All language subtitles for The.Blessing.and.the.Curse.2025.720p.WEBRip_engHi

[ethereal music]

[gentle music]

[wind blowing]

[Amir]
We're facing the two mountains.

Har Gerizim,
the mountain of the blessing,

and Har Ebal,
the mountain of the curse.

Well, the blessing
and the curse, to live here.

This place is beautiful
in the middle of nature.

And that's part of the blessing.

The curse is,
why can't I live here in peace?

[light tense music]

This is our settlement
in the West Bank.

Why do we have fences?

Fences, five miles
around Itamar, more or less.

And, uh, uh, you can see
the village of, uh, Awarta.

That's the Palestinian village
that is close to us.

[bird chirping]

And the birds that fly
around here and... [chuckles]

...they fly over Itamar,

and a minute later,
they're over Awarta.

They don't have any fences,
but we do.

The fences are
what we call a smart fence.

It tells us if people touch it,
if, uh, people climb over,

if people cut it apart
or stuff like that.

[music continues]

That's one of the cameras
that guard Itamar.

A terrorist entered
a private home in the settlement of Itamar

and brutally murdered
five people.

[thunder rumbling]

[Moshe]
The terrorist came to the fence from Awarta.

[panting]

[wind howling]

[crickets chirping]

[suspenseful music]

And they set off the alarm
of our fence.

[sirens wailing]

So we sent a jeep,
a jeep was sent in that area.

A jeep went down,
they didn't see,

and the terrorists were able
to get over the fence

and make their way up
towards the Fogel house.

[men singing in Hebrew]

What was going down
on the Fogel home, they was--

it was something
called an Oneg Shabbat.

So you're getting together
and singing songs,

that spiritual kind of meeting.

[child giggling]

And then, after that's over,
people obviously go home

after having a nice party.

At that moment,
the terrorists made their move, they looked through the window,

they see children on the floor.

[ominous music]

They go inside and lock
the door from the inside.

[door opens]

The killers entered the room
of 11-year-old Yoav...

...and slashed his throat.

[wind howling]

[dog barking]

One of the killers
strangles four-year-old Elad.

[melancholic music]

The other terrorist...

...stabbed him
twice in the chest.

And then, they went
into the parents room.

There was a struggle
in the parents room.

[Moshe]
Udi, stabbed in the neck.

Ruti is knifed repeatedly.

But when the killers see
she's still alive, they shoot her...

[gunshots]

...with a stolen gun.

[Amir]
They wanted to run outside.

One of the security cars
came right on this road here.

[engine rumbling]

They saw the car coming,
so they slammed the door...

- [door bangs]
- ...and the small baby

had dust from the slamming
of the door and cried.

And they stabbed her to death.

Then they came here
to the, to the garden,

jumped over
this small fence here.

They ran right over there,
another half a mile...

...to their houses in Awarta.
They took their clothes off.

They burnt them,
'cause they didn't want anybody

to find blood on their clothes.

[wind howling]

[sighs] You know,
there is no words that could,

could, um, explain
how human beings

could behave so brutally, so...

[music continues]

...barbarians. There's no word.
No words to describe that.

[crickets chirping]

[Amir]
People ask me, why do we live here...

...with our families, our kids?

Why would we stay
after something like this?

It's a tough question.

It's complicated.

[upbeat music]

[bird chirping]

- [engines rumbling]
- [horn honking]

[Amir]
Uh, we had a joke that on the big-- uh, like, in...

...2000 year
and stuff like that,

when there were
a lot of bombings in Tel Aviv,

Jerusalem and so on,

so they ask you,
"Wow, you're from Itamar.

Isn't it d-- dangerous?"
And stuff like that.

So, our joke was that

you have to tell them that,
"Yeah, sure it's dangerous.

We have to go throu-- through
Tel Aviv or through, uh, Jerusalem

to ge-- to get back home.

It's much, much more tense,"
and stuff like that.

[gentle music]

Well, my name is,
uh, Amir Yosman.

Uh, I'm 32 years old now,

and I'm a paramedic...

...and I'm a settler.

[horn honking]

I live in Itamar...

...for about five years.

It's different. Like, you know,
they don't have a mall and you don't have a bank

and all kind of services
that you need, uh, daily or weekly,

and it's a bit tougher,
but we live in the place

that is very important to live,

like, in a place
that we have to settle in,

we have to grab the--
no, not to grab, but we have to, like,

be, be in the land.

