Raad Amer (Mas’ha Coalition):
‘Film to represent the people of Deir Ballut’

Villagers received a one-page notification in Arabic about land confiscation. They are waiting for a meeting with members of the Civilian Administration, who would show them the land in question (which has already been marked out). Most of the people of Deir Ballut are refugees of ’48 and ’67. They invoke the memories of loosing land in those wars.

The villagers refuse to go along with the Civilian Administrator who comes with the full Hebrew document, who is a Druze and Arabic speaking. He repeats “I am only the messenger, this is the decision of the Israeli Government”. Villagers reply “the Israeli Prime Minister decided for the Israeli and not for the Palestinian people. We don’t want another Naqba (catastrophe). We never leave our land.”

The Civilian Administrator and engineer (also a Druze) leave without having concluded the meeting. There are no new developments yet around the village, as it lies on the route of that part of the fence that would include the “fjord” of Ariel and other settlements, which has not been given total green light yet.

The Alternative Information Center (AIC)

“[…] In The Hague, states abstained from appearing in court for they considered the wall to be only a small part of a complex political reality…”

The AIC is a Palestinian-Israeli organization (with offices in Bethlehem and Jerusalem) which disseminates information, research and political analysis on Palestinian and Israeli societies as well as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, while promoting cooperation between Palestinians and Israelis based on the values of social justice, solidarity and community involvement.

The AIC activities and publications offer a critical discussion of the political realities and their implementation since the Oslo Accords, with special attention to radical democratic struggles, critical perspectives on the colonial nature of the State of Israel, and the Authoritarian features emerging in the Palestinian Authority.

AIC: Jerusalem 72%-28%, Living Apartheid

“Since the occupation and illegal annexation of East Jerusalem in 1967, Israel has implemented a series of apartheid measures in order to preserve a Jewish majority in Jerusalem. With the construction of the separation wall, Israel is now cutting Jerusalem off completely from the surrounding Palestinian cities and villages.

A team of the AIC met with residents of East Jerusalem and the surrounding Palestinian areas to film the realities of the Israeli apartheid system. This film captures the courage of Jerusalem residents and the Palestinian ad Israeli activists as they engage in the daily struggle for the basic human rights of Palestinians of east Jerusalem.”

Director: Eran Torbiner
Photographer: Natasha Dudinski / Additional photography: Eran Torbiner, Naama Nagar
Producers: AIC (in cooperation with the Basque Government/PTM)

Shai Carmeli-Pollak: Demos against the Wall

There are three different forces deployed at the route of the barrier which come into contact with demonstrators: the Border Police (blue and grey), the IDF (olive green) and other private civilian security company hired by the Ministry of Defence (black) to protect construction property. They are not to let demonstrators stop the construction. In case of disturbances the instructions of the first two forces are the following: 1st they are supposed to shout a warning, 2nd they are supposed to use teargas and concussion grenades and 3rd, they can use their clubs and rubber bullets. The third has no permission to shoot whatsoever.

1st footage - demonstration near Beit Liqya:
[…] The soldiers were not prepared for such a demonstration. First they were shooting only in the air. When the demonstrators decided to replant a tree in the middle of the just bulldozed path for the route of the barrier, the symbolic act triggered violence.

2nd footage – demonstration northwest of Deir Qaddis:
After four hours of quiet demonstration, the soldiers fired teargas and rubber bullets for another four hours.

3rd footage – demonstration near Beit Liqya:
About 200 m from the village, where the bulldozers are. The children were kept behind. Women, older men were demonstrating. Soldiers threw much teargas and were shooting far towards the youth.

4th footage – at Beituniya:
The demonstration was quiet for hours. Then one jeep decided to enter the village, but was blocked by demonstrators, one of whom finding himself on top of it. Later they attacked the demonstrators, trying to scare them into the village. They concentrated on Israelis, whom they called collaborators.

5th footage – Qatanna:
Bulldozers were working high above the village. Soldiers throw many teargas cans down, into the village below, which often ended up in the houses themselves. One family, which was just watching TV with their children, was evacuated from a house into which a teargas can fell. Many huge boulders came tumbling down the steep hill for lack of adequate care on the part of the contractor working on the barrier.

6th footage – ‘They tell us ‘there is no one to talk to on the other side’’. This was a slogan ever since the failure of the Camp David talks, which was uncritically accepted by the majority of the Israeli public and was much critically reviewed since. Many initiatives and organizations focused on disproving that.

7th footage – What does it mean to grow up with such debris?

The government is succeeding to break the demonstrations with its brutal force. It is sending the clear message that popular and non-violent demonstrations have no chance to be effective.

Film list:

Behind the Fence
45 min, 2003
Directed by Inigo Gilmore

Muren
36 min, 2004
Directed by Joergen Flindt Petersen and Erik Skibsted

Building Security
35 min, 2004
Directed by Olof Sjölund

“Fear and Despair”
10 min, 2004
Footage compiled and edited by Michael Dwyer
From Holy Land: Common Ground, a film by Ed Gaffney and Alicia Dwyer

The Cage
27 min, 2004
Directed by Omar Nazzal

Temporary Inconvenience
40 min, 2004
Directed by Daniel Sivan and Yoni Massey

Demonstrations against the wall
54 min, 2004
Directed by Shai Carmeli

Democracy isn’t built on demonstrators’ bodies
33 min, 2004
Directed by David Masi

Jerusalem 28%-72%: Living Apartheid
22 min, 2003
Directed by Eran Torbiner / Alternative Information Center

Women Crossing Borders:
A comme il faux Exercise
3 min, 2004
Directed by Uri Dagan

Ta’ayush in Abu Dis, Southern Hebron Mountain and Salfit
15 min, 2004
Directed by Rona Even

Coalition of Women for Peace:
Women Resist the Occupation
21 min, 2004
Directed by Claudia (Cala) Levin and Rona Even

Straddling the Fence
54 min, 2003
Directed by Thomas L. Friedman

Route 181
270 min, 2004
Directed by Eyal Sivan and Michel Khleifi

August
72 min, 2002
Directed by Avi Mograbi