welcome to the palestinian village of alakaba. it's in the northern jordan valley. it's a pastoral community where you'll find warm and generous people. "most of the people هذا who live here raise sheep and goats and live of off the land, you think life here would be relatively simple and uncomplicated, it's not, and this is our story, the jordan valley is..." the east part of the

occupied west bank, it's the only g, the only border for the palestinian to communicate with the international community, especially with the arab countries. the jordan valley is considered as the basket food for the palestinian people, where you can harvest in the middle of winter, and this big area which is about 30% of the west bank also consider as as kind of nest. for the future of the palestinian state. this village of al-aqaba is tiny, but at the same time it's an excellent focal point for understanding the situation today on the west bank. in 1967, 2,0 people lived in this community. today, only scattered families remain. ت نوصل ل

عثمان بن عفان دوله عثمانيه اللي حكمت هاي في البلاد فوق ال 400 سنه ياش مش ساكنين في العكبه احنا في الثمانينات كان في معسكر جيش هون هون بين ياسير والعكبه يمنعونا نروح نيجي في الطريق شايف ما يخلوش يعني جنود انت عارف الجندي مش ادمي شايف هسه احن نخاف على اولادنا نخاف على بناتنا نخاف على راح يجي وبعدين هناكونا ممنوع نبني بيت ممنوع نقعد اللي عنده غنم اللي عند well, the way that israel treats the palestinian population inside area sea is as a an enemy, hostile population, effectively, as a population that is not welcome there, and so it's doing everything it can to make life very difficult for them. to understand the political situation today on the west bank, we have to go back to the year 1453. this was the point in history where the turks على conquered the ancient city of constantinople, now. istanbul and established the ataman

empire. for the next four centuries, the palestinian territory was ruled by the turks whose main interest was the collection of taxes. as such, the region's history was relatively uneventful, and it is during this period when many of the current alaqaba residents settled. then, during the first world war, the turkish government sided with the germans. a decision, not smart, as germany was de defeated and the ottoman empire subsequently broken apart. it was during this period that the british took control under what was called the british mandate. it was also during this period when european jews began to immigrate to the region under a political philosophy called zionism, a desire to establish a jewish homeland. tensions grew between these immigrants and the native population, and the british turn to the newly created united nations. to help sort out the problem they

had helped create in the first place. in 1948, the un, in a vote of the general assembly created israel, and immediately a war broke out between israel and its arab neighbors. after series of brutal battles in which tens of thousands of palestinians fled, an armistus was established and jordan took control of the area known as the west bank or west of the jordan river. then. again, in 1967, a war broke out between israel, jordan, of and egypt. israel decidedly won this conflict, and in the process occupied the west bank, rusting control from jordan. this occupation continues today, and is the core of the ongoing struggle. in an effort to find resolution, series of secret talks took place in oslo norway in 1993. the result was a plan to divide the... west bank into three areas:

a, b, and c. area a, the major cities such as romala and janin would fall under palestinian civil and political control. area b would be jointly controlled, these areas being mostly areas containing medium-sized communities, and areas c would be the rural areas, primarily the jordan valley. under the accords, this division of land was to exist for five years, during which time final status agreement would be drawn. this agreement, however, has never come about, and the division of land is still very much in. place and the palestinian population is constantly reminded of that fact, really for palestinians in areas see that the way that israel treats them is hostile population, it makes them their lives as difficult as possible, most of the population in areas sea palestinian population are rural communities

based, their livelihoods are based on agriculture, and so the two things they need more than anything else, land and water, this is this is what they need, the essentials of their lives. "and so what israel is doing is making both taking both those elements away from them, it's restricting their access to their land, it's using various means to do that, it's confiscating lot of land, declaring it state land, it's creating military zones, firing zones, fifth of the areas see firing zones, military firing zones, and the goal of course is to to remove them from their land in areas c and move them into areas b and ideally into a. no one exemplifies this situation better" in othman spay, growing up in alaqaba, he was forced to move to the neighboring area b town of tayasir, he now commutes back to alakabe each day to supervise production in the community's organic d-cooperative, and كنت عايش في اسره في في بيت يعني غرفتين اللي هم

