finding their security, welcome to the palestinian village of alakaba, it's in the northern jordan valley, it's a pastor. community where you'll find warm and generous people. most of the people who live here raise sheep and goats and live 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 get 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 of harvest in the middle of winter, and this big area which is about 30% of the west bank also consider as..." as kind of uh nist for the future of the palestinian state. this village of el akaba 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. عن ابوي وابوي عن جده وجده عن جده ت

نوصل ل عثمان بن عفان دوله عثمانيه اللي حكمت هاي البلاد فوق ال 400 سنه هلاش مش ساكنين في العكبه نحن في الثمانينات كان في معسكر جيش هون هون بنت ياسر والعكبه هسه 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 اللي رايح يجي وبعدين هناكونا of 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. decision, not smart, as germany was 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 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 199.

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 georden valley. under the accords, this division of land was to exist for five years, during which time of 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 area 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 see 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 the area sea a firing zones, military firing zone, and the goal of course is to to remove them from their land in area c and move them into areas b and ideally into area a no one exemplifies the situation better than othman spay. growing up in alaqaba, he was forced to move to the neighboring area b town of tasir. he now commutes back to each day to supervise production in the community. انا وامي ابوي

متوفي كنت انا وامي وتسعه اخوي لي تسعه وامي 10 عايشين في الغرفتين هذول وبقوا الاسرائيليين مانعينا نبني غرفه نظيف عليهم او حتى حمام ممنوع احنا قالوا لنا هذول موجودات بظلن موجودات بدكم تعيشوا فيهم بدكم تعيشوا فيهم روحوا على تياسير على طوباص على نابلس في عننا مشكله المهم هذول بضلين هيش تاكعن وخلص ما لكم شيون فنحن صمدنا وظلينا هناك بس انا يوم تجوزت. انجبرت اني اجي اشتري وابني واقعد هون لانه ما فيش مجال لانه انا صار عندي عيله يعني فوق اخوتي تسعه صار عندي عائله اولاد اثنين صغار يعني بعد ما صار عندي اولاد اثنين صغار انجبرت اني اشتري واستقر وابن ultimately what israel

wants is it wants it all it wants the whole 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, masodan called creeping annexation, 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 um that the largest part of the west bank, and so slowly area se is being ethnically cleansed, there are fewer 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 100 thousand 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 bidwain families who live in in almost about 52 communities without any kind of service. it's denied by the incubation to have even fresh water, they can hear water running in the bibes 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, 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 of 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 have had to move away? انا رايح اموت هون في العقبه لانه الارض, ابى وجد تورثتها هي ارض ابائي واجدادي اللي رعت ياسير ما له شيء هون لكن اللي له ارض الارض. هي هي هي الدم الانسان انا شو بدي اروح اسوي فيها ياسير شو لي فيهاه ياسير بدي اتفرج على الشوارع ولا تتفرج على الدور طب ما هي عرضي وهي منطقتي وهي عيشتي وهي حياتي يعني شو شو بدي اروح اعت ياسير شو بدي اروح اعمل فيها ايه لروح على باريس اسكن في باريس ودشه ارضي شو بدي اسوي فيها باريس والله عندي شايف العزيز الشجره هي بتسوي باريس

existing today on the west bank, there is a cornerstone of the village that makes it quite unique and to itself, that uniqueness is first encountered as you drive up the main road into the village. انا اسمي الحج سامي صادق رئيس مجلس كروي العقبه من مواليد 1955 وصبت 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 وبدون احتلال ان شاء الله تعالى when when you hear the jets

and and you see the soldiers in the field and hear the tanks how do you feel the village باشعر بالحزن لمضايقات القوات الاحتلال لاهالي قريه العقبه هذه الصغيره هذه القريه لم تتعرض لقوات 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 بالعلم. solution, ironically, immediately across the road from el akaba's welcome sign is the home

of akmed homden, his house, his under demolition orders, and he and his family go to sleep each evening, with fears of waking to the sounds of tanks and military bulldozers coming up the road to level his home. وابوي طبعا من بعده و وريث وريث له وبعدها جيت انا يعني هي الارض على زمان اجدادي واسم الطابه لحد هسا الطابوا في اسم سيدي حسين الجابر جابر يعني ارض ممتلكه من من سنين يعني سيدي الله يرحمه ساريخ تاريخ ميلاد سيدي سنه 1900 بجوزه 23. سيدي ولد سنه 1923 24 وهي الارض

