It's Better to Jump (2013) - full transcript

- I remember when I was
eight years old, I drowned.

We were playing swords, it was winter,

and the waves were so high, and

I had coats, and I was sweating,

and we were playing swords, and I fell.

The waves used to, you know, push me

to the walls and back, push
me to the walls and back.

I took for people 20
minutes, and I almost drowned

and I almost was dead.

I suffered a lot, but
still, I faced the sea,

I faced the water, and I think



this is the bravado thing to do.

- The history of Akka
began 4,500 years ago.

I am Canaanite before being Palestinian.

- Akka became a symbol of the verges

of the modern Palestine,
because it was a coastal city

that interacted with the outside world

in a vigorous trading relationship.

It was also the seat of
a succession of rulers,

who really maintained this great walled

city as a seat of power for
an area that they governed

that spread from what is today Lebanon,

all the way to Gaza.

- The Akka wall was there to Europe,

essentially, but to others as well.



Don't ever think about doing the Crusades

again, in this area, because we've built

a really amazing wall that will withstand

just about any attack.

- Many people think of the
Palestinian-Israeli conflict

like the Hatfields and the McCoys,

two different parts of
town with a dividing line,

and they're fighting over space,

but it's not like that, it's like

somebody coming into your house,

and occupying your living room,

putting you in your
bathroom, and then wanting

a part of your bathroom,
and then another part

of your bathroom, and sort of
squeezing you out altogether.

It's not a question of
can two people learn

how to live together, it's the fact that

the driving force of this
conflict is the absolute

denial of the political
rights of one group

to have self-determination and the right

to live as a people.

- To thank the Assembly
of the United Nations

for granting the Jewish Agency
for Palestine a hearing,

when we speak of the Jewish state,

we do not have in mind any racial state,

or any theocratic state,
but one which will be

based upon full equality and rights

for all inhabitants without
distinction of religion

or race, and without
domination or subjugation.

- Palestine becomes the only Arab country

that was colonized that does
not achieve independence.

Instead, is transformed
into another country,

overwhelming majority of its population

forced out of their homes.

- This process moves at a
tectonic plate speed often:

one inch at a time, one person at a time,

one house, one family, one community,

but, at certain times, these
tectonic plates sort of

jump, like in an earthquake.

1948 was like that, 1967 was like that,

which you see this place

with certain populations
and been partitions

of walls or borders being
imposed to separate them.

This is really the dark side of maternity,

but this is the most documented case

of colonial occupation ever,

and it's also one that
we're not just studying

because it happened, it's
one that is still happening.

- We've been here since
1,300 years ago, and

even before 1948, we
had Jewish Palestinians,

Christian Palestinians,
and Muslim Palestinians,

and that wasn't an issue,
because it's not about religious

conflict, as they try to
portray it, it's a matter

of turning a religion into a nationality,

and then claim a land in the name

of that nationality or religion.

- The overall objective

of the Zionist movement has
not changed in 100 years,

and that is to turn an Arab

Palestine into a ethnocracy,

really, a Jewish only space, if possible.

- It's not a matter of stubbornness,

"I'm here, and you're not gonna
get rid of me, I'm staying."

It's a matter of connection to the place.

You have this connection that you have

to your home, to your family members.

- My family has been in Akka

more than 200 of years,

many generations.

- Even though they can
say "My grandfather,

"great-great-grandfather", and go back

hundreds of years, as
far as the government

is concerned, and as far as
Jewish-Israeli population

is concerned, they
really don't belong there

and should just get out of the way.

So, they're treated as such, and

thus, they feel as foreigners, unwelcome,

almost like legal migrants.

- I all the time remember my relatives,

my people who lived,
and I remember the sound

of my mother singing about

those who left, those who are absent.

- The Old City of Akka who
was just a very beautiful

historic place is being transformed,

cleansed of its Palestinian population.

- There's this program, this plan,

late '70s, beginning '80s

to evacuate the Old City and to

turn it into some sort of an
European artistic village,

with very beautiful houses,
very expensive houses.

Only if you had a lot of money, you could

come and live here, and that is

very tempting, because
this city is very beautiful

and it has a lot of potential.

It has succeeded partially.

