But actually And if we bend it's going to have ramifications for everyone.
.
.
there are places all over Israel Nowhere they can live much more safely.
Not at all.
Look where you are.
You are here at the outskirts at the centre of the Jewish world.
There's the Temple Mount.
East Jerusalem is still You can touch the Temple Mount, you can feel King David.
He's here.
You talk as though this land, this area means nothing to the Arab people.
Well, it doesn't.
It clearly does.
No.
We are here today.
This is the Jewish homeland, and there's never been a Palestinian people.
If they want to express themselves nationally they can express it somewhere else in one of the other states, maybe Jordan, which is primarily Palestinian origin in any case.
Why should it be at the expense of the Jewish homeland? My roots are here, not theirs.
A little later, the settler's battle-scarred armoured car made its way under police escort back down the hillside and past a Palestinian child acting as a lookout.
One of those looking on was an Arab neighbour of the settlers.
He doesn't accept that the Jews have returned home.
He doesn't like the fact that the Jews are here, full stop.
That's his problem.
The international community is on his side, really, in the sense that it doesn't recognise the validity of Israel.
.
Israel's annexation of East Jerusalem.
Correct.
And would view YOU as an interloper in HIS community.
OK, the world's got a problem.
There's nothing I can say about that, because you're right.
We're the only country in the world that accepts united Jerusalem.
I know that.
So I say, "OK, so what for the world?" It doesn't bother me.
In another part of Silwan, close to where it borders the Old City, live a family called the Adlers.
Hi, Yonatan? Louis.
'Yonatan and Devorah, originally from the USA, 'were moved in by a Jewish cultural group similar to Daniel's called El'ad.
'With their six children, they are helping to repopulate the Jewish community.
' Are you comfortable talking about security measures that you take? I mean, don't tell anybody, but we don't lock our doors.
You don't lock these doors, but there's a guard posted at a metal gate out front.
Right.
Yeah.
You hadn't noticed him? Yeah, no.
We have guards, there are security cameras.
And you have someone posted on the roof? Yeah.
A soldier? No.
A private security guard.
And then do you have escorts when you leave? We have, we have escorts.
So this is all your yard? This is all our backyard.
And across the hillside here we are basically talking about an Arab neighbourhood.
Yes.
Do you feel encircled a little bit? Encircled by buildings, yes, but I guess that's part of living in a city.
You don't feel encircled culturally or ethnically? Um, I don't think we view things that way.
You know, obviously there is a sense of animosity against Jews moving in here.
Do you not worry about your children a bit? Generally we don't have a tremendous problem, and I think our belief in being here is so strong.
Really, this place is part of our heart, and I think that we raise our children feeling that way also.
Did you say that you'd been in a vehicle when it had been stoned? We have been, yes.
You have been.
With your kids? Yes.
That must be frightening.
Um, I think it's unsettling.
For the kids? It's unsettling, yes, but it's something that we speak with them about.
Did they start crying? No.
I think it's something that they are aware of.
And God forbid, if one of the kids got hurt? We hope that it never comes to that, but for us this is home, and we're not running away because a rock is thrown.
'The West Bank is home to about 2.
5 million Palestinians and 300,000 Jewish settlers.
'Many of these settlers live in modern suburban communities.
'They're considered illegal under most interpretations of international law, 'though the Israeli government disputes this and gives the settlements its backing.
'But there is also a hard-core fringe of settlers who've defied even Israeli law 'and built makeshift hilltop encampments.
'One of these is 17-year-old Yair Lieberman.
' Can we come in? Of course.
It's a place you can come any time.
Who lives in here? Me and three other guys.
Three other young guys? Yes.
Tell me a little bit about where we are.
It's called It's called Havat Gilad, and it's built eight years ago.
How long has this structure been here? A year, nearly one year.
Nearly one year? Yes.
So where you want to go now? Which is your bed? This is my bed, the most mess! This one? No, this one.
The most mess, I told you.
This is all the rabbis These are all rabbis that you like? Yes.
You're hooked up to electricity? Yes.
From where? We have a generator here.
Do you? Yes.
The state don't give us electricity.
Why not? Because they think we are illegal.
Why is it so important to you that you should be here? Why not somewhere, you know, near Tel Aviv, or Because nobody is here.
If we weren't here there is Arabic town over there, and over there, and over there and over there.
If we are not here this is a city, and we don't want another city.
You don't want another Palestinian city.
I don't want another Palestinian city, no.
Why? Why? Because it's my land.
It's the land of Israel, not the land of Palestinian.
A Palestinian would say, "Well, this is my home.
" This is your home because you took it from me.
Do you view Palestinians and Jews as equal? Er, no.
No? No.
Jews are the, how you say it, um the chosen.
We're not going to go from here.
What will happen to the Palestinians? The Palestinians, I don't know.
God will do with them whatever he wants.
I don't know, I stay here.
I think this is God's will, I feel this is God's will, and it's not only me, and thousands and thousands of other settlements.
This is already by the police and army, this is already Arab land, it's not ours.
It's ours, but we can't touch it.
If we go over there you can get arrested.
You see.
Would you build somewhere over there? Why not? Why shouldn't I? You just said you'd get arrested.
So? I'd get arrested.
You can really only be here because the army's protecting you.
No, I'm going to stay here even though the army not going to protect me.
You'd give your life to stay here? I don't know.
God, er I don't know.
I say, "get to the bridge, we're going to cross it.
" 'Most of the West Bank is still under Israeli military occupation, 'and so opposition to the settlements 'and to the Jewish presence generally is dealt with by the army.
'A colonel in the IDF, the Israeli Defence Force, had agreed to take me to one of their regular fixtures, 'policing a Palestinian protest against the security barrier that separates Israel from the West Bank.
'It takes place every week outside the small town of Ni'lin.
' OK? Yes.
Here comes one.
What is it? And the soldiers The soldiers are running in.
Yeah.
The people Are they running away? Yeah, running away.
Is it? Yeah.
'After an opening salvo from the IDF, we made our way across the security barrier.
' Look at the stones.
'I'd been told one of the reasons Ni'lin emerged as a regular spot for protests 'was its proximity to Tel Aviv.
'It was a convenient location for left-wing Israelis and internationals 'who wanted to show their support for the Palestinian cause.
'The previous year one unlucky protestor had taken a canister to the chest and died, 'and injuries on both sides were not uncommon, 'but on this occasion there were no casualties.
' What if you just left them? And then you do it again? Yeah.
So just back and forth.
Yeah.
Like a ritual.
Yeah.
'I was back in Jerusalem for an appointment with Daniel.
' Hi, Daniel.
Thank you.
Sorry we're late.
Good morning.
'This time our destination was the heart of the Old City.
'Daniel's organisation had recently helped a donor to acquire a number of apartments in the Muslim quarter, 'adding to its portfolio of around 50 buildings.
' So this is your most recent acquisition, is that correct? Well, once again, when I say yours, it's not the organisation.
It's an individual either in Israel or overseas that has acquired this particular building.
It's a rather unique building as you can see, from the point of view that it's not just a single apartment.
Who owns it? Jewish concerns.
Can you identify them? I don't have a right to discuss about, you know, private investors that want to invest, whether they want to be known or not to be known.
I'm not sure how relevant it is, anyway.
Do you see anything the least bit out of whack with, let's say, a foreign donor donating funds that displace a man who's been in a property for several generations? Just that in a nutshell.
We don't challenge any other person round the world who wants to invest in Manhattan or London, so why should the BBC or anyone in the world be concerned that a Jew is investing in the heart of the most important city for him as a Jew? That's a very simple thing.
For a Jew, Jerusalem is central to everything.
Why are you angry? OK.
Is there anything as far as you know in the idea that more units were grabbed than was legally No, no, no.
If there was then the police would never have allowed it to happen on the first night, neither would the courts.
They've been here for a month now.
No, no, it's nothing like that.
The issue is just something with him.
There's a lot of stuff here that belonged to the Arab that he obviously didn't want.
But they just left all their stuff here.
Well, not all of it, but there's some stuff.
You've got to remember there were, you know, we're talking about two Arab families.
For them to physically walk out of the house before the sale with all this stuff would have aroused too much of an issue.
Really? Another problem for them.
Would they have sort of left in the middle of the night, kind of thing? I can't really discuss exactly how they left and why they left the way they did.
It's a law in the Arab world.