To get to Itamar,
we'll pass Jerusalem,

separation barrier wall.

It's a dangerous drive.

[narrator] The settlement
of Itamar is deep in the northern West Bank,

a region the Jews call Samaria,
or in Hebrew, Shomron.

[light tense music]

An hour's journey
from Jerusalem...

...through
the separation barrier.

Itamar is guarded
by several military checkpoints...

...like the Tapuach Junction.

It's surrounded
by several Arab villages,

including Huwara, Awarta,

and Nablus.

But to understand
the story of Itamar,

you must first understand
the significance of the West Bank.

The West Bank is one
of the most fought over pieces of land on Earth.

Before 1967, it was ruled
by the Kingdom of Jordan,

and Jews were forbidden
to enter.

But Jews have always had
a special connection to the land.

During the Six-Day War of 1967,

Israel defeated
three Arab nations,

capturing the West Bank.

Soon, Zionist Jews
began settling there,

believing they were returning
to their biblical roots.

But tensions between
Palestinian Arabs and Jews turned into clashes,

with attacks and reprisals
on both sides,

and many people murdered,
including the Fogel family.

[engines rumbling]

[Amir]
Yeah, when you go to Itamar, you have to have a good view.

[soft squeaking]

[birds chirping]

[man]
Is that a special pass for the separation barrier?

No, this is just
an air freshener.

[light tense music]

So, our journey begins.

Okay, so we're going now

past the... separation wall...

...barrier.

That's it.

And we're heading,
heading north towards Itamar,

and the others, uh,
parts of the Samaria.

After the Oslo peace agreement,

the whole area
of Judea and Samaria

was divided to three zones.

The A zone, the B zone,
and the C zone.

A stands for, um,
Palestinian Authority,

where they have their security
and their, uh, police, uh, authority.

Uh, the B zone is where
the Palestinians live,

but the, uh,
IDF is the military ruler.

And the C zone,
that is the main roads

and the Israeli villages,
like settlements.

[music continues]

And our joke says that
A stands for "Arabs," as A.

C stands for Selanu,

like, shelanuin Hebrew,
that's our zone.

And B is balagan,is like,
we don't know... [laughs] what happens there.

It's, uh, it's also IDF,

also Palestinian guys t--
live there, so it's, like,

all messed up. And, uh,

- most of the zones are...
more or less B, the B zone. - [man chuckles]

[hip-hop music]

[engines rumbling]

[wind blowing]

[Moshe]
I was born in the USA, in Brooklyn.

I saw myself
at a very young age living in Israel one day.

That dream came true.

[door creaking]

[shofar blowing]

[speaks Hebrew]

Welcome.

They say that Jews have horns,
but we use our mouths.

[laughing]

[gentle music]

Hi, um, my name is
Moshe Goldsmith, um,

I've been living on Itamar
for the last 34 years.

Um, I'm a rabbi, an educator.

I've also served for nine years
as the, uh, mayor of this community,

the small town mayor of Itamar.

And, uh, a simple person
trying to build the land,

I would sum it up in that way.

- Leah, come here
a sec-- [laughs] - [Leah] Oh, my God!

I can't believe this pressure!

My husband is Moshe,
and we're married 33 years

and we're living here
as many as that.

We came to Israel
right after the wedding.

[Moshe]
Yeah, Leah made it happen. She's a doer.

Well, it all started
when I was born,

um, to Holocaust survivors.

Had a typical
American childhood.

You know, I rode my bike,
went out with my friends.

But something from the future
was calling to me.

I just didn't know what it was.

[music continues]

[Moshe]
So there was a girl in class named Leah.

And, um, her
and her best friend Susie,

they would throw paper airplanes
at me and harass me and whatever it was.

But me and Leah became--
we-- very good friends, we were little kids,

we became very good friends,
12 years old.

And after I graduated
high school, I didn't see her for seven years.

Which is when a friend of mine,
who is also a friend of Moshe's,

um, said, "Oh, remember, Moshe?"

Leah comes over,
she knocks, goes like this...

...knocks on my desk.
And I went... [gasping and laughing] "Oh!

