Hope in the Holy Land (2021) - full transcript

- Excuse me, who do you think you are?

- I'm a refugee like you.

Why doesn't he have

any Palestinians with him?

I'm a human being telling you, listen,

I'm not working

for Israel or Palestine.

They are trying to show

the whole picture from both sides.

Somebody has come to show

your story and you kick him out?

If you recorded anything,

we will remove it.

It's an invading organization

that occupied Palestine

to make a state for Israel.

I pray every day, 3 times,

that God brings

the Spirit back to Zion.

This is for me, "Zionist."

Growing up in Jerusalem,

the only Israelis I ever met

were either settlers

with guns and soldiers.

I saw soldiers beat up children.

I was beaten up

at least once a week.

Most Palestinians have only seen

Israeli soldiers and settlers.

And I tell you,

they are not very friendly.

You don't have a future

to think about.

You have only to think

about conflict.

So the only thing

that you can see is death.

It's not a problem between

the Jewish and the Palestinians.

The problem is

between the governments.

The problem is in

the political situation here.

This is a community by itself.

You can find rich, poor, religious.

Everything in any community,

you can find it here.

You know, it's less than

one meter and a half.

Here you can see the noise.

Assume that someone was sleeping inside.

Or studying inside.

Even though we are in this situation,

it's even better than the Lebanese

and the Syrian ones.

Comparing to them,

it's like a high, fancy city.

Yeah, better jobs for those

who are working in Israel.

But according, even

to the working permits,

there are conditions

that you have to meet.

You have to be married,

you have to be over 25.

You have to have kids,

you have no security issues.

And the most important one,

you have to find someone

who wants to employ you

on the other side.

300.000 Palestinians

are unemployed

out of what?

Out of 2.2 million

or something like that.

The majority of us are youth.

I was born in Gaza.

In my society, Jihad is the most

privileged thing you can get into.

So I was hoping for the day

that I would become a shahid (martyr)

for the sake of the land.

I used to dance at my school

because some Jews are dying.

Even children.

I was with my 3 friends.

It was a party.

We wanted to dance.

Just to dance.

I was in the line

near the discotheque.

Liana enclosed me with her body.

So because of this...

she died and I did not.

21.

16, 15, 17.

Children.

All of them children.

I mean, this doesn't

fit the reality here.

Nothing ethnic here.

Every day enter to Israel

more than 30.000 Palestinians

that work in Israel.

Checkpoints are actually

controlling my daily life.

And restrict my right

of movement.

Even between

the Palestinian cities.

Because closing one checkpoint

means separating

the south and the north

of West Bank in one touch.

Each time I go across the checkpoint

and they didn't stop me, I ask myself,

"Are they crazy?

What if I was a terrorist?"

This checkpoint serves

the southern part of West Bank.

So people from Hebron

and Bethlehem cross from here.

2 or 3 minutes.

And in 5 minutes you'll be

crossing the checkpoint.

If it's not jammed.

This is jammed now.

There's no work here.

And the salaries, maybe...

less than half.

The life of these people

will be easier.

But we do not know exactly

how many violent attacks

we will witness

against the Israelis.

It's a kind of

paradoxical issue.

The facility of life, or the freedom

of movement and security.

You know why Arabic coffee

without sugar?

Because you're sweet enough.

There were clashes here.

One of their cousins

was pregnant.

And once she smelled

the tear gas,

it affected the baby.

So the baby came out,

in a way, disabled

due to the lack of oxygen.

The doctors

at Hadassah Hospital (Israel)

said he will not live long.

Is everything okay?

- Excuse me, who do you think you are?

- I'm a refugee like you.

Why doesn't he have

any Palestinians with him?

I'm a human being telling you, listen,

I'm not working

for Israel or Palestine.

They are trying to show

the whole picture from both sides.

Somebody has come to show

your story and you kick him out?

If you recorded anything,

we will remove it.

This is what I was

explaining to them!