They're not allowed to sell to Jews, therefore if they do, one has to be very careful to give some type of cover story or protection to look after the Arabs that sell.
It's an absurd situation.
So where are these Arabs now, the ones who were living here? They're living comfortably in some other Arab neighbourhood, either Somewhere in Israel, I imagine.
Sort of incognito.
No, not at all.
Not at all.
Well, if it's known that they sold? Well, not everyone knows that they sold, and certain claims were made that maybe the Jews came in at a certain time.
Like I said, I can't really go into the whole issue.
You're suggesting they may have created a cover story? Some things we can talk about, some things we can't talk about.
'45 minutes south of Jerusalem is the city of Hebron.
'Like the rest of the West Bank, it was taken by Israel in 1967.
'With an Arab population of 160,000, 'most of Hebron is now policed by the Palestinian Authority, 'but the heart of the city is home to a tiny enclave of 700 or 800 Jewish settlers, 'and remains under military occupation.
'Here the Jews live in a secure bubble, 'a strange ghost town in which literally hundreds of Arab shops 'have either been closed down by the Israeli army or gone out of business.
'My contact here was the head of security for the Hebron Jewish community, Yoni Blackmard.
' Good to see you.
That's my car over there, and we can use the van over there.
As well? That's the ambulance? Yeah.
For evacuating wounded people.
Why would people be wounded? Shots.
Terrorist attacks.
We've got plenty of those.
Really? Yes, unfortunately.
So this is all bulletproof? Yes.
360 degrees bulletproof.
'Yoni took me on a tour of the secure area, or sterile zone.
' So this is a checkpoint? Yes.
And over there begins what? H1, Arab territory.
The Palestinian Authority are over there? Yes, it is.
You can't go through there? No, it's not safe for us to go.
If we go inside we could get murdered, we could get stoned, we could get killed.
These Palestinians going back and forth, what's their story? Shopping.
They're going to the city to shop, buy things, and go back to their houses over here.
And so they have to go through a checkpoint to go shopping? How come there aren't No, no, no, no.
To enter the Arab zone they don't need to be checked, but coming back they need to be checked, because the army not once, not twice discovered ammunition and knives, cold ammunition that they tried to smuggle into the safety zone over here.
Now, what's happened to the shops here? They were closed for security measures.
The army closed them down.
And there's no cars or buses here for Palestinians? For Palestinians, on this road, no, it's a safe zone.
Safe zone isit's sterile.
Do you feel embarrassed to see settlers have scrawled stars of David on the old Arab shops? Yes.
If it's not theirs, absolutely.
It's not right.
It's been reported that Arabs have suffered a campaign of harassment from Jewish settlers in Hebron, including graffiti and stone throwing, abuse.
There were incidents, of course there were incidents, unfortunately, but you cannot compare.
Some Arabs chuck stones at some Jewish settlers, the settlers do what? Well Call the Israeli army? Police.
Police.
Police and army, yes.
If some Jewish settlers chuck stones at some Arabs? The Arabs call the police and the army.
They call the Israeli Yes, yes.
Over here, yes.
But can you see how there would be a perception that because they are Israeli that the Israelis would not enforce the law, that the military would not uphold the security in favour of the Arabs in the same way they would in favour of the Israeli? No, cos that's not democracy.
And do Arabs here have the vote? To the Israeli Knesset? No.
No, they do not.
So that's That isn't democracy.
Yes, it is.
Can you choose to the Knesset? Well, I don't live here.
I cannot vote for their municipality and their parliament, they can.
They are part of the Arab parliament.
'Hebron has a unique importance for believers in the Old Testament 'as the final resting place of Abraham and his family here in the Tomb of the Patriarchs, 'and so it felt fitting to be invited to attend a circumcision, or bris.
'One of those present was the child's grandmother, Shirley Zissman, originally from Scotland, 'now resident of the West Bank settlement of Kedumim.
' Does it have a special meaning for you having your grandson's bris in Hebron? I never in my life dreamed that I would have such an honour to come to Hebron and make the bris of our grandchildren, the circumcision ceremony here.
This is his brother, he is a year and a half.
That's the bigger brother of the baby that's going under the knife? It is.
He doesn't have to worry.
No.
He's done it.
He's done it already.
The baby will get over it, as well.
Everybody gets over it.
Does it hurt? I don't know, I didn't do it.
'According to the Bible, Abraham was the first Jewish man, 'his circumcision a sign of his covenant with God, 'and God's commitment to providing for the Jewish people, a tradition that continues to this day.
' 'Part of God's promise was that the land of Israel would belong to Abraham's descendants, 'and so the bris was also a kind of guarantee of inheritance.
' 'After the ceremony I learned that the child had been named Amichai, or My Nation Lives.
'Back up in the area around Havat Gilad, and the hillsides were in flames.
'I'd had word that the Israeli army had dismantled a house and a goat shed 'at a Jewish settlement called Givat Ronen that was well known for its radical views.
'Given that the whole settlement was illegal under Israeli law, the action seemed somewhat tokenistic, 'but in return some of the settler youth had apparently taken reprisals 'against local Palestinians by setting fires.
'It was a practice known as price tagging.
'An Israeli member of parliament had turned out to show his support for the settlement.
' Louis.
BBC.
Hi.
Good to meet you.
Your name? Member of Knesset, Michael Ben-Ari.
What happened last night? The vandalism.
'Though they'd been set by settlers, the fires had spread across land farmed by Jews.
'One of those attempting to put out the flames 'was a local Israeli wine maker and tour guide called Nir Levi.
' Whose trees are they? My friend, my neighbour's.
They are Israeli trees.
All this area is going to be burned because a man and a lady and a child were living in this house, and this morning from out of the blue someone came and tore it down.
Not someone, the Ministry of Defence came to tear it down.
And what's the connection with the fires? Well, the fires I think are only a conclusion after what happened.
Maybe some people got a bit frustrated, and we are now taking out these fires.
And where we live is at stake, right? Our trees, our investments, our environment.
It's a pity.
Shouldn't you be angry at the people who set the fires? No.
Why? Because what happened, the people blockaded their entrances as a normal person will do if they will come to wreck your house down, and the fires started, you know.
They burned some tyres and then it got out of hand? Of course.
Was it price tagging? Er, for them, yes.
You know, the young settlers, they have a lot of enthusiasm, and, you know, it's their house.
You see your house going down, your investment, you get rage, right? Is it possible there was a plan to burn Palestinian trees? No.
You see actually that it's not, and if you ask me those questions I will ask you for this minute to dismiss yourself from this interview.
'I was on my way to the town of Nabi Saleh.
'Like many other Palestinian towns it is involuntarily twinned 'with a much newer Israeli settlement, this one called Halamish.
'Nabi Saleh is also the venue for a regular weekly protest 'against the occupation, which I was hoping to experience first-hand.
'As at Ni'lin, the protest started after prayers and took the form of a march through the town, 'the idea being to reach a spring near the settlement.
' What are you doing? Fuck off.
Get away from here.
Go back.
What are you doing? Go back.
What are you doing? Go back.
'After the army had repulsed the marchers, the formal part of the protest seemed to end.
'The Israeli soldiers took control of the town square, and the protesting became more freeform.
' No problem.
That's the accent, eh? This is strange.
It feels like a game, almost.
You said you've got to know the commander quite well.
Danny, you said his name is Danny? Yeah.
Do you think you could be his friend? 'Down the hill, word came that a Palestinian youth was being arrested.
' What happened? 'One of those trying to obstruct the arrest was the sympathiser from Denmark, 'and he was next to be taken.
' He's done nothing wrong.
He's done nothing illegal.
What is wrong with you? Hey! 'The afternoon passed with more stone throwing and taunting on the Palestinian side 'and the army's fruitless efforts to pin down the culprits, most of whom were children.
'I couldn't help feeling baffled as to the commander's objectives, 'given the futility of trying to bring the town to order.
' Out of shape.
Out of shape, man.
Was that a good one? Huh? Out of shape, guys.
Out of shape.
Whoa! You threw a stone at us.
BBC.
Hi.
How are you doing? We think you are Israeli, you know.
That's all right.
We're sorry.
Don't worry.
Do you hate the Israelis? Yes.
We hate Israelis.
What I feel if Israeli come and kill my friend and destroy my life and steal my land, what's my feel? What's your feel if Israeli come and destroy you and kill you? I hate Israel, and forever I hate Israel.
Would you like to take all the land back all the way to Tel Aviv? In my heart I want all Palestine.