What's going on over here?"
I look up and she goes,

"Hi, do you remember me,
Moshe?" [laughing]

[Leah]
And that's when it started.

That's when we started
to make history.

[Moshe]
We were plowing, um, north and south.

We went to Gush Katif,
the southern part of Israel,

the Gaza, uh, region.

I'm not a sand person.

So we came upon this
new settlement that was just beginning,

a new pioneering community
called Itamar.

So I said, "Leah,
we have to live here."

[music continues]

[birds cawing and chirping]

[Leah]
We lived in the fast lane for those days.

And then we came to a very slow,

slow, empty place.

So we grew from about
ten young families

to close to 300 families now.

[Moshe]
The people that formed the community of Itamar

was a very small nucleus
in the beginning of idealists,

people that believe
we are fulfilling the 2000-year-old dream

of Israel to return to Zion.

And full of so many barriers
and so many obstacles.

[tense music]

You feel a vibe in the air here,

like a positive
and a negative charge.

It's a force.

[reporter 1]
There has been international condemnation

of plans to expand settlements

on land the Palestinians want
for a state.

[reporter 2]
In a rare show of unity, the UN Security Council

passed judgment
on Israeli settlements...

[speaking Spanish]

- [woman] 14 votes in favor.
- [crowd clapping]

...voting that they'd become
a serious threat

to a viable peace deal
with the Palestinians.

This is th-- the most ridiculous
thing in the world,

to think that we would be
an obstacle to peace.

The settlements.

Um, the opposite.

True peace... will come
through understanding,

mutual understanding
of who we are.

The Jews have become
the villains since the beginning of time.

In Egypt, we were persecuted
by the Egyptians.

We all know, um,
the plan of Hitler.

[melancholic music]

Throughout the ages,
we've been constantly persecuted

and hated for being Jews.

I can understand,
and I can accept

why people would say
that building new settlements

is an obstacle to peace.

And I would-- I even accept
criticism about certain elements

and the way
the settlements are run.

But there's
always been an obsession with the Jewish people,

and I'm not afraid to say
that it does have

an underlying anti-Semitism
that we will never be able to overcome.

And you're aware of it.

You feel it. Because the war

is not just
with a knife or a gun.

It's a war of the mind.

It's very hard to remove
this emotional part...

...that is survival.

Like, where they feel
like they're always in a state of survival,

it's always
an existential threat.

[hip-hop music]

[horn honking]

[engines rumbling]

I'm not texting,
I'm looking at the, the route.

The Waze,
you have a way to configure in your settings of the app

that you don't wanna go
through dangerous areas.

So, uh, thank you, Waze.

We know that we live
in a dangerous area,

but this is where we live.

[light tense music]

We're now in Huwara.

This is the beginning of Huwara.

Well, right in this place,

right after this small
USAID roundabout,

uh...

...a friend of mine from Itamar
got stuck within a protest,

a Palestinian protest.

He was here driving
back from a shopping.

[indistinct shouting]

[car alarm wailing]

They started throwing
rocks on him, but then, it got much worse,

like, throwing rocks on the car

and the glasses started
to break and stuff like that.

- So he had to shoot
his way out. - [gunshots]

But when he put his head down,
he didn't see anything.

He actually killed
one Palestinian

and another one was injured.

[tense music]

I'm not scared
driving through Huwara, because I'm regular to it.

I'm a bit afraid
of what would happen

if my wife would go
through something like that.

If my wife and kids
would do something like that.

[gunshots]

- [man 1 shouting] Hey!
Everybody, down! Down! - [siren wailing]

- [indistinct shouting]
- [gunshots]

[Eitan]
Correct me if I'm wrong, I think one of the soldiers

came and shield you
with his body.

I'm here to make you safe.

And this is why
I'm gonna protect you,

even if it's gonna cost me
with my life.

Please pay attention, guys.
Please pay attention--

- [man] Hey, I'm gonna kill you!
- [Eitan] Move back! Move back!

[indistinct shouting]

- [Eitan] Get down, get down!
Everybody down! - [man 2 indistinctly shouting]

[indistinct chatter]

[man speaking Hebrew]

[woman chuckling]

Back to the yeshiva.

[deeply exhales]

Shoulder to shoulder, please.

This is exactly
how it's happening.

But tell me, please,

which photo are gonna get
to the media?