In '95-'96, they were 8,300 Arabs

in the Old City, and now,

there are only 3,900-4,000.

- This is the place that I grew up,

and we had a lot of suggestions for people

who wanted to buy it, and, emotionally,

we were not able to be
disconnected from it.

- I think that the demographic issue

is always an issue, especially in mixed

cities, and especially in Akka.

Ethiopians and the
Russians, the new comers

were put to reside in Akka.

So, when you bring them to a municipality

or to a jurisdiction that
is already suffering,

in my eyes, it just makes things worse.

You need to put them
with a strong population,

so they could merge in it, not bring

a lot of poor populations altogether

and just let them die together,

or let them suffer
together, and I don't think

any municipality can
put up with such needs.

- You are afraid that this
place will not be for you.

You feel that many places changed,

the citizens, the owners.

So, they changed everything.

- In the case of Akka, with the arrival

of Jewish-Israeli settlers from Gaza,

that's not unusual.

You have large groups
of Jewish immigrants,

whether they come from
Russia, or they come

from the Arab world, or elsewhere,

who are brought in all the time

to increase the Jewish population.

This process really can
reach surreal proportions.

- In 2006, the disengagement from Gaza,

they brought a lot of people from there

to reside in Akka, and that changes it,

not only demographically, but also

environmentally, let's call it, because

you're bringing very unique
group into a mixed city.

It doesn't fit together.

There's a mixed city where Arabs and Jews

are living together, I can't say

at 100% peace, but there was some sort

of a piece going on for a lot of years,

and when you bring a
fanatic ideological group

into that existence, or into that reality,

things will start happening, bad things

in my idea will start happening.

- On the other hand, the Old City

doesn't have a lot of facilities.

It has one dentist clinic,
it had one medical clinic.

So, people who wanted to
make their lives easier

and better, they left, so I can't say

everyone was forced to
leave, but if you need

people to be happy about
where they're living,

you need to give them
services, so their lives

would be like everyone else, not just

keep it closed, and keep it dirty, and

let them cook in their
own dirt, as we say,

and people will leave by themselves.

- And that is a way of slowly emptying

an entire neighborhood, then opening it up

for investment by Jewish entrepreneurs.

And so, they're living under
a specific set of rules,

which really control what
permits they can have

to repair their homes, build their homes,

or even destruct homes,

what areas are allowed to live
in, not allowed to live in.

That is the model,
really, the original model

for how the Israeli government has dealt

with Palestinians under occupation.

- I would hate to see this city becoming

some capitalist, foreign investors' city,

where everything is beautiful,
everything is clean,

everything is just tip-top, and

empty of its own citizens,
empty of the Arab citizens.

I always said that people of Akka

need to invest in their
own houses, in their

neighbors' houses, to help this city

become the city that it needs to be.

I think, at some point, I was like

"Okay, I'm gonna stop talking
and start doing."

- You have a situation of slow death,

a choking of a population,
destroying its economy,

piece by piece, dismantling
it, dismantling the social

structure, laying siege
to an entire population,

warehousing the population, in areas

with checkpoints, and inability to move,

to get medical care, or
go to school, et cetera,

and it's done one little
checkpoint at a time,

one little housing permit approved

or disapproved at a time.

It doesn't strike people as extermination.

In fact, it's happening
in a way that's really

under the radar screen of
what people are sensitized to

to be real important
abuses or human issues

that they should care about, and I think

that's part of the tragedy
and part of the design,

so to speak.

It is very difficult for
people to bring attention

to these issues, partly
because they don't have

the vocabulary that they
need to really convey

the kind of horrible, slow torture,

death of a society is really like.

- You have to jump, otherwise,

you would never know if
you would fail or not.

- Amidar is the governmental
housing company.

Big part of the houses is
owned by Amidar, and the family

only owns 60% of that property.

It doesn't own the full 100%.

So, what happened in the last few years,

they offered whoever wants to buy

the house that he's living in can do that.

Now, you say that's a
very nice thing to do,

that's very good, but on the other hand,

when a family is unemployed and has

a lot of debts, it
cannot buy the remaining

40% of their house.

- And this is where the tycoons come here,

and they offer a very good
price for their houses.

