Original subtitles

Do you want to show where we are right now?

Because I think we're quite deep inside what are called the Palestinian territories.

What you call the Palestinian territories, I call it the heart of Judea.

If you say the Palestinian territories, you're essentially already saying

that this right here is going to be

a jihadist Palestinian state

right in the heart of Israel, not only in the heart of Israel, we're talking about like

the

Why couldn't it just be a Palestinian state?

Okay, to understand the Arab way of thinking that they understand

there's a war. They win the war if they get territory.

They lose the war if they lose territory. You could flip that and say

well that's what in a sense you're doing. That's what I aspire to do.

That's what I aspire to do.

Beyond the eastern edge of Israel,

is the Palestinian territory of the West Bank.

It was occupied in war by Israel in 1967

since then hundreds of thousands of Jewish settlers

have moved here illegally under international law.

Among them, a group of religious nationalists

who see it as their divine right to build a greater Israel

and drive out the Palestinians who've been here for generations.

I made a film about them in 2011

but now since the attack of October 7th, I'd heard that they were

accelerating the settlement process.

Why are you feeling me?

I'm protected by the Israeli military.

I'd come to try to understand their mindset

and to see the consequences of their ultra-nationalist vision up close.

Oh, damn. They don't see us as equal human beings

who deserve the same rights they do.

I was close to Israel's southern border.

At a viewpoint, tourists were surveying the ruins of Gaza.

The Palestinian death toll at this point was more than 43,000 and rising

in a war that had commenced a year earlier after Hamas gunmen attacked

Israeli communities, killing more than a thousand and taking hundreds more hostage.

Now with bombs falling nearby,

settlers from across the West Bank were holding a chamboree

to promote the idea of putting new Jewish outposts in Gaza.

With workshops offering practical advice,

while a vanguard made their case in front of the world's media.

How are you doing?

Louis.

Nice to meet you, Ovi.

And why are you here today?

To show support and that I believe that Gaza's arts,

that we need to be living there.

To those Palestinians who say, well, we'd like to live in the Palestinian state,

what do you say?

The Bible says this place was given to the Jews, the space is ours.

It's a Jewish name.

What's your name?

Alan.

Aaron, nice to meet you.

Louis, where are you from?

I'm from Ereven.

And before that,

until I was nine years old, lived in New York,

and then my parents made a riad to Israel.

We're here, call our government to go and settle Gaza.

We're here because we have a right to be here.

Our right to be in this land is the Torah, is the godly promise,

where we don't settle, terroglots.

Among the attendees were many senior political figures,

including Israel's Minister of National Security.

In his youth,

not now, not now.

We, the settlement movement, organized this event in order to enhance the practical idea

of establishing Jewish settlements in the entire Gaza Strip.

We very much encourage and enable the population in Gaza.

To go to other countries, your rereadness, how Jews go to Gaza and Arabs disappear from Gaza.

They lost their right to stay in this holy place.

Please go.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Thank you.

It's not long.

From up on a nearby hill, they came the sound of protesting.

It's so good.

It's so good.

An Israeli group demonstrating for a ceasefire and the return of hostages taken by Hamas.

What are you doing here?

I think the idea of least settling Gaza is absolutely ridiculous.

The question is, what kind of country do we want to be?

Do we want to be a colonizing country?

Or do we want to be a country that at least offers peace and wants to live in peace with the Palestinians?

That has to be what we strive for.

I've been hoping for a moment with Daniella, but then came a warning of a possible rocket attack and the event was quickly evacuated.

Let's grab the cameras and let's go.

Wow.

I want you.

For Jewish settlers, Gaza is the latest frontier in a process that's been unfolding for decades across the West Bank.

A region of not much more than 5,000 square kilometers.

The West Bank is home to around three million Palestinians.

Most of them living in large cities with limited autonomy under the Palestinian Authority.

The Israeli military occupied the area in the Six-Day War in 1967.

Since then, hundreds of thousands of Israelis have moved in to form settlements,

hoping to expand Jewish presence in the region or simply looking for cheap housing.

Often they start out as a few tents or caravans, pitched by ultra ideological settlers on hilltops next to Palestinian towns.

These are known as outposts.

They are illegal under Israeli law until they are authorized as settlements,

but both settlements and outposts are illegal under international law.

The army nevertheless protects them.

Hello. How are you?

Everything's great. Where are you from? London, England. Oh, nice. Where are you from? Russia.