Yes.
And Netanyahu go to hell.
And Hamas? Hamas? Hamas fire rockets, don't they? Fire rockets at the Israeli people and blow up buses and things like this, Hamas.
Hamas, OK in bus, but what's happened in Gaza? You know what's happened in Gaza.
Israeli destroy Gaza, kill our children.
We are human, they kill us, and what's happened? If I can go to Israel and destroy Israel I am from now go to Israel and destroy Israel.
'Late in the day, seeming to tire of playing cat and mouse with an entire village, 'the army finally withdrew, with a farewell volley of tear gas.
'A few nights later, and settlers were rallying with soldiers and politicians 'on a hilltop overlooking Nablus, the site of Joseph's tomb, 'and now home to around 130,000 Palestinians.
'Some of the talk was of the need to march on the city and reclaim it for the Jews.
'There was a widespread view that the Israeli government was too weak and conciliatory.
'Far from wanting to give up any of the occupied land, 'for these settlers the aim was to take back everything controlled by the Palestinian Authority.
'I was with Nir, the wine maker who I'd first met when he was putting out flames on the hillside.
' This is the vineyards, what you see, these are the vineyards.
'He'd offered to show me his vineyard and the army of volunteers he had working there, 'a coach-load of devout Christians, almost all of them from America.
'Deep in the occupied territories and within sight of a Palestinian town, 'tourists were working land that the international community, the US included, viewed as illegal.
' Shalom, Martin.
Shalom, Nir.
Your name, sir? Martin.
Martin.
I'm Louis.
Louis, I'm from Denver, Colorado.
This is my third time here.
How long are you out here for? I came for a month.
You came here for a whole month? Is it a vacation or is it a What is it? You're not getting paid to work here.
No, it's a labour of love for the nation of Israel and for the people here, to see that they prosper in the West Bank and help them fulfil the prophetic calling that's on this land.
Why do you feel it's important for you to be here? It's about acting out the love that we have.
The Bible talks about not just loving in word but also in deed and in actions, and so when you pick a vine and a cluster of grapes and you get to hold them in your hands it's like you're part of prophecy, of scripture, you're part of the promises that God has made.
Good job! Whoo! Awesome! 'Back at the winery, and one of Nir's young recruits 'was hoping to take his commitment to Israel even further by volunteering for its military.
' This guy here, he wants to join the IDF.
Can you imagine such a thing? Is that allowed? No.
He's just touring, but he has his spirit with Israel.
You want to join the IDF? Yeah, sure.
Why? They're the chosen people, you know.
Who? The Jews.
The Jewish people are the chosen people.
You've always believed that, based on the Bible? Not always.
It's kind of something I'm coming into, just with the revelation you get being here.
It's good stuff.
This is the Mount Blessed wine area, and here we have now the 2010 vintage.
That's the whole grape in there, the skin and everything? Skin, seed, everything.
And here you see the grapes are now in fermentation.
Can I do that, what you just did? No, no, you can't.
Why? Cos it's kosher.
It's kosher wine, and kosher wine can only That's quite rude, isn't it? Yes.
Cos I'm unclean? No, it's not because of that.
I'm not ceremonially entitled.
I'm not allowed to drink your wine.
But then what about those guys, those Christians? They're not kosher, are they? They're allowed to bring, you saw like today, they bring in the grapes from the vineyard until the factory room of the winery.
They are not allowed inside.
Do they mind? No.
They want to serve us.
Do you find it a bit strange that they want to, the Americans want To serve? Want to come and serve you? It was for me strange at the beginning, but I can understand it.
Through this, they are redeeming themselves.
For them it's deeply spiritual, isn't it? Yes, I think so.
Do you think they also understand that it's political? Less.
Less.
They don't come on the political side.
'The experience of meeting Nir's Christian volunteers 'had brought home to me the strange status of the West Bank.
'Claimed by three major religions, it was sacred territory, in its own way a piece of the Bible, 'that several million people happen to live on.
'With a few days left in-country I was heading back south to see Daniel, this time at his home.
'Unlike the Jewish pioneers of East Jerusalem, Daniel lived away from the front lines of the conflict, 'though still in the West Bank, in the settlement of Ma'ale Adumim.
' Welcome to Ma'ale Adumim.
Thank you.
This is your humble abode? Well, modest, humble, call it what you like.
Have you lived here for a while? I have lived here in Ma'ale Adumim since we came to live in Israel.
Is this supposed to be growth? That's the extension of Ma'ale Adumim.
Where? It just looks like a barren hillside.
That's what this looked like until ten years ago.
How do you get water here? Where does the water come from? The underground aquifers, like the whole country.
It's magnificent.
The desert's abloom.
This is a miracle, no matter how you look at it, a miracle.
Ten years ago, this looked like that.
This is Hamis.
Hamis has helped me build the pergola which is going to be the tabernacle.
This is for the feast of the tabernacle Indeed it iswhich is coming up in a little while.
These two guys look like they're of Arab heritage and, um They're Israeli citizens.
.
.
And they're working here in an illegal settlement.
That's quite surprising.
Well, not really, because all Most builders in all these places are Arabs.
In a sense they're building themselves out of existence.
I'm not sure they see it that way.
He lives comfortably in a neighbourhood where there's Arabs, but he also knows that life is good under the Jews.
Do you ever have political conversations? Never.
Why? It never comes up.
'A little later we were heading back into Silwan.
'Daniel had offered to show my one last house in the Yemenite village, as he called it.
'Since my previous visit there had been reports of heightened tensions.
'Daniel and I travelled in as part of a protected settler convoy.
'Its unpopularity was soon made clear.
' Whoa! That hit us.
That was a rock.
That was a rock.
Two minutes away from the Old City.
Whoa! Well .
.
life in the Yemenite village.
It sounded like big ones.
That was a big boulder.
So this is the old Yemenite village.
This is the honey house, as you can see from here.
Yes.
You can see the Arabs purposely dump rubbish here the whole time.
This is a private residence, and not only has it been attacked by Molotov cocktails non-stop over the last few months, but rubbish is purposely dumped right at the entrance to the house.
Hi, shalom, it's Daniel.
It's not normal what's going on here, it's not normal.
Hi, are you Boaz? Yes.
Louis.
Nice to meet you.
He speaks Hebrew.
He doesn't speak English.
No English.
You've got two scary-looking guys standing behind you in flak jackets and dark glasses.
I don't know how scary they are.
They're not scary.
The government, the government, this is not private security, the government pays, just like the government looks after the residents around here with policemen, the government also looks after the Jews that are under fire, unfortunately, by the Arabs around here.
How do you get on with your neighbours? I haven't been inside your home, but this doesn't seem that great.
"That's why we're here, we're trying to make a change.
" Would you get a very favourable rent, given that he's sort of a pioneer in a hardship area? There's a standard rent for people that live in this area.
How much? We don't discuss anything to do with money, investments, donations, rents, etc.
That's not a reason that drives anyone to live in these places, what drives him is ideology.
They're throwing stones then running off.
It's not at you, it's not the BBC, it's having Jews around here.
It's like kids playing their games.
Unfortunately, games, it starts off with a small stone, then it's a concrete block, then it's a Molotov cocktail, and then it's shooting.
'Shortly after the stone throwing, the border police appeared on the scene.
' So if there's an incident, and even though that was pretty minor, the security will call the army in? It's not the army, it's the border patrol police.
And they'll just come in and just And make sure everything's fine, that there's no rioting.
It's not straightforward living, I'm not going to pretend for a second this is normal living, it's not normal living, but we either pack our bags and go back to the ovens of Auschwitz and I'll go back to the shores of Australia, or this is our land, and it means fighting for it to this very day.
We're basically still part of a war of independence, nothing much has changed.
Tactics have changed, but it's still a war of survival for the Jewish people in this area.
I want to remind you that what you see around you now never existed here in the past.
This place was open, the shops were open, everything open, everyone could shop here.
'Back in Hebron, and a party of Jewish American visitors was in town for the holidays.
'By special arrangement with the IDF they'd been allowed to take a walking tour of an Arab area, 'a part of town ordinarily closed off to Israelis for their own safety.
'In charge of security was Yoni.
' Two things, two important things, one is to stick together as one group, second thing, if something occurs, everybody, eyes on me and please listen to me.
OK? This area was a part of the Jewish community of Hebron.
The houses that we see around us were all belonging to Jews, were filled by Jews.