Those guys are just taking advantage

of this conflict in a way

that there are so many extremely

pro-Palestinian crowds

who are coming to these places

and they keep convincing those people,

"Hey, you have to keep mourning.

You are the refugees."

"Bash the occupation.

Bash Israel."

"We will give you money.

We'll support you."

He was telling the family

that you were going to meet today

that we are Israeli intelligence.

This is the conspiracy

that we're living in!

The biggest two denominations

of Christians are Catholic

and then Greek Orthodox.

Then you have smaller

mainstream Protestant churches,

then there are smaller

Evangelical churches.

Not very far from here,

just up the hill, is Deir Yassin.

The famous Palestinian village

where over 100 Palestinians

were slaughtered and killed.

The Zionist militias,

there was no Israel at that time,

they were going out

with speakers and saying,

"Leave your houses, or what happened

in Deir Yassin will happen to you."

Now we acknowledge that the Jews

are victims of the Holocaust,

but I refuse to be a victim

of a victim.

It's similar to the story of Exodus.

The saving of one people came

on the expense of another people.

There is a problem with this.

This is why I belong to the Palestinian

Liberation Theology movement.

We don't take the story of Exodus

as a liberating story.

When Jesus came to this land,

he was under occupation of Romans.

He was in a very unjust situation

but the Bible tells us

He was surrendered.

And gave up to the one

who judges by justice,

which is God.

And even in the Gospel of Luke,

when the Jewish came up to Jesus

and they were sharing about

how the Romans killed

some of the Jews from Galilee.

In my mind as a Palestinian,

I was waiting for such

a strong response by Jesus.

Telling them,

"This is an injustice!"

"This is an occupation!

We should fight it!"

And instead of this,

Jesus simply replied to them,

"If you don't repent,

your situation will be same."

He said I don't care

about politics.

About this social

and worldly justice.

I care about your heart.

This is how you read the Bible,

but this is not how the

Palestinian churches read the Bible.

You read it with a Western eye.

"If a Roman soldier asks you

to walk a mile,

walk for two miles."

We read it as resistance.

Roman law said that

a Roman soldier is only entitled

to let people carry his

heavy armor for one mile.

More than one mile,

they get punished.

You have to do the theological--

No, that's not tricky.

I don't want you to be

a friend of Palestine.

I don't want you to be

a friend of Israel.

I want you to be

faithful to Christ.

If Jesus was standing

with us right now,

and He is looking,

what would He preach?

"You powerful,

I have a message to tell you,

and you, the meek,

I have a message to tell you."

The more you walk,

the more you will hear stories.

If you ask any Palestinian,

"What are your dreams?"

You will figure out that his dreams

are actually his rights.

"I want some education for my kids."

"I want a dignified life

for me and my family."

They're not asking for the moon.

This is actually a symbol

of the Palestinian right of return.

When people fled their houses in 1948,

they took the keys of their houses.

These actually are for

Palestinian prisoners

who are spending life sentences

in the Israeli jails.

The Palestinian Authority's policy

created a kind of incitement

to commit violent attacks

against the Israelis.

Those who spend more than

five years in the Israel jails,

they will get a salary forever,

they will get health insurance.

They will get a scholarship

to study whatever they want

and not to mention the other

privileges their family will enjoy.

They will be perceived as

the family of the hero.

With the help of Allah,

every martyr will be in Heaven,

and every wounded

will get his reward.

Shoot! Shoot!

In the name of God.

The path of the martyrs

is above all.

I can easily go

and commit suicide.

We're happy our school is named

after a well-known martyr

who played a role and did

something great in the homeland.

Those stabbing

and running over Jews

bring dignity

to the Palestinians.

They're adopting

the Palestinian curriculum.

Can you imagine, as a child you grew up

in the Palestinian society,

all that has been heard

about the Jews?

"They want to kill us.

They want to drink our blood."

So what I felt is

full of bitterness. Full of hate.

Yeah this is the majority.

This is the flow in general.

We are going through a checkpoint

in the middle of the West Bank.

Yeah, it depends

on the situation.