Russia.

Most settlements tend to be suspicious of media, but I'd managed to get an appointment at one called Evyatah.

It had started out as an outpost on the edge of the Palestinian town of Beitah.

It was only recognized as a settlement by the Israeli state a few months earlier.

Good morning. How are you? I'm fine. How are you? You must be Malchiel. I'm Louis. How do you do? I'm fine. Thank you.

Thank you for coming.

One of its founders is Horserangula, Malchiel Baha'i.

All right. So let me show you a bit about Beitah.

I'm just going to have to ask you not to take any films of the army base. That's where the sitting.

So there's an army base? This is an army base. That's where the dormitories are.

And this is a house people living here. The army bases for your security for all the region security.

The story about Evyatah, this was held top. We started from day one living in tents.

And by then over a month, we were 50 families living here in these houses. All of these houses were built back then.

Coming from where? All over the country. Should we go inside?

All right. It is a little untidy. This is where you're living at the moment? Yes.

This is our humble home. This is our living room, our kitchen.

How many children do you have? Eight. Four boys and four girls. Wow.

Behind here we have another kids' room. This is a girls' bedroom. Two older girls, 13 and 11. They sleep here.

And over there, this is a laundry bathroom and a shower.

So where do you stay? My mom and dad. This is me and my wife. You and your wife are in there.

If it rains? If it does rain, so we'll go into the small caravan.

Hopefully we'll finish building the house before winter is here.

Do you enjoy being out on the frontier where it's a bit more rough and ready where there's more uncertainty?

Our mission is to settle Israel, new settlements all over the country.

So most of the world sees this as the West Bank. There's occupied territory. It's under a military occupation.

Correct? Like it's not part of the state of Israel as most nations recognize it.

The ancient name of this area is called Judea. The meaning of Judea is belong to the Jews.

So you can't take all the history, put it in the garbage and say, okay, it's not belong to the Jews.

The history says it belongs to the children.

The

selective reading of history that ignores the Palestinians who've lived in the land for generations.

The aim for settlements like Eviatar is to become full-fledged towns.

Guarded round the clock by soldiers, walled off from the millions around them.

The godmother of the settler project, going back more than 50 years, is the woman I'd seen at the Gaza border event, Daniella Weiss.

I want to see big cities here, like a city of 2 million people. So it's not a settlement.

Settlement is caravans. The trailer is a home here and a home there. This is not what my dream is about.

The trailers in that video of Daniella have now grown into the settlement of Qedumim where she still lives.

Hi, my name is William.

Supported by some in the Israeli government, Daniella is viewed by others in power as a dangerous extremist.

She'd agreed to talk to me at home.

My name is Melcholomcholio.

Nice to see you. So we've got pictures of you as a young woman. Is the one of you getting married? Is that the oldest one?

This is when we got together. I was then 15 or something.

Your parents were from?

My mother was born in Warsaw. My parents came here and invested fortunes, living.

Someday there will be a joy state. With their vision and their faith, I continue to expand the Israel and to be as close as possible to the promised land.

This is your map. So this is what most of the world knows is the West Bank, which you call Judeon-Smeria.

This is what you call occupied West Bank.

And what the Palestinians would like to see is a future state of their own.

Oh, they are not satisfied with this, but a complicated issue.

These little pink wedges, what do they represent?

The Jewish communities that were established since 1967.

I'm curious to know roughly how many settlements and outposts you've been, let's say, in some way involved in the establishment.

Almost everyone.

For real?

It's 50 years. You know what it means? 50 years that I do what I do today?

Because it's a territory that was won in the 67 War, that under the Geneva Convention transferring a civilian population into a conquered terrain, that's considered a war crime.

What I do here is a war crime.

According to the UN.

You know, cooperating with the President of the committed war crime?

Well, I'm interviewing you.

It's a light felony.

I've read a couple of things suggesting that you were viewed as an extremist and possibly sympathizing with Jewish or Israeli terror.

The confrontation is not over terror.

The confrontation is just on whether, yes or no, we stay here.

There's quote, so alarming is the situation. It's talking about the situation of settlers and what they describe as settler extremism and violence.

Last week, Ronan Barr, the head of the Israel Security Service, wrote to Netanyahu, the Prime Minister and the Defense Minister warning that what he called Jewish terror by violent settlers was doing indescribable damage to Israel.