عقدين عقود قديمه, كنت انا وامي ابوي متوفي, كنت انا وامي وتسع اخوي. تسعه وامي 10 عايشين الغرفتين هذول وبقوا الاسرائيليين مانعينا نبني غرفه نظيف عليهم او حتى حمام ممنوع نحن قالوا لنا هذول موجودات بظلن موجودات بدكم تعيشوا فيهم بدكم تعيشوا فيهم روحوا على تياسير على طوباس على نابلس في عننا مشكله المهم هذول بيظلين هيكعن وخلص ما لكم شيء فنحن صمدنا وظلينا هناك بس انا يوم تجوزت نجبرت اني اجي اشتري it wants the whole of the west bank, the

question is whether it can get away with doing that, and it certainly can't get away with doing it in one fell swoop, so what it's doing is what famous israeli general called, masadan called creeping annix. it's slowly incrementally taking the land away from the palestinians and it's focusing most of its efforts on the rural land, the agricultural land, the largest part of the west bank, and so slowly area c is being ethnically cleansed, there are few and fewer palestinians. we know for instance that in 1967 there were about a third of million palestinians just in the jordan valley itself. today, the best figures we have suggest there are around 10000. palestinians in the whole of area see, so it's quite clear, it's a very graphic illustration of quite how effective the ethnic cleansing policies have been over over four or five decades, they really cleared the area out. think about it, just let us think that those palestinian bidwan families who live in in

almost about 52 communities without any kind of service, it's denied by the incubation to have even if fresh water, they can... hair water running in the bipes under their feet, but they can't drink from it, the electricity wears is a crossing over their tent, but they can't, it's just for the zinist jewish colony in the jordan valley, people stay in the jordan valley because they feel that it's just the only place where they can have their own dignity, and those people who are staying without all kind of the service, they belong, they are part of... the soil, they are part the climate and they will never leave, many people over the years have moved out of alaqaba, but you stayed, why did you decide to stay when many people, many families? وهي

الارض هاي عن ابا وجد ترتها، انا شو بدي اروح اسوي فيها ياسير شو اللي فيات ياسير بدي اتفرج على الشوارع ولا اتفرج على الدور طيب هاي ارضي وهاي منطقتي وهي عيشتي وهي حياتي يعني شو شو بدي اروح ياسير شو بدي اروح اعمل فيها اروح على باريس اسكن في باريس ودش ارضي شو بدي اسوي فيها باريس والله عندي العزيز الشجره هي بتسو باريس ورا اللي فيها بريطانيا while el akaba is completely representative the political climate existing today on the

west bank, there is a cornerstone of the village that makes it quite unique to itself. that uniqueness is first encountered as you drive up the main road into the village. in english enter with peace. انا اسمي الحج سامي صادق رئيس مجلس كروي العقبه من مواليد 1955 اصبت بثلاث رصاصات من قبل قوات الاحتلال بتاريخ 28/6 عام 71 كان عمري في ذلك التاريخ 16 عاما مما يدى الى اصابتي بشلل نصف تام ومنذ ذلك التاريخ وانا اعمل من هذا الكرسي المتحرك من اجل السلام العادل و when you hear the jets

and and you see the soldiers in the field and hear the tanks, how do you feel as as the mayor of the انا باستمرار باشعر بالحزن لمضايقات قوات الاحتلال لاهالي قريه العقبه هذه الصغيره هذه القريه لم تتعرض لقوات الاسرائيليه حتى بحجر واحد منذ حرب عام 67. الا ان القوات الاسرائيليه ترد على طلبنا من اجل السلام العادل وبدون احتلال بتدمير شارع السلام بتدمير الاراضي الزراعيه باحراق المزروعات باحراق المراعي بالضغط على المواطن لترحيلهم بحجه ان اراضي قرض العقبه هي منطقه عسكريه مغلقه ومنطقه جيم ولكن اننا نشعر بالالم و mayor works towards finding an equitable solution ironically immediately