So, if you can't fix your
house, and you can't renovate,

and you can't live there, so, basically,

you are forced, you are being cornered

into selling your own house,
even if you don't want to.

- You see, they are building everywhere.

Look at this ugly place.

I mean, in the middle of...

By the wall, they build a youth hostel.

Look, no character, no nothing.

I mean, what is this?

It is something so insensitive,

and you know what struck me?

I felt what is an invasion.

It's not army, it's not
tanks, it's not airplanes,

it's not a big war, it's occupation.

They occupied the grounds of my childhood,

of my town,

with a different culture.

It's a cultural invasion, it's as if

it's throwing all your
history, all your upbringing,

all your childhood, everything, it's like

and this is terrible.

The municipality here,
they sold this ancient

historic place for $12 million.

Out of that Khan El Umdan
they want to make a big hotel

out of this site, and this is terrible.

- If somebody offers them
like a million shekels

for an old house, how can they say no?

- They're really, really poor,

they live under really,
really difficult conditions.

- Like you have seven
people living in one room.

- It doesn't fit our way
of life, the locals here,

and they are paying so
much money for teeny-tiny

one room, two rooms in the dark,

in the dungeons, you know,
and giving people money.

- And we are survivals,

but the politics and the surroundings,

big powers around you,

you can't do anything.

- And Akka is just one of many examples

of how cities, and towns,
and the whole landscape,

really, has been transformed as a result

of this government policy of Judaization,

but in the case of Palestine-Israel,

this process of creating
Jewish only spaces

at the expense of the native population

is indeed, a very stark one.

- In the coming 10 years, it's going to be

one of the most expensive
places in the world,

so touristic, so commercial.

I could foresee what's gonna happen

here to this town.

It's an intentional, focused plan

which the authorities
are trying to do here,

which means most of the
Arabs are going to leave.

It has been, since 1948.

- This accountabilization,
really, of the history,

the architecture, the
landscape of one of the oldest,

most beautiful cities in the world.

- So, each period has
its certain problems.

In the '50s and '60s,
there were very crucial

problems at that time.

The Palestinians left
to the Arab countries,

and became refugees.

Us, we stayed here, we remained here,

where we belong, in our places,

in our homes, in our land.

- Palestinians living under occupation

are living under different legal regime

than those living normally
as citizens of Israel,

within the green line of 1948,

and those two are living in
different legal situation

from Palestinians who live in Jerusalem,

who are natives of Jerusalem,
who are under a third

kind of microlegal regime, and those three

are living in a very different situation

from those at Gaza, which
the Israeli government

has withdrawn from, but yet surround it

in a siege, and they control

everything from entry of fuel,

to water, to goods, and that's
a different legal regime

from the ones that
Palestinians live under,

who are refugees living outside of Israel.

They themselves were Palestine and

they themselves differ from each other.

- But after graduating our school,

they might go to negative ways, like

"I'm a big guy now, I can deal with drug,

"I can deal with violent,
I'm a gang member."

They might find themselves on the streets,

not in the University, not working even.

So, this is very, very dangerous,

and I think as education leader

we have to figure how to help them

after graduating our schools.

- I hate to see these kids just

growing up in the streets.

I mean, we grew up in the streets as well,

but I had somewhere to
go to, I had parents

who directed me to go to
a certain path in my life,

but when you go back to your house, and

there's nothing you can do after school,

that's a problem, people get bored.

You know, kids get bored.

So, you start looking for things

to make your life much more interesting,

and interesting is dangerous.

- You know, the population
of kids right now

is getting severe problems,

the lack of circles that can give them

extra education, after the school.

- They're trying really to do things,

they express themselves by trying

to do extraordinary things, like

being the best soccer player in the area,

or the best singer.

- Our first song, it was about Akka,

our city, because we love it,
and we love the people here.

And so, we just talked to the young people

that they shouldn't just use drugs,

they should go and learn,
and about the poor people,

that they should have faith, and hope,

and about the government here,

how they treat us as Arab.

They don't treat us even with the Jews.

- And here, it's even more evident,

and it reflects more in a mixed city.

I love the Old City so much, but for me,

I feel for Arabs it's like a ghetto.

You can't renovate your
house, you can't do

anything to improve your life.