The reason Ronan Barr says that I'm extremist has nothing to do with terror.

Whatever I represent threatens his peaceful secular life.

I have nothing to do with terror. He knows I have nothing to do with terror.

And he insists on saying it.

It's a lie. And he knows that it's a lie.

He doesn't like me because I have a lot of influence much more than he is.

Influence over who?

The young generation that is growing in Israel.

And government too.

And government what?

Do you have influence over government?

No question. Who did all this?

Can you call Netanyahu?

What do you mean? Like this?

No, how do you call his aides?

So the idea is to force the government by putting people, starts with small settlements, then they get bigger, then they get recognized by the state of Israel and basically creating a new demographic reality.

We do not force the government. We do for governments what they cannot do for themselves.

Even if you take Netanyahu now, he is very happy with what we do here and also about our plans to build Jewish communities in Gaza. He is happy about it.

But he cannot say it. He says the opposite.

It's not realistic.

God! We will make it realistic.

It's not forcing the government. He's helping the government.

It's step number one in politics.

You don't force the government. You give the government the courage, the ability, the public support, the political support.

I think you understand what I said.

Even if you disagree.

There was something unsettling about hearing Daniela's ethno-nationalist vision being laid out so plainly, especially when I considered the support she claimed to have from some in power.

With their backing, the settlement project has accelerated, with many of those going to live in West Bank settlements coming from other countries.

Anyone from anywhere in the world with Jewish heritage, since they qualify for Israeli citizenship, can live in a settlement.

Have you ever been to Judea? Well, consider this an invitation, because I could try to describe it to you in words, but it would just be impossible.

Arya Brahmavitz was born and raised in Texas. He now helps run Arugot Farm.

A small retreat hosting birthdays, weddings and corporate events, often catering to tourists.

The farm was established as an outpost in 2014, illegally according to international law, on land deep inside the occupied West Bank.

Hi, we're going to Arugot Farm. Thank you.

Are you Arya? I am! There you are! How are you doing? Good to meet you. Welcome, welcome.

Nice to meet you. Louis. Louis. Yes. Sanonos. Louis. Louis. Louis. Yes. Or Louis, I don't mind too much.

Welcome to Judea. You've come armed.

But we're so friendly. I know how it looks. I know it's not true.

So this is our synagogue. And I remember when I first came here, I wanted to build my house here.

And then I learned that according to Judea's law, you build the synagogue in the highest place, which makes sense.

Well, my home is going to be lording over the synagogue. I wouldn't be right. These are the Torah scrolls.

Is it weird to have your guns on in here?

No. My gun is here to protect the nation of Israel from those that seek to harm us.

But during a service, would you typically wear them?

Yes. Is it that dangerous? It is until it's not.

Thank God it never had any issues of infiltrations here.

And I think it's because they know that we're ready for it.

How old were you when you came to Israel?

I think it was 16. I came here after high school to study Torah.

It was supposed to be a few months. It's called the Gap Year program.

When you breathe the air, when you taste that, when you feel mission and passion in life, you can't go back.

This is where I choose to come and pray with the creator of heaven and earth.

I think this is the most beautiful place in the world right here.

Where's the nearest Palestinian town? I'm so uncomfortable using the word Palestinian because I don't think that it exists.

You don't think they really exist? I don't think that they exist as a real nation with a real claim to this land.

What are they then? They are the Arabs with a connection to this land.

Yes, they have a connection to it. It's nowhere near the depth and I mean we were in this land planting vineyards before Muhammad was in the third grade.

Is that a settlement there? That is a Jewish settlement called the Pnekhedem.

Pnekhedem, which means facing the east, face to the east.

Would that be considered legal under Israeli law?

I don't know. You don't really care. I don't care at all.

At all. I don't care at all. Why don't you care?

This land here in the heart of Judea, there's some things that transcend the whims of legislation and this is one of those things.

For millions of Palestinians up and down the West Bank, the presence of settlers makes life precarious.

They live under Israeli military law, restricted from most Israeli roads, subject to frequent run-ins with the authorities and detention without trial, in a legal system that is opaque and arbitrary.

Israel says the measures are necessary for security.

I was in the south Hebron Hills during the olive harvest, a time when tensions run high, with Palestinians prevented from getting to trees they say they've harvested for years.

How are you doing? I was curious to see the interactions for myself.

I'd heard from an Israeli activist group, they were trying to help a farmer named Ishark Jabarin.