وريث وريث له وبعدها جيت انا يعني هي الارض على زمان اجدادي واسم الطابه لحد هسه الطابه في اسم سيدي حسين الجابر جابر يعني ارض ممتلكه من من سنين يعني سيدي الله يرحمه س تراخ تاريخ ميلاد سيدي سنه 1900 بجوزه 23 24 سيدي ولد. سنه 1923 24 وهي الارض اجا هو وشراها طابه يعني خطوب من

المحكمه بطرق قانونيه اوراق طابه يعني انا لما تكون عندي في اوراق طابوا وثبوت ثبوتيات في الارض فين المشكله يعني i think what the اسرائيلي wants or what the ship of this state which is called israel and may be other groups in this. area, they want sustainable resources for their personal future, because i don't think that the israeli political leadership, they are trying to achieve real peace in this area, but because this place is an important junction in the world, and the israeli state and the israeli you know leadership, they want to show the european and the international community that they are the ones who can control this intern. national junction, so they want to keep making a crisis, they want to keep fighting

forever, so they will continue receiving help and support from the international community, claiming that the only people who can protect and keep this junction as secure place in the middle of the world, but once the idf decides to declare an area as a... firings a very large area, it's actually bigger than area a, which is under palestinian control, so these large areas which are declared as as military as firing zones then become closed military areas, which means that the army then kind of a free range to do what it want, what what it wants to do, it can move palestinians out, it says it's not safe for them there, and it clears the population out, in a way it's trying to do it as though it's some kind of humanitarian gesture, we don't want you getting caught up in the in - in our military maneuvers, so you have to move out, but of course it's all a pretext for getting palestinians out of off their land and out of their homes. بسلام عادل وشامل بدون احتلال

اننا نرغب ان نعيش على اراضينا بسلام من اجل ان تن ننقل هذه العينه هذا النموذج الى القرى والمدن الاخرى ولكن جواب القوات الاسرائيليه تدمير المنازل تدمير شارع السلام ايه حرمان المواطنين من الخدمات حرماننا من الميه حتى هذه اللحظه يضغطون علينا ل- من اجل ترحيلنا بالرامنها اراضينا هذه مملوكه لنا بالطابه وارضنا مملوكه للمواطنين بالطابه ونحن عايشين فيها للاحتلال ويوجد اراضي منازل مبنيه من سنه 1930 عقود قديمه ولكن الاسرائيليين يرغبون باستمرار بانهم بقوموا بمضايقه وتنكيد الحياه على هؤلاء الاطفال والنساء والمواطنين في كربه من اجل ترحيلهم ومصاده اراضيهم بحجه اننا في

منطقه سي بحجه اننا منطقه تشبه جنوب لبنان بحجه ان قريه the the the pressure on the international community is to is to enforce international law, that's what it's there for, and it's been ignored for decades, or it's been... overlooked or it's been twisted, but the international law is fairly fairly clear about what happens here, this is palestinian land, it's part of, we have many resolutions in the un affirming this, so the international community needs to act, it needs to enforce international law, that's what it's there for, what, what do you see in the near future here in the jordan valley,

it's not color or white picture. "and i hope it will not be more black, because what's going on in the jordan valley is kind of inic cleansing, or maybe more, it's genocide, because there is an authority which is israel authority, making all kind of pressure, all kind of collective punishment against those who still or those who managed to exist on the jordan valley from the palestinian community, replacing them." with new kind of people, which is jewish community, and of course this is more than ethan cleansing, what's going on in the jordan valley is kind of stealing the palestinian resources, that's

mean is stealing the future of the palestinian new generation, and it will not be acceptable at all. على قلوب شعبنا الفلسطيني وهذه المناسبات هي يوم الارض ذكرى معاركه الكرامه يوم الام يوم المراه العالمي يوم الطفل وجديدا يوم الغابات العالميه وفي هذا الشهر من كل عام نحتفل بهذه المناسبات لتجديد العمل الجاد للحفاظ على ارضنا