اجا هو شراها طابه يعني خطوب من المحكمه بطرق قانونيه اوراك طابوا يعني انا لما تكون عندي في اوراك طابه وثبوت ثبوتيات في الارض ففي وين 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 international 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 area as firing zone 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 close military areas, which means that the army then has 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. على طلبنا باننا نرغب بسلام عادل وشامل بدون احتلال اننا نرغب ان نعيش على اراضينا بسلام من اجل ان ننقل هذه العينه هذا النموذج الى القرى والمدن الاخرى ولكن جواب القوات الاسرائيليه تدمير المنازل تدمير شارع السلام حرمان المواطنين من الخدمات حرماننا من الميه حتى هذه اللحظه يضغطون علينا من اجل ترحيلنا بالرا من اراضينا هذه مملوكه لنا بالطابه مملوكه للمواطنين بالطابه ونحن عايشين فيها قبل الاحتلال ويوجد اراضي منازل مبنيه من سنه 1930 عقود قديمه ولكن الاسرائيليين يرغبون باستمرار بانهم بيقوموا بمضايقه وتنكيد الحياه على هؤلاء الاطفال والنساء والمواطنين في قراء

الذقبه من اجل ترحيلهم ومصادره اراضيهم بحجه اننا في منطقه سي بحجه اننا the the the pressure on the international community is to is to enforce international law, you know that's what? was there for and it's been ignored for decades or it's been overlooked or it's been twisted, but you know the 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 enic cleansing or maybe more, it's genocide, because there is an authority which is israeli authority making all kind of pressure, all kind of collective punishment against those who still or those who manage 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 ethnic 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 a new. generation and it will not be acceptable at all. بين ايديكم في هذه اللحظات المباركه. لنحتفل بعده مناسبات عزيزه على قلوب شعبنا الفلسطيني وهذه المناسبات هي يوم الارض ذكرى معاركه الكرامه يوم الام يوم المراى العالمي يوم الطفل وجديدا يوم الغابات العالميه وفي هذا الشهر من كل عام نحتفل بهذه المناسبات لتجديد

العمل الجاد للحفاظ على ارضنا وحمايه ها من المصادره والتهويد من قبل قوات الاحتلال 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 م حيث تعمل هذه المؤسسات من خلال اتحاد اتحاد مؤسسات قريه العقبه وهي مجلس قروي العقبه جمعيه الريفيه الخيريه جمعيه العقد التعاونيه الزراعيه جمعيه العقد التعاونيه لاسكان المؤجرين نادي العقبه للوحد والامل اليوم الارض الخالب هذه الذكرى

التي نؤكد فيها المره قلو المره باننا اصحاب هذه الارض اننا اصحاب حق وان لا وطن ا 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 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. i think is bleek, 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 their 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 gna do something about it, we have to say the west, the the area c is gone. 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 وبوسطاره وسلاحه وطيارته ودبابته كله من الشعب الامريكي والحكومه الامريكيه ادعو الشعب الامريكي ان يضغط على الحكومه الامريكيه لوقف عمليه دعم اسرائيل عسكريا بل يدعموها سياسيا بل يدعموها من اجل السلام العادل 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 الاسرائيلي الفلسطيني غاضب جدا الشعب الامريكي. resources for

america is the main support state or the main 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. "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 on americans to stand up and say, no, it has to stop, it has to end now.

when palestinian. journalist shirin abule was killed by an israeli sniper on may 11, 2022, the israel is meant to get across a clear message, that they don't want any narrative other than their own and the decades old occupation of palestinian lands and their aggression. it wasn't the first time israely sought to put gag on the alternative narrative and every time it has. watch the history of the israeli measures and palestinian counter measures in this documentary.

occupied, when do we want it, the occupation? this is the first meeting of asian minister under the lower. crisis,

devastating wars, terrorism, the israeli lobby, crackdown, diplomacy, resistance, revenge,