Hello. Hello.

Hello. What's happening here today?

I'm not a professor, I'm not a professor, I'm not a liberal.

I'm a professor, I'm a very young man. I'm a very young man.

Yeah. I know. I like the southland for having a family and I'm very proud of both.

It was the project for the strengthening of the lands, wilderness of the land in the Tales of Ruth.

And this part of it has driven lands with the darganders

Galaxy, you're trying to do something?

and nearby settlement had allegedly called them to report the olive picking.

One of those on the scene was a long time Israeli activist mathematician Kobe Sneaks.

Kobe do you know what they're doing right now?

The army has said you got to leave in five minutes and now the landowner has to make a choice

if to try to insist on staying here and taking a risk.

They're liable to do anything. They could arrest the Palestinians, they can arrest us.

Who knows what they might do.

Have you been arrested before?

Do you think he would have been arrested?

40% of all Palestinian men have been arrested, so probably.

They're all informed?

British television.

Bus codes.

Thank you.

Anyone else want to take my passport?

I need to check.

Check what?

Check what?

Nothing, they don't check anything, they just understand.

They're just a bit lost.

They're just a bit of money.

They're just a bit of money.

If he kept picking he would have been arrested?

No, it's not to arrest.

To just evacuate the area.

Meaning what, though, if he says I'm not leaving?

I'm grateful we didn't get to that part.

Because what would happen?

I actually have done.

As a soldier you would have to do what detain him?

That's...

No.

I would have not taken him.

Alongside their interactions with the army, Palestinians throughout the West Bank also suffer attacks by settlers.

These videos come from the South Hebron Hills where I'd seen the olive picking.

In the town of Tawani, a settler was caught on camera shooting and severely injuring a Palestinian man.

The shooter had his gun license revoked, but he was never arrested.

I'd heard of other similar incidents.

In the same town of Tawani, I'd made contact with a 20-year-old Palestinian student and local activist named Mohammed Hireini.

He'd offered to take me to the top of the hill to meet his neighbor who lives at a spot closest to a settlement.

Louis, it's nice to meet you.

Thank you for having us.

Mosab Rubay's house still bears the scars of what he says were settler attacks.

You can see, like, from the wind up in the pullet.

So, there's bullets that have come through here?

Yeah.

From this window and that window.

This is the settler attacks.

This and this one.

Without bright light is?

Yeah.

So, what is that?

Is that an outpost or what is that? Is there anyone in there?

Hang on, something's happening.

What is it?

It's the salt. Are they coming in?

They are screaming to us.

I don't know. There is a little bit of tension.

I see the ladies around the rock.

Take show, Zara.

It's happening with us.

Everything.

What do we do? Just stay in here?

Yeah, we are inside.

My turn, what do you think?

It's not safe at the moment. There's obviously multiple guns pointing at us.

We have Littuet.

What can we do? Can we call the police?

Which police?

I mean, they are one. One regime.

It doesn't matter.

No, because, I mean, we raised in this situation, so it became a normal reality for us.

When you are a kid, you just feel this army invading your home in the day, on the night.

You grow up on this injustice reality that it became normal for you as a human, but it's not normal for anybody.

And no one should accept it.

After more than an hour, the soldiers appeared to lose interest, and the crew and I slipped away.

The violence committed by some settlers is often justified by them as a response to violence they experienced from Palestinians.

Which is much less frequent. Nevertheless, it's hard to disentangle it from an ideology of the superiority of one group and their rights over another, promoted by leaders like Daniela Weiss.

Hiya, how are you?

Hey, how are you?

I'm good.

I'm hoping for more insight into her and her work, I was back.

Then I have a meeting. So, but do I have a seat?

Thank you.

I'm looking for a seat.

I'm looking for a seat.

I'm looking for a seat.

I'm looking for a seat.

So, we'll just wait.

Great.

Okay, so now, follow me if you want to know.

Are we leaving?

So, we're going to meet you there.

Alright.

I was joining Daniela and some friends of hers in a convoy heading towards Gaza.

Mission unclear.

Two hours later, we were one kilometer from the Gaza border in the Israeli town of Sterat.

Arriving at a yeshiva, a religious school, where Daniela took part in an assembly.

Alongside two prominent rabbis.

What's happening next, Daniela?

Should we follow you?

We'll follow him.

Our next stop was a memorial for the victims of October 7th.