So, if you wanna improve or progress,

you would have to move out.

- If you decide that you wanna live abroad

for a couple of years,
it's gonna be really hard

for you to come back.

You're in a somewhat of a
dilemma, you don't wanna

give it up, but you
also want a better life.

- It's a matter of the collective.

It's not an individual matter.

So, if I improve only myself, and I work

only on myself, and I gain, I don't know,

a higher salary, and then I'm the only one

enjoying from this salary, then

it's not really change.

I haven't changed, I
haven't influenced anything,

I haven't improved anything.

- It's true that the
conditions here are not very

ideal or are far from
ideal, but we do realize

that we have also a
responsibility to make a change.

- For good or for bad, this is my home.

This is my home, my country, even if

I disagree with many political issues,

but this is my home.

- Nowadays, it's more of a modern racism.

You don't feel it, nobody says really

"I'm racist, I don't like this person.",

but you can feel it in people's attitude,

and their behavior, and the
fact that you don't have

many options here, even
though you're talented,

and you're qualified, and
you see that Jewish people

might not have the same
qualifications as you,

but they get better options.

They're trying to make you feel
that you don't belong here.

You feel immigrant in your own home.

That's what I feel.

- Saying "I'm a Palestinian,
not an Israeli.",

some people will tell
you "Why don't you go

"and live in the West Bank or Gaza?",

and then you have to explain to them why,

for you, this is Palestine,
and this is home.

- It's terrible for Palestinians
who are deeply rooted

to a particular area, or home, or town

to be made to feel that they don't belong.

It's almost a little bit like...

"It's such a small place, can't we

"just have it as our
home?", and you can just

go anywhere in Africa, cause you're black.

There's this special connection,
historical, religious

connection that Jews have with Palestine

that makes them feel that
this is the land promised

to them by God, and it's
not just an arbitrary spot

that they chose out of nowhere.

And so, when you add to that the layer

of neo-extinction of
an ethnic and religious

group as a result of the genocide

of World War II, then you get this really

redoubled effort to make sure that

this place belongs to
them and only to them,

and everybody else is just not welcomed.

Of course, it's very convenient
to design this project,

that actually, this
country has been inhabited

by a native population
for hundreds of thousands

of years, but that's the way

it is, yeah.

- There's already this
national barrier, because,

after all, this is a Jewish state.

It is very difficult
for Arabs, in general,

for men and women to get
ahead in this country,

to get a better job, to
get a better education,

because basically, the
government prioritizes

Israelis over Arab citizens.

- Many of my friends also

are educated, and have first degrees,

and second degrees, and it's really hard

for them to find jobs here, because

they're Arabs, they get rejected,

or they're being looked at as suspicious,

or dangerous, or something like that.

- I know doctors and physicians who work

in constructions, renovations, and stuff,

and they drive taxis, lawyers who studied,

and have a degree in law,
and they drive taxis.

- Also, at my workplace
people come to me and say,

once they know that I'm
Arab, they were like

"No way! You're Arab?
You don't look Arab."

So, how am I supposed to
look exactly, remind me?

I don't know what they expected, but maybe

they expected a veil, maybe they expected

something else, I don't know,
but Arabs are diversified.

Some of us are religious,
some of us are not,

some of us are educated,
like people.

- So, I'd like to see Arab students

and Arab high schools receiving the same

investments, and funds, and programs,

and empowerment programs as any other

Israeli-Jewish kid and
Jewish-Israeli high school.

- And I think that, in
order for that to happen,

something really drastic has
to change in this country,

and I think the definition of
it, as a Jewish country here

sets the barrier for non-Jewish citizens.

- It really makes a big
difference in people's lives

whether they have a passport or not.

It really makes a big
difference in people's lives

if they need permission
to move from one area

to the next within the same country.

It makes a big difference
in people's lives

if they can be jailed, put in jail

without charge, without court.

It really makes a big
difference in people's lives

if they go out to University, whether

they'll be allowed to come back or not.

- Whether we have an Israeli regime,

or any other types of
regime, for that matter,

I will stay Palestinian.

I didn't immigrate to this country,

this country actually immigrated,

or imposed itself on me.

History didn't start on
the 15th of May 1948,

history has started a
long time before that.