So today it's peaceful.

Sometimes when they know, for instance,

that there is a person who's suspected,

the soldiers will be on high alert

and they will stop all the cars

and will start checking them

one by one.

We are heading

to Huwarah checkpoint.

When there is not any

violent waves,

it's quiet everywhere.

Sure.

They came to erase us

from existence,

control our region,

take over our country.

If we die or leave,

it doesn't matter.

All my life, I have observed

that Jews hate the people.

They hate Arabs and Muslims.

Their language is weapons

and using force.

They do not have conversations.

It is non-existent.

Only weapons.

All Palestinians do.

We don't hate Israel.

We hate what Israel is doing.

We are people who want

to live in peace and justice.

They all were the heads of the

Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades.

They were fighting here

in West Bank.

We don't have any problem

between the Palestinians or Jewish.

The problem is just

the Zionists. That's it.

Judaism is

a monotheistic religion

but Zionism is terrorism.

As a Palestinian, I don't believe in

or recognize the state of Israel.

I believe so. Maybe.

I think they are behind most of

the destruction around the world.

No.

This is a Zionist invention.

So they can make up

a justification for occupying us.

It didn't happen.

They exaggerate it so they can

get the entire world's sympathy.

and pretend they are oppressed.

You ask me If I am scared

to have my face on camera?

If I had 10 kids,

I would send them (to be martyrs)

for the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

We only do what is legitimate, legal.

They are the ones

doing illegal things.

We will go to Heaven.

And they, Allah willing,

will be prisoners in Hell.

You know, I'm not sad about getting

all the Jews from all the world here.

Because it's the start

of the end of them.

All of us here are Sunni.

We respect our religion, our Holy Koran,

our prophet Muhammad.

And we believe everything they say.

At the end of the world,

be sure about it,

when all the Jews

come here in this land--

You see this tree?

When a Jewish person

is hiding beside it,

this tree will talk to me.

It will tell me,

"My Muslim brother,

there is a Jewish person behind me.

come and finish him!"

Yeah.

Absolutely sure.

If I get a hold of a Zionist

or an Israeli,

I will beat him to death.

I hate them.

I do not like Israel.

Oh my brothers in the West Bank!

Stab them!

Stab!

They kill Palestinians.

If someone comes near

the soldiers who they suspect,

or maybe if they want

to have fun,

they shoot the person and

throw a knife next to the body.

Wow! What a shot! Yes!

Regardless of this conflict

for me, anyone who supports

the Palestinian Authority

in this situation

is supporting the dehumanization

of the Palestinians.

The corruption and the dictatorship

of the Palestinian Authority

makes this conflict

worse and worse.

I think that

they are really victims.

But not victims because

of what Israel does.

Victims because

of what their leaders do.

You hear every day

about financial support

that comes to you as a refugee

to make your life better.

But on the ground,

your life is not better anymore.

To some specific

people's pockets.

You are not allowed to speak.

We don't have

that right to criticize.

All the Arab communities

are honor-based communities.

So if you lost your reputation in

this community, you've lost everything.

If you were portrayed in your

community as a normalizer

trying to make good

and normal relations

with the enemy under

the current situation,

in addition to

losing your reputation,

you may lose your life as well.

What we think here

as a product to this culture,

that Israel is just the army.

But there is another part

that my culture

and my education system

and my Authority prevents me to see it,

The other part of Israel that

really opened my heart.

Away from the politics.

Away from the conflict.

Away from everything.

Human to human.

The reason why the Jewish have

kind of a protection now is

because they have a Jewish state.

If they don't have

a Jewish state.

They'll be persecuted

as they are all around the world.

I have equal rights,

I have a democratic state.

I don't care about what's

the religion of the state.

I don't think the people

hate Palestinians.

People don't want just to live.

They don't want to die.

Like many of the residents here,

I've always been dreaming of

doing some good things in this town.

And here came Neta with her idea

for a guest house in Jisr.

What does it matter

if she is Jewish,

Christian, French,

or anything else

for that matter?