Sterat had seen heavy fighting during Hamas attacks and suffered many losses.

For some passes by, Daniela held a degree of celebrity status.

Then the settler convoy arrived at what seemed to be its destination.

A viewpoint overlooking the war zone.

Daniela had told me she'd signed up 800 families who were ready to move into Gaza.

One of her team explained how it would work.

The idea seemed to be to get spiritual buy-in from the two rabbis.

One of them was next to speak, Rabbi Dov Leor.

He was a very good man.

He was a very good man.

He was a very good man.

He was a very good man.

He was a very good man.

He was a very good man.

He was a very good man.

He was a very good man.

He was a very good man.

He was a great man.

He was very good.

He was a very good man.

He was a very good man.

I remember.

He was a very good man.

He was a very good man.

As the day ended, we were following Daniela's car, driving on what seemed to be army-controlled

land, approaching ever closer to the Gaza border.

I can see the destroytizers.

It had previously been reported that Daniela had been illegally escorted into Gaza by

soldiers who supported her, to wreck your locations for settlement.

Suddenly her vehicle broke away.

On this occasion she was intercepted.

So basically she had a military escort and then she just peeled away and made a sprint

for the border of Gaza.

Yeah.

She's just tried to run away from the army, hasn't she?

Did you try and make a dash to put the Gaza border?

What was happening down there?

I enjoyed it so much.

Our two jeeps were due too much attention.

But what's the idea?

Why do you want to go down to the Gaza?

Actually, you want to get into Gaza?

Why do you want to go down to the Gaza border?

What I wanted to do, I wanted to show the rabbis that Gaza is not something beyond reach.

Would you say October 7th made people more receptive to your message and to your point

of view?

No doubt.

The October 7th naturally made people more receptive to the idea of the Great Israel.

But the next step to his settlements in Gaza is a very difficult step that demands a lot

of work.

You have to influence the leftist, the government, the nations of the world.

Using the magic system, Zionism, you will be in the land, you establish communities,

you bring Jewish families, you live Jewish life, and this will bring light instead of darkness.

And this is how the state of Israel was established.

And this is what we want to do in Gaza.

This process of making the whole of the West Bank in Gaza Jewish, do you feel like it's

moving more quickly?

As far as Judaism is concerned, so we want to move from 1 million to 2 million.

So this is the next step.

This is my vision.

I'm so complicated.

Daniela's vision has been made possible by the Israeli occupation.

But it in turn has led to the creation of a vast military infrastructure which impacts

every aspect of Palestinian life.

Nowhere is it more evident than in Hebron.

Hebron is an ancient Biblical city, home to some 200,000 Palestinians, a place wholly

to three major religions.

Hi, how are you?

We're from the British TV crew.

In 1968, the year after it was occupied by Israel, a community of Jewish settlers moved

in illegally.

They now number around 700 existing in a cordon of military protection.

I visited in 2010 when I spent time with a settler leader.

Now 14 years on, I was curious about life within the Palestinian community.

I'm Louis.

Hi, Louis.

Nice to meet you.

Welcome.

Thank you for having us.

Yissa Amro, a Palestinian activist, was born here in the settler occupied area.

You've got fences all around?

All around.

Pences from here?

Yeah.

Who lives on the other side?

Is there a settler?

We've got army there.

What are they doing?

Have they come for a reason?

No, they come for intimidation.

How are you?

They're not speaking, but I think what they would say is, well, we're here to bring

security to the settlers who live here and want to live in peace and experience animosity

from the Palestinians.

So they want to live in peace and the expense of my basic human rights.

I didn't choose to live in Hebron.

I was born in Hebron.

It's my land.

It's my homeland.

The settlers chose to come here.

And if it's not safe for them, why do you continue building more and more settlements

in my own city?

By international law, the settlements are illegal.

They don't see us as equal human beings who deserve the same rights they do.

Lead the way.

Yeah.

For nearly 20 years, ESA has been an advocate for nonviolent resistance against the occupation.

He is one of around 30,000 Palestinians living inside the high security area of Hebron,

the so-called sterile zone.

For them, just doing their shopping, going to work, or going to school means passing through

military checkpoints.

Let's see how it works.

Hi.

Hi.

How are you guys doing?

Good. How are you?

Fine. Everything okay?

I need your passport, please.

All of you, okay?

Sure.

What for?

Why?

Check.

Why, ESA, how are you doing, mate?

How are you doing?

Hi.