Look at this house.
This was a kosher bakery.
'Until the '20s a community of Jews lived here, but they were violently driven out during a pogrom.
'It was the dream of the Jewish settlers to be allowed to re-populate the area.
' How's it going? Great, even though we don't have time at all.
Is it a little bit tense? I don't feel tense.
But the soldiers do because they've got a big responsibility, to keep this whole group safe.
Yes.
It's a little bit surreal, isn't it? Surreal? Strange.
No, we're used to it, we do it every week.
My goodness.
I'm used to living with Arabs, you know that.
It's sort of the soldiers more than the Arabs that's the strange part.
It's time to go now.
As you know the Yeshiva was destroyed, the Jews were not allowed to leave their homes.
Are you enjoying it? I am enjoying it.
Are you finding it tense? Intense or tense? Tense.
Not really.
Little bit.
I'm pretty chilled.
No, you're not! You can feel the tension.
You can.
It felt safe.
I wonder why.
'There was an eerie quality to the tour, somewhere between embattled and entitled, 'organised by a fringe of the religious right, and yet fully protected by the army.
'I wondered whether even more of Hebron would one day become a so-called sterile zone.
'And then news broke, 'a Palestinian man had been shot dead by a settler guard in Silwan in circumstances that remained unclear.
'Rioting was widespread in East Jerusalem.
'I headed back into the area.
' 'I was hoping to get close to the action, 'and so I'd met up with a local Palestinian activist, Jawad Siyam.
' It's live bullets, you can hear it now.
From who? From either the settlers or the soldiers, but it's more from the settlers or their armed guards, because the soldiers use M16, and it's not M16, it's normal .
.
bullets, yeah, live bullets.
'During what sounded like a lull in the shooting 'Jawad guided me and a small group of Israeli human rights volunteers into the heart of the conflict.
' Who are? That's the honey house.
'We arrived back at the house I had visited with Daniel where Boaz lived with his family.
'It was now in the middle of the strange no man's land, 'protected by border guards awaiting the next round of action.
' We're from the BBC, can we talk to one of you? Not now.
Not now.
Do you think it's logical for a Jewish family to come to live in such a neighbourhood, completely neglected, and they tell you, "I want to live together," with gunned guards? But they do it for religious reasons, don't they? Ideological reasons.
Ideological reasons, transfer reasons, and imagine the children living here.
Transfer reasons? Transfer, to transfer Palestinians from here to make a Jewish majority.
Do you not feel a bit sorry for them in a way, that they're living here and experiencing this hostility? Do I show I live for them sorry to live here? Who told them to come to here first of all? Secondly, they come to steal houses, they are not coming to live here, they come to kick us out.
They say that they buy them.
Fake documents.
Fake documents? Fake documents.
And if the Jewish government want to have fun, want to have life, why should they come to this neighbourhood? If they want to is it their right? It's their right to action? OK, I tell you one thing, so they should give me the right to live elsewhere if I want.
It's a right for Jewish people only.
You feel you have a second-class citizenship.
I'm not second, I'm not third, I'm not fourth, I'm less than that, they consider me.
'The shooting soon started again, with the familiar volleys of tear gas.
'Among Palestinians a report was circulating 'of a toddler dying from exposure to the gas in the nearby suburb of Issawiya.
' 'By now it was the early hours of the morning, 'and local Palestinian fathers were coming out of their houses to remonstrate with police.
' 'I wondered if Boaz was still in his house, 'but I was also mindful of the role of the settlers and groups like Daniel's moving them into areas 'that had been won in war, and among people that didn't have the same rights.
' 'I was close to the end of my time in the West Bank, 'but before I left I decided to say goodbye to a couple of people.
'One was Yair, the young hilltop settler who lived in a tent in Havat Gilad.
' Is it a contradiction to say I'll break the state's law if necessary, but then expect the state security, the army, to protect you when you're doing so? Listen, I am very happy when the army is here, but we lived here, we fell down, it doesn't matter, we're going to stay here anyhow.
And if they tell you to leave, if the government tells you to leave? If they want they can take me by power, I'm going to come back.
Come back here.
Illegally.
This is our land.
You can come and kill us and do whatever you want, we are going to stay here, we're going to die for this country.
And kill for this country? If necessary, yes.
I don't know if mentally I can do it, but by the law of God you're supposed to do it.
You told me you were an atheist.
You like it? A lot.
It's very comforting.
Very comfortable.
It's very comforting to know that there's no-one up there looking after me.
It's very comfortable.
So I think you forgive me already, right? It's a stupid way of life.
What you are here for? You think you came from a monkey? That's not, erm Everybody likes to think there is a big thing behind us, not we are here just to work, get money, feed our children and die, and that's it.
You are supposed to be a good man, you are supposed to work for God, not just for yourself.
'A little later I said goodbye to Yair.
'He was celebrating the feast of the tabernacle with a few of the other residents of Havat Gilad 'under a newly built sukkah.
' I'm very happy now.
The holiday of the happiness.
'All of them were supporters of a greater Israel, 'against the Palestinians, even against the state of Israel itself.
'Back in Jerusalem, and the Old City was flooded with holidaymakers visiting for sukkot.
'But the city was also recovering from the rioting.
'Some of the settler houses had been targets, and before I left him, 'Daniel offered to show me the damage.
' The Arabs, they smashed everything here in this door.
Now, these are very powerful doors that hold six to eight people, but as you can see they have dented it, smashed the handle, smashed the intercom and the camera, etc.
Even if people don't like the fact that there are Jews living in this area, you don't try and kill Jews.
You see enmity between Arabs and Jews as in some ways biblically decreed? Yeah.
So in a sense is it possible that you are creating that enmity in order to fulfil the messianic programme that you believe in? As you just pointed out, it exists no matter what, it's something intrinsic.
We're not creating anything, because it exists there.
But you're exacerbating it.
No, we're not.
Well, in a literal sense you are.
The presence of the Jewish people, the presence of the Jewish people in their ancestral homeland upsets millions of people around the world.
the sons of Esau do not like the fact that the sons of Jacob have come back home.
Is it possible, Daniel, that you are a religious extremist? Not in the slightest.
How can I possibly? If I am extremist then millions of citizens and residents of Jerusalem, Judean Samaria and the whole of the state of Israel are also therefore extremists.
Hello.
'As part of the holiday season, Daniel's organisation had invited Jewish tour groups to experience 'the revival of Jewish life at some of their properties.
' Daniel, what's happening here right now? They are just getting ready.
For what? Getting ready for what? Getting ready for what? The groups that come here.
Remember Remember the tours? The tours.
There are a number of Shh! There are a number of different places OK.
There are a number of places throughout the whole of the Old City where different films are being shown, where groups are going on different routes, basically.
OK, marvellous.
He's going to be a little bit of a problem today with the groups coming in here.
He's going to scream, he's going to rant, and he's going to rave.
If need be I'll call the police, they'll Is it possible he's right about the chairs and the tables? So one of the tables is being used.
Big deal.
He sold it anyway, so it's not relative.
In the overall picture, this is nothing.
The point is you're in a sukkah in a building the Jews have gone back to, and there's going to be thousands of Jews here in the next three days.
There's the flag, there's the tabernacle, there's the house, there's Jewish life in a united Jerusalem, and there's nothing, nothing, that you or the world can do about it.
Nothing.
Most of these people here, they want to annihilate us.
You think they just want this area of the West Bank? They say it very openly, they want the whole thing.
Why are you disputing these facts? These are facts.
'I was deep inside the West Bank, the largely Arab area that Israel has occupied since 1967, 'spending time in a tiny and controversial sub-culture of ultra-nationalist Jewish settlers.
' Do you view Palestinians and Jews as equal? Er, no.
No? No.
They believe these lands were promised to Israel by God, and have made it their life's work to increase the Jewish presence here and oppose any sovereignty for Palestinians.
What I tell you is that the story of the Arabs having rights in the whole land are stories and lies.
Many are religious extremists, and yet they are protected by one of the world's most powerful armies.
Is it a little bit tense? I don't feel tense.
'And they are ready to resist any onslaught to re-establish the greater Jewish nation.
' Life in the Yemenite village.
Sounded like big ones.
This programme contains some strong language I was in Jerusalem, a city divided between Jews in the west and Arabs in the east, all of them under Israeli authority.
'With me was Daniel Luria, part of an ultra-religious Jewish organisation called Ateret Cohanim.