So, if they want to
define it as, you know,

their Jewish state,
for me, I don't even...

I don't see that, and I will
never be a part of that.

I'm not Jewish, hence I'm not Israeli.

I'm an Arab, I'm Palestinian,
I was born here, so was

my father, my greatfather,
my great-great-grandfather,

and this is Palestine for me.

- You grew up in your daily life,

and it's mixed with history

that you study, or the places,
the alleys that you walk,

and go close to a mosque or a church.

And then, each place,
it's got its history.

It's part of me, this history.

- When you grow up in
such a city, you learn

a lot of things, and I
learned a lot of things.

A job is not taken for granted,

education is not taken for granted,

after-school activities
is not taken for granted,

books are not taken for granted,

and I think I actually
want my son to be here.

I mean, I actually want
him to grow up here.

Nothing is taken for granted.

- I don't remember when did it start.

These feelings, I think
it was born with me.

It's like it's going through my blood,

these alleys, these tones,

and this sea, and the walls.

- Because of this beautiful place,

and a very painful place,

we suffer from many
things inside these walls.

- It's not only stones,
there is a human being here.

- I hate stones.

No, really, because, in some aspect,

we sometimes give them more appreciation

than life itself.

If you take the walls of Jerusalem,

there are more important than the people.

Here, we don't have than feeling.

- Sometimes, there are people that

they say "I wouldn't go out
of here unless I'm dead.",

and I believe that.

I mean, where else would you go?

- I never, never figure that I could be

better man if I leave Akka.

I got the money, I got the status,

I got everything I might desire,

but the ultimate desire for me is to do

our best, in order to
achieve more in Akka,

in this society, and to enhance it.

- In the air, you see,
you feel a lot of things,

sometimes as if your heart wants to stop,

especially when you do it the first time,

but then the noise of the jump, the crash

going down the water, and
then the feel of the cold,

of the nice water, and then going down,

and then you need to open your eyes to see

where are you, if there
are rocks around you,

and sometimes you see it's fantastic,

it's a great thrill.

- Palestinians make
leaps of faith every day,

because the political
horizon is not there.

They have to find a way to continue,

they have no choice but to
make leaps of faith every day.

- You won't get your identity as a local

Palestinian of Akka if you don't jump.

- I decide when to jump.

- You know, you can't just swim,

you have to jump to be part of the gang.

- If you don't jump, you are chicken.

Would you like to be a chicken, man?

- Okay, on my 30th birthday,
I'm gonna jump over.

- Let's be honest, I didn't
jump, my brother pushed me.

- After the first jump, I felt that

suddenly, I am a man.

- First time I had a
meeting with my adrenaline.

- I did it once
when I was younger.

- 11 or something.

- Facing your fears.

- Breaking the border.

- Choosing my way.

- When I look at these kids nowadays,

I look at them still with
admiration, and with a big smile.

They all want to be heroes and part of it

is to feel that you are
connected with the rest

of the heroes of town.

In life, it's better to jump.

- There is a fight over
hummus, you know, worldwide.

Who invented hummus, and
who invented falafel,

and who invented shawarma, and this just

drives me crazy, like, you know,

you don't even say hummus right.

You don't even say hummus
right, you didn't invent it.

- When you meet an Arab
person, you immediately

think about hummus, and you ask

"Do you like hummus?"

- "Can you cook hummus?"

It's our national dish,
it's a national pride.

- Hummus is commercialized

in Europe, and in the States, that it's

an Israeli traditional food.

- A lot of Palestinians
get upset when Israelis

claim hummus is a national food.

So, they're basically appropriating

a cultural artifact, in
this case a food item,

and putting a national stamp on it,

saying "This is Israeli."

- This is Arab, nobody
can convince me otherwise.

I don't have any records,
I don't have

any preferences, but there's no other way.

There is no story behind
it, this was just there,

just like falafel.

- Well, if you have
multinational corporations

that are Israeli and can get hummus

into all the major stores in the world,

that Palestinians cannot
do the same, then obviously

they're going to lose this battle.

- It's easy to manipulate,
cause it's hummus.

It doesn't fight back, it
doesn't say "No, I'm an Arab."

Personally, I don't like it.

- She doesn't like it.