Why are you covering your faces?

Because of the coil.

No.

Come on, guys.

Don't hide.

Only gangs hide their faces.

You are a military.

You should have your faces, you know, obvious to everybody.

You know it, sir.

You live here.

Yeah, he does.

Father.

He says it's making life very difficult to have this another.

What are you doing here?

What are you all doing here?

What am I doing here?

Make your documentary.

The commentary for prison television.

Of what?

About settlers in the West Bank.

Settlers in the West Bank?

Yes.

What?

What do you tell to the television about the settlements?

It's not about what I'm telling them, it's about what I'm hearing from the people who I speak to.

Where do you live?

I don't want to tell you.

Okay.

I told you where I went.

It's a jarrabé.

It's a jarrabé.

What does that mean?

It's a enjoy from the trip in Caron here.

Thank you.

Wish you all the best, guys.

How is life here?

It's like you're very well armed.

Is there a situation here that needs careful control?

Of course.

What is it?

Tell me about it.

My love, so glad we're all.

It's wonderful.

What was he saying about Aravi?

Oh, he wanted to see if you're on an Aravi.

He asked you to speak Arabic.

How are you doing?

What's up?

Hey, how are you doing?

No, excellent.

American?

What do I look, Chinese?

Yeah.

You're clean.

You're wet.

Let me just pull over to the side.

Okay.

Do you know him?

No, he doesn't sit here.

You're okay?

Do you need help?

You're okay?

No.

Are you stuck?

You were a rot.

Yeah.

I can't see him.

What's wrong with you?

What's wrong with you?

Why are you filming me?

It's all good, don't worry.

We can't even see your face.

Let your obscure.

No one can even see who you are.

Don't worry.

I don't know what to do with you.

I have work to do.

Get on with you, boys.

You're fine.

You stay here?

Have a sit there?

In the check post and filming everything, you can't do this.

Here, okay?

Come with me.

Wait, no, you can't do that.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no.

No, no, no.

Don't touch me.

No, don't touch me.

No, Berlin.

Listen to me.

I'm listening.

Come.

Come to me.

I'm from the military, okay?

Okay?

I'm the idea of Israel Defense Forces.

I'm above the police here in the West Bank.

Okay?

I'm the highest responsibility of law.

Okay?

We'll tell you like this, okay?

And as this man, IDF, I need to tell you, not staying here.

Okay, we'll move along.

That's fine.

Okay, live this place.

Live this area, okay?

Yeah, we'll move along.

Right now, Yala.

Father, wait.

Let's go.

Yala, let's go.

So who lives here?

Palestinian Foundation.

And where are they?

They are hiding behind the indoors.

What would stop these shops from being open?

It's closed by military orders.

And marked as closed shops.

It's marked.

From this shop would be five families at least live and earn their living.

Look, this is something new.

This not to hire Arab workers in Israel.

Two faces.

Two faces of Arab and a face of a terrorist.

And this is how they stereotype us.

Middle finger.

You gave you the middle finger?

Yes.

You too.

You think it was to me?

I think it was to you.

To both of us.

Because you deserve the middle finger if you report about Palestinians.

It's a very good station.

It's a very good station.

Wait, wait.

I did, please.

For what reason?

The police.

I want to ask you to ask.

Yes.

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry.

I know that I'm allowed to be here.

I'm sorry.

Today, we are almost allowed.

Why can't he be with us?

Because we are a limit for Palestinians.

So if he lives here, he can't.

It's, you know, give me what I did.

How come Palestinians can't come down here?

We'll play this.

We'll come around.

We're not talking to you.

It seems ironic that that's the visitor's centre, right?

The tourists and whatnot.

And he can't actually visit in his own city.

You knew that was going to happen?

No.

It's new that they ask me to come back to here.

He told me that I'm allowed only to here.

So they expanded the closed area for me.

What's it all about?

Taking more and more land.

It's about fragmented life, restricted life for Palestinians.

No quality life.

You live with the basics.

With the basics, even with less than basics,

with our family needs.

To make you live.

And they are doing well.

The majority of the houses are empty.

The families are leaving.

You could flip it and say, well, if they really wanted to occupy the whole of Hebron,

or at least this area, they could literally deport Palestinians.

They do it slowly.

But now they are speeding up.

They want approval from their allies and their partners in the world.

Is it worth going through to see the other side?

Yes, they can see what it looks like.