' Where is the most conflict? We're just about to go into it.
These intersections have had tons of incidents.
This one right here.
'We were in the heart of Silwan, one of the most deprived areas 'of East Jerusalem, populated by several thousand Palestinians 'and 60 Jewish settlers under heavy protection.
' These are security guys in here now? Um Are they doing patrol or are they ferrying passengers? It could be that they're coming to pick someone that's leaving or they're bringing someone back.
It's hard to know.
Well, there's your answer.
'Israel's control of East Jerusalem is considered illegal under international law, 'and yet Daniel's mission is to help Jewish donors buy up more Palestinian properties 'and find Jewish families to live in them.
' As you can see, it's very easy for the Arabs who live in close quarters here to just be across there, a few metres away, to throw across a concrete block, throw across a Molotov cocktail.
It doesn't matter whether there's kids here or not.
The hatred is so extreme it's just unbelievable, and it's unbearable.
Don't you feel you're partially responsible for putting those kids in harm's way? We are responsible to make sure that the Arabs don't get away with what they're doing.
This is a hot spot, isn't it? But actually And if we bend it's going to have ramifications for everyone.
.
.
there are places all over Israel Nowhere they can live much more safely.
Not at all.
Look where you are.
You are here at the outskirts at the centre of the Jewish world.
There's the Temple Mount.
East Jerusalem is still You can touch the Temple Mount, you can feel King David.
He's here.
You talk as though this land, this area means nothing to the Arab people.
Well, it doesn't.
It clearly does.
No.
We are here today.
This is the Jewish homeland, and there's never been a Palestinian people.
If they want to express themselves nationally they can express it somewhere else in one of the other states, maybe Jordan, which is primarily Palestinian origin in any case.
Why should it be at the expense of the Jewish homeland? My roots are here, not theirs.
A little later, the settler's battle-scarred armoured car made its way under police escort back down the hillside and past a Palestinian child acting as a lookout.
One of those looking on was an Arab neighbour of the settlers.
He doesn't accept that the Jews have returned home.
He doesn't like the fact that the Jews are here, full stop.
That's his problem.
The international community is on his side, really, in the sense that it doesn't recognise the validity of Israel.
.
Israel's annexation of East Jerusalem.
Correct.
And would view YOU as an interloper in HIS community.
OK, the world's got a problem.
There's nothing I can say about that, because you're right.
We're the only country in the world that accepts united Jerusalem.
I know that.
So I say, "OK, so what for the world?" It doesn't bother me.
In another part of Silwan, close to where it borders the Old City, live a family called the Adlers.
Hi, Yonatan? Louis.
'Yonatan and Devorah, originally from the USA, 'were moved in by a Jewish cultural group similar to Daniel's called El'ad.
'With their six children, they are helping to repopulate the Jewish community.
' Are you comfortable talking about security measures that you take? I mean, don't tell anybody, but we don't lock our doors.
You don't lock these doors, but there's a guard posted at a metal gate out front.
Right.
Yeah.
You hadn't noticed him? Yeah, no.
We have guards, there are security cameras.
And you have someone posted on the roof? Yeah.
A soldier? No.
A private security guard.
And then do you have escorts when you leave? We have, we have escorts.
So this is all your yard? This is all our backyard.
And across the hillside here we are basically talking about an Arab neighbourhood.
Yes.
Do you feel encircled a little bit? Encircled by buildings, yes, but I guess that's part of living in a city.
You don't feel encircled culturally or ethnically? Um, I don't think we view things that way.
You know, obviously there is a sense of animosity against Jews moving in here.
Do you not worry about your children a bit? Generally we don't have a tremendous problem, and I think our belief in being here is so strong.
Really, this place is part of our heart, and I think that we raise our children feeling that way also.
Did you say that you'd been in a vehicle when it had been stoned? We have been, yes.
You have been.
With your kids? Yes.
That must be frightening.
Um, I think it's unsettling.
For the kids? It's unsettling, yes, but it's something that we speak with them about.
Did they start crying? No.
I think it's something that they are aware of.
And God forbid, if one of the kids got hurt? We hope that it never comes to that, but for us this is home, and we're not running away because a rock is thrown.
'The West Bank is home to about 2.
5 million Palestinians and 300,000 Jewish settlers.
'Many of these settlers live in modern suburban communities.
'They're considered illegal under most interpretations of international law, 'though the Israeli government disputes this and gives the settlements its backing.
'But there is also a hard-core fringe of settlers who've defied even Israeli law 'and built makeshift hilltop encampments.
'One of these is 17-year-old Yair Lieberman.
' Can we come in? Of course.
It's a place you can come any time.
Who lives in here? Me and three other guys.
Three other young guys? Yes.
Tell me a little bit about where we are.
It's called It's called Havat Gilad, and it's built eight years ago.
How long has this structure been here? A year, nearly one year.
Nearly one year? Yes.
So where you want to go now? Which is your bed? This is my bed, the most mess! This one? No, this one.
The most mess, I told you.
This is all the rabbis These are all rabbis that you like? Yes.
You're hooked up to electricity? Yes.
From where? We have a generator here.
Do you? Yes.
The state don't give us electricity.
Why not? Because they think we are illegal.
Why is it so important to you that you should be here? Why not somewhere, you know, near Tel Aviv, or Because nobody is here.
If we weren't here there is Arabic town over there, and over there, and over there and over there.
If we are not here this is a city, and we don't want another city.
You don't want another Palestinian city.
I don't want another Palestinian city, no.
Why? Why? Because it's my land.
It's the land of Israel, not the land of Palestinian.
A Palestinian would say, "Well, this is my home.
" This is your home because you took it from me.
Do you view Palestinians and Jews as equal? Er, no.
No? No.
Jews are the, how you say it, um the chosen.
We're not going to go from here.
What will happen to the Palestinians? The Palestinians, I don't know.
God will do with them whatever he wants.
I don't know, I stay here.
I think this is God's will, I feel this is God's will, and it's not only me, and thousands and thousands of other settlements.
This is already by the police and army, this is already Arab land, it's not ours.
It's ours, but we can't touch it.
If we go over there you can get arrested.
You see.
Would you build somewhere over there? Why not? Why shouldn't I? You just said you'd get arrested.
So? I'd get arrested.
You can really only be here because the army's protecting you.
No, I'm going to stay here even though the army not going to protect me.
You'd give your life to stay here? I don't know.
God, er I don't know.
I say, "get to the bridge, we're going to cross it.
" 'Most of the West Bank is still under Israeli military occupation, 'and so opposition to the settlements 'and to the Jewish presence generally is dealt with by the army.
'A colonel in the IDF, the Israeli Defence Force, had agreed to take me to one of their regular fixtures, 'policing a Palestinian protest against the security barrier that separates Israel from the West Bank.
'It takes place every week outside the small town of Ni'lin.
' OK? Yes.
Here comes one.
What is it? And the soldiers The soldiers are running in.
Yeah.
The people Are they running away? Yeah, running away.
Is it? Yeah.
'After an opening salvo from the IDF, we made our way across the security barrier.
' Look at the stones.
'I'd been told one of the reasons Ni'lin emerged as a regular spot for protests 'was its proximity to Tel Aviv.
'It was a convenient location for left-wing Israelis and internationals 'who wanted to show their support for the Palestinian cause.
'The previous year one unlucky protestor had taken a canister to the chest and died, 'and injuries on both sides were not uncommon, 'but on this occasion there were no casualties.
' What if you just left them? And then you do it again? Yeah.
So just back and forth.
Yeah.
Like a ritual.
Yeah.
'I was back in Jerusalem for an appointment with Daniel.
' Hi, Daniel.
Thank you.
Sorry we're late.
Good morning.
'This time our destination was the heart of the Old City.
'Daniel's organisation had recently helped a donor to acquire a number of apartments in the Muslim quarter, 'adding to its portfolio of around 50 buildings.
' So this is your most recent acquisition, is that correct? Well, once again, when I say yours, it's not the organisation.
It's an individual either in Israel or overseas that has acquired this particular building.
It's a rather unique building as you can see, from the point of view that it's not just a single apartment.
Who owns it? Jewish concerns.
Can you identify them? I don't have a right to discuss about, you know, private investors that want to invest, whether they want to be known or not to be known.
I'm not sure how relevant it is, anyway.
Do you see anything the least bit out of whack with, let's say, a foreign donor donating funds that displace a man who's been in a property for several generations? Just that in a nutshell.