The last one, when I'm sitting
with the loaded gun

above a teenager
with a soccer team T-shirt on him,

or the first one,
that teenager came in, stabbed many people,

the second before--

- The last one. And how
I'm gonna get posted... - Yeah.

...around-- around the world?
As a pissed animal

and a brutal soldier
hurting teenagers and kids.

My name is Achishena Goldsmith.

I'm the daughter of Leah
and Moshe Goldsmith.

I was born and raised
in Itamar...

- [indistinct chatter]
- ...and we're going to learn how to shoot

at the shooting range.

What's your motivation
in shooting?

[Achishena]
My motivation is, uh, learning how to protect myself,

- to protect my relatives.
- [Sharon] Very good. Okay.

And, uh, maybe even
saving a life one day, you know.

Because sometimes,

terror attacks can be prevented

- if we only had a gun
in the right time, you know. - [gunshots]

Now, when I shout "Body,"

- you shout "Body" with me. Okay?
- Okay.

Hold the weapon
parallel to the, to the target.

Body!

And back.

Look, when I shout,

- you shout too. Okay?
- Okay.

- Wake up. We're now...
- Okay. I'm waking up.

- ...not in the classroom.
- [laughs]

- We are in the shooting range.
Ready? - Okay. Yeah.

- Body!
- Body!

Very good. Run on the spot.

- Body!
- Body!

Very good. Okay.

Now, w-- we're adding
one more element,

which is
the wooden weapon. Okay?

- Okay.
- Same thing.

I get into the "Body" position.
This is the position.

- Okay.
- Okay?

Okay, no problem.

- Ready?
- Yeah. Ready.

- Body!
- Body!

Very good.

- Again. L shape.
- Okay.

- Body!
- Body!

- [gunshots]
- [Shanon] Perfect.

[speaking Hebrew]

[Achishena]
Guns are dangerous. And you have to learn

how to shoot and how
to listen to instructions.

- So, my father has a gun.
Also, my mom has a gun. - [gunshots]

And when my, uh,
sisters got married,

so my parents bought the--
their husbands guns.

"If you wanna marry
our daughter, you hav-- you must carry a gun."

[laughs]

[praying in Hebrew]

[shofar blowing]

We live in an area
where there are dangers, yes.

It m-- could be dangerous.

Of course,
the Fogel tragedy massacre.

So you wanna call that
being in a dangerous place?

Yes, but we have
to be ready to defend ourselves.

[light tense music]

[wind blowing]

This land, after being
without Jews for 2000 years,

and returning now in 1967,
after the Six-Day War,

God blessed us
with being able to come--

be-- again, return to this land.

[Amir]
It's told in the Bible that this land is Israel.

In the Quran, it's also said.

We feel we have a privilege
and we have to take advantage of the gift that God gave us.

So we feel it's
our biblical right to come back.

That you have a home
that God gave you.

He defined a location
for the people of Israel,

and Zionism is really
a realization of that dream.

[gentle music]

Right now, we're standing on one
of my favorite places on Itamar.

The viewpoint of the three seas.

The Dead Sea to the southeast.

The Mediterranean Sea
to the west,

we see the sun setting
in that direction.

And to the north,
the Sea of the Galilee.

So I'm standing
on my favorite rock over here,

and I call it
the Rock of Abraham.

I always say, this is where
the nation of Israel began.

And a lot of people
look at the Bible, unfortunately look at it

as some kind of mythology,
they don't take it seriously.

But we take the Bible very,
very seriously.

This is our life.
This is our heritage.

And it all began
with a person named Abraham.

Abraham was born in Mesopotamia,
in northern Syria,

and one day God tells him,

"Abraham, it's time to leave
w-- the place you were born.

It's time to leave
your father's house.

And I want you to go
to the land I will show you."

And Abraham didn't wait
for questions.

He packed his bags,
he took his wife, Sarah,

the family together,
and they began their exodus

from Mesopotamia to come
to the land of Israel.

Abraham comes over here
and he walks right below us

in this valley with the family.

And he makes his way
to a city right behind us

between these two mountains.

The modern city of Nablus.

It's-- the biblical name
is Shechem,

shechemmeaning shoulders,
shekem.

As a matter of fact,
it looks like shoulders.

I always say, looking
at those two mountains,

they look like
a football player.