وحمايتها من المصادره والتهويد من قبل قوات ال ان اخوانكم في هذه القريه الصغيره يعملون ليل نهار من اجل ان تبقى جميع الايام لدينا ايام ارض لحمايه ارضنا من التهويد والمصادره ونعمل جاهدين لفتح الشوارع للمناطق المهدده وزراعه الاشجار المثمره واستصلاح الاراضي وبناء المؤسسات حيث اصبحت هذه القريه قريه مؤسسات حيث تعمل هذه المؤسسات. من خلال اتحاد اتحاد مؤسسات قريه العقبه وهي مجلس قروي العقبه جمعيه المراه الريفيه الخيريه جمعيه العقبه. الزراعيه جمعيه العقد التعاونيه لاسكان المهجرين نادي العقبه للوحده والامل اليوم الارض الخالد هذه الذكرى

التي نؤكد فيها المره فلو المره باننا اصحاب هذه الارض اننا اصحاب حق وان لا وطن لنا سوى الوطن فلسطين. for people in america who really don't know about the west bank, we really don't know anything at all about the georgia, what's the most important thing i should know about this place? we are human being, i'm a man like you, and my children is like any other children all over the world. it's shame to have this kind of racist apartied regime in the holy. "you know, the future for people in area c, i think is bleak, unless the international community is prepared to actually do something. israel's focus is on area c, this is the goal, the

immediate goal, and so it's work, it's been working for decades on getting palestinians out of area sea, it's been very successful, and every indication is it's going to continue being very successful, unless the international community steps into act. palestinians can't live there if they're..." lives are being made impossible if they're surrounded by tanks and firing ranges and it's impossible for them to get water to get access to their land, there's no way that they can sustain their lives there, becomes impossible, and so unless we're going to do something about it, we have to say is gone. انه شعب طيب يختلف اختلاف كلي عن الحكومه الامريكيه وعن السياسه الخارجيه الامريكيه. التي تقوم بدعم الحكومه الاسرائيليه عسكريا باستمرار الجندي الذي اطلق النار عليه هو جندي امريكي وليس جندي اسرائيلي لان هذا الجندي

اواعيه وبسطاره وسلاحه وطيارته ودبابته كل من الشعب الامريكي والحكومه الامريكيه ادعو الشعب الامريكي ان يضغط على الحكومه الامريكيه لوقف عمليه دعم اسرائيل عسكريا بل يدعموها سياسييا بل يدعموها من اجل السلام الع. العدل والشامل واعاده الاراضي الفلسطينيه لاصحابها لا يمكن ان يبقى الظلم مدى الحياه الظلم لا يمكن ان لا يمكن ان ياتي يوما ان يتغير الوضع ولكن قبل ان ياتي الوضع ويكون الشعب الفلسطيني قويا اطلب من الشعب الامريكي ان يكون شعب محترم لدى الشعب الفلسطيني الشعب الاسرائي الفلسطيني غاضب جدا الشعب الامريكي الى ان الشعب الامريكي يدعم حكومته. support state or the main resources

for for supporting israel, so our message to the american, first of all, don't pay for our killers, don't pay your money to a place where you don't know, you the most important thing..." for, i think, for americans to know about what's happening in the west bank right now, is that what we're seeing is a process of sustained ethnic cleansing, the theft of land, the theft of resources of water, and it's being paid for largely by american taxpayers, they're subsidizing this process of ethnic cleansing, it's being done in their name, and because of that there's a responsibility, moral responsibility. americans to stand up and say, no, it has to stop, it has to end now.

qu'est-ce qui est important, qu'est-ce qu'il a de plus important? s'il vous plaît, on

avance, dit soit pris. 10 years of chaos and war in syria, the ruins left in syria, who benefits from the continuation of this war? what is the view of the west, particularly america? towards war in syria and the support of many countries for creating chaos in syria. why syria, a different narrative.

the headlines on press tv hamas says the operation which killed three american servicemen is a clear message to the us that israel's killing of innocent people in gaza must stop. at least 40 civilians are killed in israeli air strikes on palestinian's homes in central gaza as the regime's. slot on the territory continues unabated and the senior un official says those countries that have posted funding for unrua could be violating the genocide convention.