We don't challenge any other person round the world who wants to invest in Manhattan or London, so why should the BBC or anyone in the world be concerned that a Jew is investing in the heart of the most important city for him as a Jew? That's a very simple thing.
For a Jew, Jerusalem is central to everything.
Why are you angry? OK.
Is there anything as far as you know in the idea that more units were grabbed than was legally No, no, no.
If there was then the police would never have allowed it to happen on the first night, neither would the courts.
They've been here for a month now.
No, no, it's nothing like that.
The issue is just something with him.
There's a lot of stuff here that belonged to the Arab that he obviously didn't want.
But they just left all their stuff here.
Well, not all of it, but there's some stuff.
You've got to remember there were, you know, we're talking about two Arab families.
For them to physically walk out of the house before the sale with all this stuff would have aroused too much of an issue.
Really? Another problem for them.
Would they have sort of left in the middle of the night, kind of thing? I can't really discuss exactly how they left and why they left the way they did.
It's a law in the Arab world.
They're not allowed to sell to Jews, therefore if they do, one has to be very careful to give some type of cover story or protection to look after the Arabs that sell.
It's an absurd situation.
So where are these Arabs now, the ones who were living here? They're living comfortably in some other Arab neighbourhood, either Somewhere in Israel, I imagine.
Sort of incognito.
No, not at all.
Not at all.
Well, if it's known that they sold? Well, not everyone knows that they sold, and certain claims were made that maybe the Jews came in at a certain time.
Like I said, I can't really go into the whole issue.
You're suggesting they may have created a cover story? Some things we can talk about, some things we can't talk about.
'45 minutes south of Jerusalem is the city of Hebron.
'Like the rest of the West Bank, it was taken by Israel in 1967.
'With an Arab population of 160,000, 'most of Hebron is now policed by the Palestinian Authority, 'but the heart of the city is home to a tiny enclave of 700 or 800 Jewish settlers, 'and remains under military occupation.
'Here the Jews live in a secure bubble, 'a strange ghost town in which literally hundreds of Arab shops 'have either been closed down by the Israeli army or gone out of business.
'My contact here was the head of security for the Hebron Jewish community, Yoni Blackmard.
' Good to see you.
That's my car over there, and we can use the van over there.
As well? That's the ambulance? Yeah.
For evacuating wounded people.
Why would people be wounded? Shots.
Terrorist attacks.
We've got plenty of those.
Really? Yes, unfortunately.
So this is all bulletproof? Yes.
360 degrees bulletproof.
'Yoni took me on a tour of the secure area, or sterile zone.
' So this is a checkpoint? Yes.
And over there begins what? H1, Arab territory.
The Palestinian Authority are over there? Yes, it is.
You can't go through there? No, it's not safe for us to go.
If we go inside we could get murdered, we could get stoned, we could get killed.
These Palestinians going back and forth, what's their story? Shopping.
They're going to the city to shop, buy things, and go back to their houses over here.
And so they have to go through a checkpoint to go shopping? How come there aren't No, no, no, no.
To enter the Arab zone they don't need to be checked, but coming back they need to be checked, because the army not once, not twice discovered ammunition and knives, cold ammunition that they tried to smuggle into the safety zone over here.
Now, what's happened to the shops here? They were closed for security measures.
The army closed them down.
And there's no cars or buses here for Palestinians? For Palestinians, on this road, no, it's a safe zone.
Safe zone isit's sterile.
Do you feel embarrassed to see settlers have scrawled stars of David on the old Arab shops? Yes.
If it's not theirs, absolutely.
It's not right.
It's been reported that Arabs have suffered a campaign of harassment from Jewish settlers in Hebron, including graffiti and stone throwing, abuse.
There were incidents, of course there were incidents, unfortunately, but you cannot compare.
Some Arabs chuck stones at some Jewish settlers, the settlers do what? Well Call the Israeli army? Police.
Police.
Police and army, yes.
If some Jewish settlers chuck stones at some Arabs? The Arabs call the police and the army.
They call the Israeli Yes, yes.
Over here, yes.
But can you see how there would be a perception that because they are Israeli that the Israelis would not enforce the law, that the military would not uphold the security in favour of the Arabs in the same way they would in favour of the Israeli? No, cos that's not democracy.
And do Arabs here have the vote? To the Israeli Knesset? No.
No, they do not.
So that's That isn't democracy.
Yes, it is.
Can you choose to the Knesset? Well, I don't live here.
I cannot vote for their municipality and their parliament, they can.
They are part of the Arab parliament.
'Hebron has a unique importance for believers in the Old Testament 'as the final resting place of Abraham and his family here in the Tomb of the Patriarchs, 'and so it felt fitting to be invited to attend a circumcision, or bris.
'One of those present was the child's grandmother, Shirley Zissman, originally from Scotland, 'now resident of the West Bank settlement of Kedumim.
' Does it have a special meaning for you having your grandson's bris in Hebron? I never in my life dreamed that I would have such an honour to come to Hebron and make the bris of our grandchildren, the circumcision ceremony here.
This is his brother, he is a year and a half.
That's the bigger brother of the baby that's going under the knife? It is.
He doesn't have to worry.
No.
He's done it.
He's done it already.
The baby will get over it, as well.
Everybody gets over it.
Does it hurt? I don't know, I didn't do it.
'According to the Bible, Abraham was the first Jewish man, 'his circumcision a sign of his covenant with God, 'and God's commitment to providing for the Jewish people, a tradition that continues to this day.
' 'Part of God's promise was that the land of Israel would belong to Abraham's descendants, 'and so the bris was also a kind of guarantee of inheritance.
' 'After the ceremony I learned that the child had been named Amichai, or My Nation Lives.
'Back up in the area around Havat Gilad, and the hillsides were in flames.
'I'd had word that the Israeli army had dismantled a house and a goat shed 'at a Jewish settlement called Givat Ronen that was well known for its radical views.
'Given that the whole settlement was illegal under Israeli law, the action seemed somewhat tokenistic, 'but in return some of the settler youth had apparently taken reprisals 'against local Palestinians by setting fires.
'It was a practice known as price tagging.
'An Israeli member of parliament had turned out to show his support for the settlement.
' Louis.
BBC.
Hi.
Good to meet you.
Your name? Member of Knesset, Michael Ben-Ari.
What happened last night? The vandalism.
'Though they'd been set by settlers, the fires had spread across land farmed by Jews.
'One of those attempting to put out the flames 'was a local Israeli wine maker and tour guide called Nir Levi.
' Whose trees are they? My friend, my neighbour's.
They are Israeli trees.
All this area is going to be burned because a man and a lady and a child were living in this house, and this morning from out of the blue someone came and tore it down.
Not someone, the Ministry of Defence came to tear it down.
And what's the connection with the fires? Well, the fires I think are only a conclusion after what happened.
Maybe some people got a bit frustrated, and we are now taking out these fires.
And where we live is at stake, right? Our trees, our investments, our environment.
It's a pity.
Shouldn't you be angry at the people who set the fires? No.
Why? Because what happened, the people blockaded their entrances as a normal person will do if they will come to wreck your house down, and the fires started, you know.
They burned some tyres and then it got out of hand? Of course.
Was it price tagging? Er, for them, yes.
You know, the young settlers, they have a lot of enthusiasm, and, you know, it's their house.
You see your house going down, your investment, you get rage, right? Is it possible there was a plan to burn Palestinian trees? No.
You see actually that it's not, and if you ask me those questions I will ask you for this minute to dismiss yourself from this interview.
'I was on my way to the town of Nabi Saleh.
'Like many other Palestinian towns it is involuntarily twinned 'with a much newer Israeli settlement, this one called Halamish.
'Nabi Saleh is also the venue for a regular weekly protest 'against the occupation, which I was hoping to experience first-hand.
'As at Ni'lin, the protest started after prayers and took the form of a march through the town, 'the idea being to reach a spring near the settlement.
' What are you doing? Fuck off.
Get away from here.
Go back.
What are you doing? Go back.
What are you doing? Go back.
'After the army had repulsed the marchers, the formal part of the protest seemed to end.
'The Israeli soldiers took control of the town square, and the protesting became more freeform.
' No problem.
That's the accent, eh? This is strange.
It feels like a game, almost.
You said you've got to know the commander quite well.
Danny, you said his name is Danny? Yeah.