And you need to have
football players shoulders

when you're sh--
dealing with the challenges

in the land of Israel.
But anyway,

Abraham comes over here

and he enters the city

and he prays and he continues
his way to the south.

And this is where it all began.
Every time I tell the story,

I feel something else
in my heart, I feel--

literally,
I'm connecting to my past

and I'm standing in the present
and looking forward to the future.

- Look at that. Look
at that sunset. It's amazing. - [man] Wow.

[man chanting prayer in Arabic]

I gotta get a picture of that.

[wind blowing]

[camera shutter clicking]

[gentle music]

[crickets chirping]

[bird chirping]

[soft splashing]

[music continues]

[birds chirping]

[indistinct chatter]

[wind blowing]

[Leah]
If you read the Bible,

it says the land again
will be populated

with the indigenous
ancient people

of Israel returning to the land.

And the land will turn
from a barren w-- wasteland

to a productive, beautiful land.
So how does that happen?

That happens with people
going to live there

and by the sweat of their brow.

So if you ask me,
"What was it like to come back here?"

It was literally like coming
to the Garden of Eden

before the garden was planted.

We had to plant it.

[gentle music]

So when we came from Brooklyn
and all of that to Itamar...

[ethereal chiming]

...it just felt fine.

That's what it means
to be a settler.

Abraham was a settler.
Isaac and Jacob.

Joshua, the nation of Israel,
were all settlers.

I think that there is a gap
also between

different parts of Israel
and the settlements and the way they're perceived as well.

I think the Israeli media
has also been responsible

for the image
these settlers are given

being aggressive
and being inhumane.

My name is Taylor Amrani,
and my aim is to represent

a voice that I feel is missing

in the discourse on Israel.

Um, I do that
by using modern tools,

through Facebook,
Instagram, YouTube,

and I think
that a lot of the times,

the settlers get this label
of less than human beings

when things happen to them
because they made a decision

to live there,
so they have responsibility for what happens to them.

Like the Fogel family.

[light tense music]

[Amir]
People of Tel Aviv don't really wanna know

the story of Itamar.

"Oh, that place, the,
the shooting place,

that murder place,
that terror pla--

we don't wanna hear
about it anymore.

That's bothering us.
So let's put it behind a fence."

You go to the Palestinian area

and-- or the West Bank,

you'll see
the Jewish settlements

are all beautifully built up,

but you'll also come a--
across a lot of barren land.

It doesn't matter
how poor you are,

your land is your land, it's,
like, where you're rooted.

And as they look at it,
take their land away from them

is to deprive them
of their roots.

[light tense music]

[engine rumbling]

[Amir]
Welcome to Itamar.

We'll see now the synagogue.

The synagogue is named
after the people of Itamar

that were killed in different,
uh, terror attacks.

Now we're going through
the new basketball, uh, playground,

uh, basketball court,
also named after...

...the different people
of Itamar that were killed.

[dogs barking]

We have a joke that
if we wanna build a new playground,

a new school,
whatever you wanna build,

um, we have to have volunteers
to get killed.

When you live
in a tense place like this,

you have to have
a sense of humor

about the whole thing
that is happening here.

This house is
the Fogel family's house.

[melancholic music]

[wind blowing]

[children indistinctly
chattering]

[woman speaking Hebrew]

[Amir]
The plans for the new yeshiva...

...were written
five years earlier.

But right
after the Fogel murder,

we said, "we're now doing this.

We're doing it in one year.

We're gonna build it
as a memory...

- [soft splashing]
- ... for the Fogel family,

and it's called Mishkan Ehud,
after Rabbi Udi Fogel."

And that's what happened.
We built it in one year, the, the huge yeshiva.

[light tense music]

[Tomer]
70 years ago,

the Germans put, uh,
the Jewish with fence.

We don't want to back to the,
to the fence, okay?

We had a community meeting
about putting a fence

around this area,
around the lower, more populated area.

I was against the fence.

I think it shows cowardice
to put a fence.

And I was outvoted.

And it proved later,

when our fences were cut

and they came in
to kill my friends,

that the fence
really was not enough.

[light tense music]

[wind blowing]

[clattering]

- [dogs barking]
- [speaking Hebrew]

[sheep bleating]

[ululating]

[whistles]

[dog barking]

[indistinct chatter]

[ominous music]

- [gunshots]
- [man indistinctly speaking on bullhorn]

[indistinct shouting]

[narrator]
There have been two deadly Arab revolts

since 1967...

