welcome to the palestinian village of alakaba, it's in the northern jordan valley, it's a pastoral community where you're warm and generous people. "most of the people who live here raise sheep and goats and live off of 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. 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 considered as as kind of nest. 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. وصل ل عثمان

بن عفان دوله عثمانيه اللي حكمت هاي البلاد فوق ال 400 سنه هلا ايش مش ساكنين في العكبه نحن في الثمانينات كان في معسكر جيش هون هون بين ياسير 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 راح يجي وبعدين هناكونا ممنوع نبني بيت ممنوع نقعد اللي عنده غنم اللي عنده حلالات. well, the way that israel treats the palestinian population inside area sea is as 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 churks 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 of 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 armistice 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 1993. the result was a plan to divide the west bank and to three areas:

a, b, and c. area a, the major cities such as romala and jin would fall under palestinian civil and political control. b) would be jointly controlled, these areas being mostly areas containing medium-sized communities, and areas sea 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 area c, uh, that the way that israel treats them is hostile population, it makes them their lives as difficult as possible. most of the population in rsc, palestinian population, are rural communities

based, the the 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..." 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 area se of 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 area a. no one exemplifies this situation better than us.

تسعه وامي 10 عايشين في الغرفتين هذول وبقوا الاسرائيليين مانعينا نبني غرفه نظيف عليهم او حتى حمام ممنوع نحن قالوا لنا هذول موجودات بظلن موجودات بدكم تعيشوا فيهمكم تعيشوا فيهم روحوا على تياسير على طوباس على نابلس في عننا مشكله المهم هذول بيظلين هيكعن وخلص مالكم شيون فنحن صمدنا وظلينا هناك بس انا يوم تجوزت نجبرت اني اجي اشتري وابني و 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 masha dayan 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, the the largest part 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 100,000 palest'. 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 four or five decades, they really cleared the area out, think about it, just let us think that those palestinian bidwin

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 hear running in the pipes under their feet, but they can't drink from it, the electricity wires is crossing over their tent, but they can't, it's just for the zinest 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 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? كلام

سليم. انا رايح اموت هون في العقبه لانه هي الارض. عن عن ابا وجد ترتها، هي ارض ابائي واجدادي.". اللي رعت ياسير ما له شيون لكن اللي له ارض الارض هي هي هي الدم الانسان انا شو بدي اروح اسوي فيها ياسير شو اللي في هاه ياسير بدي اتفرج على الشوارع ولا اتفرج على الدور طيب هي عرضي وهاي منطقتي وهي عيشتي وهي حياتي يعني شو شو بدي اروح ياسير شو بدي اروح اعمل فيها اروح على باريس اسكن في باريس ودشه ارضي شو بدي اساوي فيها باريس والله عندي شايف العزيز الشجره هي بتسو باريس ورا اللي فيها بريطانيا هي والله 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 and انا اسمي الحج سامي صادق رئيس مجلس كروي العقبه من مواليد 1955 اصبت بثلاث رصاصات من قبل قوات الاحتلال بتاريخ 28/6 عام 21 كان عمري في ذلك التاريخ 16 عاما مما ادا الى اصابتي بشلل نصف تام ومنذ ذلك التاريخ وانا اعمل من هذا الكرسي المتحرك من اجل السلام العادل وبدون. 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 العلاق به منطقه عسكريه مغلقه ومنطقه جيم ولكن اننا نشعر بالالم وven as the mayor works towards finding an equitable solution ironically immediately across the... road from welcome sign is the home ofmed hamdan,

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. زمان سيدي يعني سيدي شراها وابوي طبعا من بعده. وريث وريث له وبعدها جيت انا يعني هي الارض على زمان اجدادي واسم الطاب و حس لحد هسه الطابوا في اسم سيدي حسين الجابر جابر يعني ارض ممتلكه من من سنين يعني سيدي الله يرحمه سخ تاريخ ميلاد سيدي سنه 1900 بجوز 23 24 سيدي ولد سنه 19 يعني خطوب من المحكمه بطرق قانونيه اوراك طابه يعني انا لما تكون

عندي في اوراق طابوه وثبوت ثبوتيات في الارض ففي وين المشكله يعني of this israel and may be other groups in this area. 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. 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 firings. is 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 has kind of... 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 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. من 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 بالاضنا هذه مملوكه لنا بالطابه وارضنا مملوكه للمواطنين بالطابه ونحن عايشين فيها قبل الت ويوجد اراضي منازل مبنيه من سنه 1930 عقود قديمه ولكن الاسرائيليين يرغبون باستمرار بانهم بقوموا بمضايقه وتنكيد الحياه على هؤلاء الاطفال والنساء والمواطنين في كقبه من اجل ترحيلهم ومصاده اراضيهم بحجه اننا في منطقه سي بحجه

اننا منطقه تشبه جنوب لبنان بحجه ان قريه العقبه هي whole problem of what's going on between the israelis and the palestinians, the the the pressure on the international community is to is to enforce international law, you know that's what it's there for, and it's been ignored for decades, or it's been - looked 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 you, 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 inthenic 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 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. في هذه اللحظات المباركه لنحتفل بعده مناسبات عزيزه 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 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 مؤسسات حيث تعمل هذه المؤسسات من خلال اتحاد اتحاد مؤسسات قريه العقبه وهي مجلس قروي العقبه جمعيه المراه الريفيه الخيريه جمعيه العقد التعاونيه جمعيه جمعيه العقبه التعاونيه لاسكان المهجرين نادي العقبه للوحده والامل ليوم الارض الخالد هذه الذكرى التي نؤكد فيها

المره فلو المره باننا اصحاب هذه الارض اننا اصحاب حق وان لا وطن لنا سوى هذا الوطن فلسطين.