This gives you a little flavor of what it was like in there before.

Yes.

The market was much more busy inside.

It was our Oxford Street inside.

So busy.

My father used to hold my arm not to lose me.

Not anymore.

It's close completely.

It's restricted.

In order to get back in, we can't go through there now because they have closed.

It's closed.

So how do we get back in?

You drive from another checkpoint.

Through here?

Yes.

Louis!

Coming through?

Yes.

Okay, just one more.

One is a green green.

I'm fine.

I'm fine.

I'm fine.

Go for it.

Go for it.

Go for it.

Go for it.

So now we're on the other side of the area where you couldn't walk before, right?

Yes.

Where they stopped you from walking in front of the visitor center.

But you need to get home.

Yes.

So what will you do?

I will go around again.

I will go outside this checkpoint, go around to enter from another checkpoint and wait till the checkpoint opens to get into my house with my son.

You definitely can't come this way.

I can't come this way.

Okay.

I can.

They won't let you through.

No, they will not.

I'm not allowed.

I was happy to meet you.

Thank you so much.

Take care.

Bye bye.

I'm happy.

On the drive back from Hebron, I reflected on the separate lives lived by Israelis and Palestinians and the unequal system of rights and justice.

I ran into a traffic jam caused by a bomb scare.

The road, the main artery in the West Bank, is one of the few shared by Israelis and Palestinians.

For once, all were subject to delay.

It was the sobering experience visiting Hebron again.

He told me he believed life was being made intolerable for Palestinians deliberately to make them leave and that the process was speeding up since October 7th.

And it was true that some settlers I'd met supported the deportation of Palestinians who won't submit to Jewish authority.

One of them was Ari, a Texan born and raised in Houston, now resident deep inside the occupied West Bank.

Good to see you.

Good to see you.

How are you?

All right.

Go on to the weather.

I'm sorry to hear that.

Thank you for having us back.

Hoping to understand a little better, I'd return to see him again.

Okay, okay.

We're ready for the coffee.

I really hope I do a try.

I never know if you wear those guns just for effect.

I don't know what effect I'm looking for.

Do I want to look more militant?

Yeah, no, I'm not wearing it just for effect.

Do you want to sit down?

We've talked a lot about how you see the importance of Jewish presence in the, what's termed the biblical land of Israel.

Are you saying that you see Israel as playing a role for modeling a new kind of nationalism?

Is that right?

I think that all of what's happening in the world right now is leading us as a nation to open our eyes to who we are.

We are the tip of the spear fighting the battles of America and defending the entire western world, and not just the western world, anyone who wants any semblance of liberty and freedom in their lives.

Nevertheless, there are millions of people up and down the area, Arabs, Muslims who aren't living free, right?

They're enclosed without the same rights, without national self-determination, and in many respects feeling besieged.

And I just wonder, do you see that?

I don't have tremendous compassion for a society that has an unquenchable, genocidal, theological bloodlust.

It's like a death cult.

It seems to me that there's a danger with that characterization of Palestinians, you define them as eliminationists and hateful and genocidal.

I use the words death cult.

That permits you to almost create a mirror image of that.

You say, well if they want to do that to us, then we need to do that to them.

I think that when you're living amongst people who have perpetually proven, not only by word, but by deed, that they want your blood spilled in the streets, that they want to murder your children, that they want to slay all of you, kill all of you, in the most horrific genocide away.

That all of the polls showed after October 7th, that these people who you continuously call the Palestinian people, that I reject the very premise, that they are actually a real nation for a lot of reasons.

But the millions of people who have nothing to do with October 7th, who actually would like to live free full lives.

If that's really what they wanted, they would have had it a long time ago.

They want to wipe Israel off the map. They want every last Jew dead.

The answer is for us to declare sovereignty over all of Judea and Samaria, and all of the land of Israel, and Gaza, and to settle Gaza and all of Judea and Samaria with Jews in the land of Israel.

Did the question annoy you?

Annoy me, I just hear it so often, and it feels like it's being addressed again and again and again.

Even if the entire world is pointing, accusing fingers and gnashing their teeth and rage and anger, we know the righteousness and the truth of our cause, even if we stand alone.

That's what it means to be a Hebrew, that's what it means to be a Jew.

If we know the truth of our cause, that's all we need.

For Ari, it was clear that nothing is greater than the word of God, and that word had led him to believe that it was the divine right of the Jewish people to settle and rule this land.