[indistinct shouting]

[gunshots]

...called the Intifadas.

- [indistinct shouting]
- [gunshots]

[Moshe]
Right before we moved, this was in '85,

before the Intifada,
before the Oslo Accords.

The obsession
with the settler movement

became stronger and stronger
as we went into Oslo days.

[narrator] The Intifadas led
to the signing of two peace agreements

called the Oslo Accords.

- Enough of blood
and tears. Enough! - [crowd clapping]

[narrator]
In 2005, as a result of the Oslo peace process...

[loud whirring]

[squeaking and rattling]

...8600 settlers
were forcibly removed

from the Gaza settlements
known as Gush Katif.

[indistinct shouting]

The government called it,
"Land for peace."

The settlers called
that betrayal.

I, I came from Gush Katif.

And, uh, if you heard
about Gush Katif,

it's next to Gaza.

Really, I was in this
whole thing, very deeply.

It was like,
"You can't hear our voice.

We're-- we're crying," you know,

"we're calling for help."

And it's, like, silence.
No one can hear us.

You know, it really hurts
when someone takes you out of your house,

and it's not about moving away.

It's not about moving
your furniture.

It's something else.

It's like taking
your life, and...

...it's gone!

[indistinct shouting]

In the Oslo Accords,

over 33 communities
were expelled

from those areas in Gaza
and four from the North Shomron.

And, um, w-- what was said was,

"the Jews will leave their homes
and then there'll be peace."

But in essence, what happened
from that was that

the Jews left their homes,

and those homes became
launching grounds

for missiles fired on Tel Aviv.

The will and testament
of these heroes...

...is that,
"We go on and build a land," and that's what they want to do,

what they wanna do.
This family, the Fogel family,

where they come from? They came
from Gush Katif, from Gaza.

They were thrown
out of their homes by the State of Israel.

And they said, "We're
not stopping our pioneers.

We wanna continue that."
They came here to Itamar to build a life for themselves.

[wind blowing]

[light tense music]

[man]
This isNews 8 at Eleven.

Tonight, the local
Israeli community is calling for justice

after the brutal murder
of a family in the West Bank settlement of Itamar.

News 8'sRichard Allyn
is here now with reaction

to the senseless killings
from a family friend.

Well that's right.
This is, according to the Israeli military,

an act of terror that is now
receiving condemnation

from the West Bank to San Diego.

Five family members knifed
to death in their beds.

And tonight, the search
continues for those responsible.

[man]
On the phone, we have Leah Goldsmith,

who is in Itamar right now

with a, uh, very hot
situation there.

[Leah]
At this very moment, we were told

to stay inside
and lock the door, close the windows.

If I'm being listened
to by Jews,

I'd like you all to know
this is Eretz Yisrael and we feel alone.

- [shattering]
- [indistinct chatter]

We could barely even grasp

what was going on
and what happened

'cause we were worried
that these terrorists

that went in and,
and murdered a father and mother and three children

could've gone on
to someone else's house and did the same thing,

and we didn't know.

[ominous music]

[Leah]
Moshe took his rifle and he ran.

[Moshe]
So we ran from house to house, knocking on every door

and seeing if you were okay.

The situation was
totally black out.

[crickets chirping]

[siren wailing]

[melancholic music]

[dog barking]

[car door shuts]

[distant howling]

[dog barking]

[Moshe]
The massacre of the family inside the house...

...and there was blood
everywhere on the floor and o-- on the walls.

There was just--
bloody mess everywhere.

It's a nightmare, you know.
It's horrifying.

[Amir] The murderers,
they were planning how to run out,

so they climbed over the sofa.

one of the kids
was sleeping on that sofa.

He didn't wake up, didn't cry.

[Mosha]
Murderers, they escaped from the window,

and not even seeing
that there were two boys, Roi and Yishai.

And they survived the,
uh, murderer's claws.

[music continues]

Tamar Fogel,
the eldest daughter,

12 years old at the time,

comes back from being
at a friend's,

and then she notices
that the door of the house is locked

and she hears a child
crying inside the house.

[child crying]

It was the younger brother,
who was trying to wake up the father.