Do you think you could be his friend? 'Down the hill, word came that a Palestinian youth was being arrested.
' What happened? 'One of those trying to obstruct the arrest was the sympathiser from Denmark, 'and he was next to be taken.
' He's done nothing wrong.
He's done nothing illegal.
What is wrong with you? Hey! 'The afternoon passed with more stone throwing and taunting on the Palestinian side 'and the army's fruitless efforts to pin down the culprits, most of whom were children.
'I couldn't help feeling baffled as to the commander's objectives, 'given the futility of trying to bring the town to order.
' Out of shape.
Out of shape, man.
Was that a good one? Huh? Out of shape, guys.
Out of shape.
Whoa! You threw a stone at us.
BBC.
Hi.
How are you doing? We think you are Israeli, you know.
That's all right.
We're sorry.
Don't worry.
Do you hate the Israelis? Yes.
We hate Israelis.
What I feel if Israeli come and kill my friend and destroy my life and steal my land, what's my feel? What's your feel if Israeli come and destroy you and kill you? I hate Israel, and forever I hate Israel.
Would you like to take all the land back all the way to Tel Aviv? In my heart I want all Palestine.
Yes.
And Netanyahu go to hell.
And Hamas? Hamas? Hamas fire rockets, don't they? Fire rockets at the Israeli people and blow up buses and things like this, Hamas.
Hamas, OK in bus, but what's happened in Gaza? You know what's happened in Gaza.
Israeli destroy Gaza, kill our children.
We are human, they kill us, and what's happened? If I can go to Israel and destroy Israel I am from now go to Israel and destroy Israel.
'Late in the day, seeming to tire of playing cat and mouse with an entire village, 'the army finally withdrew, with a farewell volley of tear gas.
'A few nights later, and settlers were rallying with soldiers and politicians 'on a hilltop overlooking Nablus, the site of Joseph's tomb, 'and now home to around 130,000 Palestinians.
'Some of the talk was of the need to march on the city and reclaim it for the Jews.
'There was a widespread view that the Israeli government was too weak and conciliatory.
'Far from wanting to give up any of the occupied land, 'for these settlers the aim was to take back everything controlled by the Palestinian Authority.
'I was with Nir, the wine maker who I'd first met when he was putting out flames on the hillside.
' This is the vineyards, what you see, these are the vineyards.
'He'd offered to show me his vineyard and the army of volunteers he had working there, 'a coach-load of devout Christians, almost all of them from America.
'Deep in the occupied territories and within sight of a Palestinian town, 'tourists were working land that the international community, the US included, viewed as illegal.
' Shalom, Martin.
Shalom, Nir.
Your name, sir? Martin.
Martin.
I'm Louis.
Louis, I'm from Denver, Colorado.
This is my third time here.
How long are you out here for? I came for a month.
You came here for a whole month? Is it a vacation or is it a What is it? You're not getting paid to work here.
No, it's a labour of love for the nation of Israel and for the people here, to see that they prosper in the West Bank and help them fulfil the prophetic calling that's on this land.
Why do you feel it's important for you to be here? It's about acting out the love that we have.
The Bible talks about not just loving in word but also in deed and in actions, and so when you pick a vine and a cluster of grapes and you get to hold them in your hands it's like you're part of prophecy, of scripture, you're part of the promises that God has made.
Good job! Whoo! Awesome! 'Back at the winery, and one of Nir's young recruits 'was hoping to take his commitment to Israel even further by volunteering for its military.
' This guy here, he wants to join the IDF.
Can you imagine such a thing? Is that allowed? No.
He's just touring, but he has his spirit with Israel.
You want to join the IDF? Yeah, sure.
Why? They're the chosen people, you know.
Who? The Jews.
The Jewish people are the chosen people.
You've always believed that, based on the Bible? Not always.
It's kind of something I'm coming into, just with the revelation you get being here.
It's good stuff.
This is the Mount Blessed wine area, and here we have now the 2010 vintage.
That's the whole grape in there, the skin and everything? Skin, seed, everything.
And here you see the grapes are now in fermentation.
Can I do that, what you just did? No, no, you can't.
Why? Cos it's kosher.
It's kosher wine, and kosher wine can only That's quite rude, isn't it? Yes.
Cos I'm unclean? No, it's not because of that.
I'm not ceremonially entitled.
I'm not allowed to drink your wine.
But then what about those guys, those Christians? They're not kosher, are they? They're allowed to bring, you saw like today, they bring in the grapes from the vineyard until the factory room of the winery.
They are not allowed inside.
Do they mind? No.
They want to serve us.
Do you find it a bit strange that they want to, the Americans want To serve? Want to come and serve you? It was for me strange at the beginning, but I can understand it.
Through this, they are redeeming themselves.
For them it's deeply spiritual, isn't it? Yes, I think so.
Do you think they also understand that it's political? Less.
Less.
They don't come on the political side.
'The experience of meeting Nir's Christian volunteers 'had brought home to me the strange status of the West Bank.
'Claimed by three major religions, it was sacred territory, in its own way a piece of the Bible, 'that several million people happen to live on.
'With a few days left in-country I was heading back south to see Daniel, this time at his home.
'Unlike the Jewish pioneers of East Jerusalem, Daniel lived away from the front lines of the conflict, 'though still in the West Bank, in the settlement of Ma'ale Adumim.
' Welcome to Ma'ale Adumim.
Thank you.
This is your humble abode? Well, modest, humble, call it what you like.
Have you lived here for a while? I have lived here in Ma'ale Adumim since we came to live in Israel.
Is this supposed to be growth? That's the extension of Ma'ale Adumim.
Where? It just looks like a barren hillside.
That's what this looked like until ten years ago.
How do you get water here? Where does the water come from? The underground aquifers, like the whole country.
It's magnificent.
The desert's abloom.
This is a miracle, no matter how you look at it, a miracle.
Ten years ago, this looked like that.
This is Hamis.
Hamis has helped me build the pergola which is going to be the tabernacle.
This is for the feast of the tabernacle Indeed it iswhich is coming up in a little while.
These two guys look like they're of Arab heritage and, um They're Israeli citizens.
.
.
And they're working here in an illegal settlement.
That's quite surprising.
Well, not really, because all Most builders in all these places are Arabs.
In a sense they're building themselves out of existence.
I'm not sure they see it that way.
He lives comfortably in a neighbourhood where there's Arabs, but he also knows that life is good under the Jews.
Do you ever have political conversations? Never.
Why? It never comes up.
'A little later we were heading back into Silwan.
'Daniel had offered to show my one last house in the Yemenite village, as he called it.
'Since my previous visit there had been reports of heightened tensions.
'Daniel and I travelled in as part of a protected settler convoy.
'Its unpopularity was soon made clear.
' Whoa! That hit us.
That was a rock.
That was a rock.
Two minutes away from the Old City.
Whoa! Well .
.
life in the Yemenite village.
It sounded like big ones.
That was a big boulder.
So this is the old Yemenite village.
This is the honey house, as you can see from here.
Yes.
You can see the Arabs purposely dump rubbish here the whole time.
This is a private residence, and not only has it been attacked by Molotov cocktails non-stop over the last few months, but rubbish is purposely dumped right at the entrance to the house.
Hi, shalom, it's Daniel.
It's not normal what's going on here, it's not normal.
Hi, are you Boaz? Yes.
Louis.
Nice to meet you.
He speaks Hebrew.
He doesn't speak English.
No English.
You've got two scary-looking guys standing behind you in flak jackets and dark glasses.
I don't know how scary they are.
They're not scary.
The government, the government, this is not private security, the government pays, just like the government looks after the residents around here with policemen, the government also looks after the Jews that are under fire, unfortunately, by the Arabs around here.
How do you get on with your neighbours? I haven't been inside your home, but this doesn't seem that great.
"That's why we're here, we're trying to make a change.
" Would you get a very favourable rent, given that he's sort of a pioneer in a hardship area? There's a standard rent for people that live in this area.
How much? We don't discuss anything to do with money, investments, donations, rents, etc.
That's not a reason that drives anyone to live in these places, what drives him is ideology.
They're throwing stones then running off.
It's not at you, it's not the BBC, it's having Jews around here.
It's like kids playing their games.
Unfortunately, games, it starts off with a small stone, then it's a concrete block, then it's a Molotov cocktail, and then it's shooting.
'Shortly after the stone throwing, the border police appeared on the scene.