See you later.

God, I'm glad to protect you. I'm in.

The Bible was, as he saw it, a land deed to the West Bank.

With an afternoon three, I stopped for coffee in the Palestinian city of Nablus.

Surrounded by the ancient architecture of the old city and the undeniable fact of the hundreds of thousands of people living there and their aspirations for statehood.

At the edge of the city, we were held up at one of the many checkpoints that control the people entering and leaving.

Can you put the gun down?

I got the model.

From London.

You've been in the market?

Yes.

You also?

Yes.

You're a Jew?

She's American.

Can you show me ID?

Me?

Everyone.

Yes, sure.

It's very slow going.

We're in that queue for an hour or more.

Nice.

How much time are you going to stay in there?

Hang on, but I don't think we're in Israel.

Are we in Israel?

You're in Israel now.

Are we?

Yes.

In the West Bank.

No?

In the north of the West Bank, I was heading back to the settlement of Eviatar, where I'd been hosted by Malkeel, the horse Wrangler.

Since my visit, I'd learned a little more about the settlement's relations with its neighboring Palestinian town of Beitah.

How Beitah had been subject to settler attacks, and how it, in turn, had organized regular protests of the settlement.

Demonstrators had been killed, and others wounded during the clashes.

One of the deaths of a Turkish-American volunteer, Aishinaou Ezki-Egi, made headlines.

Now the settlement was holding a festival to celebrate its recent recognition by the Israeli state.

Entertainment's have been laid on, and families from settlements from around the West Bank had converged for a day of music and activities.

One of those speaking with Daniela.

In the hot goodbye, Mehimahot, Aishinaou.

I guess, would.

How are you?

It's a bit quieter.

As the festivities wound down, I had a moment to speak to Daniela on a hilltop overlooking the Palestinian town of Beitah.

So you've been talking about settling, you've talked about displacing, wanting the Palestinians to go.

You said to Africa, to Canada, to England, you don't care where?

What would be wrong with either a two-state solution or a one-state solution where everyone had the same rights?

We want to have a Jewish state based on Jewish rules, on Jewish values.

It's not relationship of neighbors.

Why not?

Because we are two different nations.

Different.

I just wonder whether you feel or you're aware that they're really suffering, and there's been settlers rampaging through the area of the West Bank.

So there's all this...

Agitation.

Death.

Tragedy, right?

Tragedy.

When a people is invaded, right, and then put under a military occupation deprived of their rights, that anger seems to be an understandable response, an appropriate response.

There is no such thing as subtle violence.

Did they speak? I don't know if I felt... I don't mind saying it again.

I don't mind. I will be glad to explain it.

You don't believe it's real? There are videos. You can see them.

You see what? Okay? Let's say...

We have a camera right here.

Yes.

And I do this.

Yep.

Do something. You don't mind what I did to you. You don't decide to do anything.

Well, I won't do that to you.

You won't.

And then the camera takes just part.

You don't have the full picture.

Then I say you're violent. You're violent against a woman.

This is exactly what is going on all the time with what you call...

Settler violence.

Settlers do not wake up in the morning or do not go wait for sundown to attack.

No, no, no, no.

Why should we wake up in the morning and think about violence?

Why our life is good?

Because you want the Palestinians to leave.

No, no, no, no.

You've said so.

I said that what is on my mind all the time is how to bring more people to settle the land.

This is a new development by Jews.

This is Al-Brahaha. This is it's ha.

This we can hear we can develop. We cannot develop.

I never think in terms of... I know this is data.

I don't think about... I don't think about data.

Why not?

Because I think about... I'm a Jew.

I'm a settler.

I'm a human being.

Yes, you are. So, I do not think about this.

You're thinking about tribalism, thinking of your own people to the exclusion.

It would be understandable to think of your own people or your own children first,

but to think about other people, other children, not at all, that seems sociopathic.

I cannot...

Doesn't it?

No, not at all. This is normal.

To my children, I give everything because I...

That normal thing for me is to pray for my own people.

That's it. So now I continue.

I hope you push me back.

And so I said goodbye to Daniela and her extreme ideology delivered with a smile.

14 years on from my first visit with the horror of October 7th in the interim,

and the ongoing devastation of Gaza, the settler dream shows no sign of abating,

along with the dislocation, displacement and death that follows inevitably in its train.

I've watched by ideologues backed up by those in power and accountable only to God.