At the end of the day,

we are all humans.

Compared to the Arab world,

we are living here in paradise.

The rights we receive here are not

received in the Arab world.

A Jew is a darling!

An Arab is a son of a bitch!

I served in the

Israeli Air Force

in the rescue

and help unit.

The pilots were departing

with the helicopters.

And many times

they would find themselves

in Palestinian areas,

helping Palestinian people.

Take them to Israeli hospitals.

In Palestinian Liberation Theology,

we do not take the Bible literally,

and we don't see God

as a real estate agent.

We see that all land

is the property of God

and we all have to be righteous

to live in it.

They are the cancer here.

We call them the rapists.

They're living on land

that does not belong to them.

This village is targeted

by the settlers always.

I'm looking at a settlement

as a place that takes the land.

On the other side,

I learned to understand how the Jewish

had the connection to this land.

To Judea and Samaria.

When I read the Bible, and I know

the Jews have been here

since more than 3000 years

in this land,

how could I believe the Jewish

have no history here?

One of our problems

with the settlements,

is distribution of water.

The Israelis give a percentage of water

to settlements that's more than they need,

and the consequences are that

we take less than we need.

I'm trying to see

the entire picture.

There are two sides.

One is the Israeli side,

the distribution of water.

The other side

is the Palestinians' fault.

Repairing or fixing

the infrastructure itself.

We've had these

infrastructures for decades.

They're supposed to do this,

but actually nobody knows

where the money goes.

We're driving into this ranch...

here in the Judean desert.

Oasis in the middle

of the desert.

These are all olive trees here.

Cultivating the desert.

Making the desert come to life.

Fulfilling the prophecies.

Are you thirsty?

Want some water?

He's a Jew from Ethiopia.

Yes.

No, Todd.

That's what the news tells you.

That's not reality.

I will give you one month

and you will be good.

This factory is ours.

I feel that this factory

is our home.

This factory is working 24 hours

a day for 6 days a week.

We know how to go

for vacation together.

And of course we know

how to work

and to make the company

a success together.

Nelson Mandela said,

"Enemies, when they will

work together

they will break

the wall between them."

And I believe on that.

Yes, I love working with Israelis.

Oh, there's a big difference.

5 times more.

I earn a living to

provide for my family.

I had 2 daughters in the university,

and they graduated.

The Palestinians would be the first

to suffer from such a closure.

We would lose our livelihood.

It happened in plants. They closed,

and the workers stayed home.

All around the world,

also in the Palestinian Authority,

they try to boycott my product.

The BDS tried destroy me.

I'm the solution,

I'm not the problem.

If we will build

more industrial areas

maybe we'll bring

more hope for the world.

More hope for people.

And maybe from us,

the peace will come.

As a Palestinian,

when we grow up

in a hateful society,

becoming a man of love

for the Jews

and sharing the love of God

that changed our hearts,

that could make an incredible work

for the people of Israel.

I believe the main responsibility

is on the Palestinian Christians.

I remember each day I would

cross the checkpoint, I was praying,

"God please allow them to stop me

that I will share the gospel with them."

Each time they would stop me and ask,

"Where are you from?"

I'd tell them, "I'm from Gaza."

They got shocked and scared because

most of the criminals came from Gaza.

I'd tell them how I used to hate them,

and God, Elohim, changed my heart.

And I started to love them.

They were weeping.

Soldiers meeting a guy from Gaza,

telling them how much

he loved them.

If we accept all of them,

if we get rid of the bitterness

and accept God's love,

we have a very powerful message.

It's my first time

that I try to surf...

really with a teacher

that knows how to surf good.

We will see if I will fall

a lot today

or make this good.

God looks on all the people the same.

If you are Arabic,

you start to look at Jewish people

that they're like you.

It's the same.

This is what God makes

in our hearts

when we start to

believe in Jesus.

I cannot stop telling the truth.

Some people are trying

to remain silent for fear.

But what God has put in our hearts

is not the spirit of fear.

This is what the Bible tells us.