' So if there's an incident, and even though that was pretty minor, the security will call the army in? It's not the army, it's the border patrol police.
And they'll just come in and just And make sure everything's fine, that there's no rioting.
It's not straightforward living, I'm not going to pretend for a second this is normal living, it's not normal living, but we either pack our bags and go back to the ovens of Auschwitz and I'll go back to the shores of Australia, or this is our land, and it means fighting for it to this very day.
We're basically still part of a war of independence, nothing much has changed.
Tactics have changed, but it's still a war of survival for the Jewish people in this area.
I want to remind you that what you see around you now never existed here in the past.
This place was open, the shops were open, everything open, everyone could shop here.
'Back in Hebron, and a party of Jewish American visitors was in town for the holidays.
'By special arrangement with the IDF they'd been allowed to take a walking tour of an Arab area, 'a part of town ordinarily closed off to Israelis for their own safety.
'In charge of security was Yoni.
' Two things, two important things, one is to stick together as one group, second thing, if something occurs, everybody, eyes on me and please listen to me.
OK? This area was a part of the Jewish community of Hebron.
The houses that we see around us were all belonging to Jews, were filled by Jews.
Look at this house.
This was a kosher bakery.
'Until the '20s a community of Jews lived here, but they were violently driven out during a pogrom.
'It was the dream of the Jewish settlers to be allowed to re-populate the area.
' How's it going? Great, even though we don't have time at all.
Is it a little bit tense? I don't feel tense.
But the soldiers do because they've got a big responsibility, to keep this whole group safe.
Yes.
It's a little bit surreal, isn't it? Surreal? Strange.
No, we're used to it, we do it every week.
My goodness.
I'm used to living with Arabs, you know that.
It's sort of the soldiers more than the Arabs that's the strange part.
It's time to go now.
As you know the Yeshiva was destroyed, the Jews were not allowed to leave their homes.
Are you enjoying it? I am enjoying it.
Are you finding it tense? Intense or tense? Tense.
Not really.
Little bit.
I'm pretty chilled.
No, you're not! You can feel the tension.
You can.
It felt safe.
I wonder why.
'There was an eerie quality to the tour, somewhere between embattled and entitled, 'organised by a fringe of the religious right, and yet fully protected by the army.
'I wondered whether even more of Hebron would one day become a so-called sterile zone.
'And then news broke, 'a Palestinian man had been shot dead by a settler guard in Silwan in circumstances that remained unclear.
'Rioting was widespread in East Jerusalem.
'I headed back into the area.
' 'I was hoping to get close to the action, 'and so I'd met up with a local Palestinian activist, Jawad Siyam.
' It's live bullets, you can hear it now.
From who? From either the settlers or the soldiers, but it's more from the settlers or their armed guards, because the soldiers use M16, and it's not M16, it's normal .
.
bullets, yeah, live bullets.
'During what sounded like a lull in the shooting 'Jawad guided me and a small group of Israeli human rights volunteers into the heart of the conflict.
' Who are? That's the honey house.
'We arrived back at the house I had visited with Daniel where Boaz lived with his family.
'It was now in the middle of the strange no man's land, 'protected by border guards awaiting the next round of action.
' We're from the BBC, can we talk to one of you? Not now.
Not now.
Do you think it's logical for a Jewish family to come to live in such a neighbourhood, completely neglected, and they tell you, "I want to live together," with gunned guards? But they do it for religious reasons, don't they? Ideological reasons.
Ideological reasons, transfer reasons, and imagine the children living here.
Transfer reasons? Transfer, to transfer Palestinians from here to make a Jewish majority.
Do you not feel a bit sorry for them in a way, that they're living here and experiencing this hostility? Do I show I live for them sorry to live here? Who told them to come to here first of all? Secondly, they come to steal houses, they are not coming to live here, they come to kick us out.
They say that they buy them.
Fake documents.
Fake documents? Fake documents.
And if the Jewish government want to have fun, want to have life, why should they come to this neighbourhood? If they want to is it their right? It's their right to action? OK, I tell you one thing, so they should give me the right to live elsewhere if I want.
It's a right for Jewish people only.
You feel you have a second-class citizenship.
I'm not second, I'm not third, I'm not fourth, I'm less than that, they consider me.
'The shooting soon started again, with the familiar volleys of tear gas.
'Among Palestinians a report was circulating 'of a toddler dying from exposure to the gas in the nearby suburb of Issawiya.
' 'By now it was the early hours of the morning, 'and local Palestinian fathers were coming out of their houses to remonstrate with police.
' 'I wondered if Boaz was still in his house, 'but I was also mindful of the role of the settlers and groups like Daniel's moving them into areas 'that had been won in war, and among people that didn't have the same rights.
' 'I was close to the end of my time in the West Bank, 'but before I left I decided to say goodbye to a couple of people.
'One was Yair, the young hilltop settler who lived in a tent in Havat Gilad.
' Is it a contradiction to say I'll break the state's law if necessary, but then expect the state security, the army, to protect you when you're doing so? Listen, I am very happy when the army is here, but we lived here, we fell down, it doesn't matter, we're going to stay here anyhow.
And if they tell you to leave, if the government tells you to leave? If they want they can take me by power, I'm going to come back.
Come back here.
Illegally.
This is our land.
You can come and kill us and do whatever you want, we are going to stay here, we're going to die for this country.
And kill for this country? If necessary, yes.
I don't know if mentally I can do it, but by the law of God you're supposed to do it.
You told me you were an atheist.
You like it? A lot.
It's very comforting.
Very comfortable.
It's very comforting to know that there's no-one up there looking after me.
It's very comfortable.
So I think you forgive me already, right? It's a stupid way of life.
What you are here for? You think you came from a monkey? That's not, erm Everybody likes to think there is a big thing behind us, not we are here just to work, get money, feed our children and die, and that's it.
You are supposed to be a good man, you are supposed to work for God, not just for yourself.
'A little later I said goodbye to Yair.
'He was celebrating the feast of the tabernacle with a few of the other residents of Havat Gilad 'under a newly built sukkah.
' I'm very happy now.
The holiday of the happiness.
'All of them were supporters of a greater Israel, 'against the Palestinians, even against the state of Israel itself.
'Back in Jerusalem, and the Old City was flooded with holidaymakers visiting for sukkot.
'But the city was also recovering from the rioting.
'Some of the settler houses had been targets, and before I left him, 'Daniel offered to show me the damage.
' The Arabs, they smashed everything here in this door.
Now, these are very powerful doors that hold six to eight people, but as you can see they have dented it, smashed the handle, smashed the intercom and the camera, etc.
Even if people don't like the fact that there are Jews living in this area, you don't try and kill Jews.
You see enmity between Arabs and Jews as in some ways biblically decreed? Yeah.
So in a sense is it possible that you are creating that enmity in order to fulfil the messianic programme that you believe in? As you just pointed out, it exists no matter what, it's something intrinsic.
We're not creating anything, because it exists there.
But you're exacerbating it.
No, we're not.
Well, in a literal sense you are.
The presence of the Jewish people, the presence of the Jewish people in their ancestral homeland upsets millions of people around the world.
the sons of Esau do not like the fact that the sons of Jacob have come back home.
Is it possible, Daniel, that you are a religious extremist? Not in the slightest.
How can I possibly? If I am extremist then millions of citizens and residents of Jerusalem, Judean Samaria and the whole of the state of Israel are also therefore extremists.
Hello.
'As part of the holiday season, Daniel's organisation had invited Jewish tour groups to experience 'the revival of Jewish life at some of their properties.
' Daniel, what's happening here right now? They are just getting ready.
For what? Getting ready for what? Getting ready for what? The groups that come here.
Remember Remember the tours? The tours.
There are a number of Shh! There are a number of different places OK.
There are a number of places throughout the whole of the Old City where different films are being shown, where groups are going on different routes, basically.
OK, marvellous.
He's going to be a little bit of a problem today with the groups coming in here.
He's going to scream, he's going to rant, and he's going to rave.
If need be I'll call the police, they'll Is it possible he's right about the chairs and the tables? So one of the tables is being used.
Big deal.
He sold it anyway, so it's not relative.
In the overall picture, this is nothing.
The point is you're in a sukkah in a building the Jews have gone back to, and there's going to be thousands of Jews here in the next three days.
There's the flag, there's the tabernacle, there's the house, there's Jewish life in a united Jerusalem, and there's nothing, nothing, that you or the world can do about it.
Nothing.