She was able to wake up
the child that was on the couch,

who-- he opens the door,
she walks in

and she sees the bloodbath
all over the house.

- She starts to scream.
- [screaming]

[sighs]

[melancholic music]

[sighs]

I was literally broken.
I couldn't move and I had to run the community.

Don't forget, I was
the mayor of the community.

People wanted me
to tell the world what happened,

and the Internet
was really at its full bloom.

And the fact that instantly
you could reach the world

and find out what's going on.

So, I got to the Fogel house.

A friend of mine comes out
and tells me,

you know, wha-- what is going on
in the house, that there are...

...people killed in there.

Little Hadas, a little baby,
just slaughtered in the house.

And the community, of course,
is-- many people are frightened.

People's hearts are broken.

This family was
a family of angels.

And, you know, what can I say?

I know everyone's saying
to themselves,

"Wow, you guys must be,
you know, crazy.

How are you guys dealing
with all these terrible things?"

[wind blowing]

[Leah]
I remember walking over to the window

and pulling aside
the curtain and saying,

"Am I being cursed?
Am I being blessed?"

I, I did not want to even look
at the mountains.

Most of Israel was
absolutely horrified

because... so many members
of one family, five people,

parents and three
of their children, killed in their beds.

I mean, a home
is supposed to be safe.

My name is Greer Faye Cashman.

I write for The Jerusalem Post.

I've been a journalist
almost all my working life.

Places like Itamar,
they're usually well-guarded,

and to be infiltrated
by two terrorists

is just a horrible thing
under any circumstances.

[Nitsana]
That... put the entire country in a shock.

People understand
that you can't just disengage

from these communities,
that you have to protect them.

[music continues]

The Fogel murders are often used
as the terrorist attack

to... represent

the level of hatred

that exists
on the other side because...

...they targeted
an innocent family.

They weren't soldiers.
They weren't--

it wasn't a military objective,
it was a residential home.

Wherever it is in the world,
it was people

who are just living
their daily lives.

Activities by terrorists
usually take place in the open.

Not that there's any excuse
for it, but they blow up buses,

they blow up, uh,
shopping malls,

it's all in public places.

And this was penetrating
what is supposed to be

the safest place in the world,
somebody's home.

And penetrating at night
when everybody was asleep.

And I think it made people
realize that you cannot take

anything in this world
for granted,

not even the safety
of your own home. And it doesn't matter

where you live,
it doesn't matter whether you're in the West Bank

or in the middle of Tel Aviv.

[music continues]

[crickets chirping]

I don't feel guilty, um, but,
uh, I feel, uh, responsible--

responsibility about,
uh, I, uh, the manager,

I am, uh, the-- and it's,
uh, very difficult to me.

I feel, uh, very...

...very sad, uh, every day.

[deeply inhales] Yeah, so--

[music continues]

[wind blowing]

[high-pitched ringing]

[indistinct chatter]

[Amir]
I remember standing in the crowd there,

it was very difficult for me.

Thousands of people
from all over came.

[camera shutters clicking]

[music continues]

The toughest part, I think,
was to see that, like...

...five graves in a row.

And the last one was
a tiny baby grave.

[sighs] It's j--

[inaudible]

[crying]

[child giggling]

[crickets chirping]

[birds chirping]

[tense music]

The IDF has begun,
in a military operation, to try and put our hands

on these perpetrators.

[Moshe]
After the Fogel murders, there was a massive manhunt.

A family had just been
brutally murdered,

and the killers
were still at large.

It was excruciating,
especially for the surviving family members.

[indistinct chatter]

[Moshe]
There were IDF checkpoints, roadblocks.

Our villages were under curfew.

[man indistinctly speaking]
...have been conducted

in the village
of Awarta by the IDF and the Shomron Brigade.

We will do whatever it takes

to stop them, to pursue them.

- [engines rumbling]
- [indistinct shouting]

[Moshe]
Weeks went by. There were no arrests.

[music continues]

Then, we got the news.

I can report to you that
in the last couple of days,

we have captured the terrorists
who have committed the crime

of the murder
of the Fogel family from the village of Itamar.

We can say that the murders
are in our hands.

Uh, it shows us
that the terrorist organization motivation

is still high to kill.

Hatred is a contagious disease

of ec-- epidemic proportions,

really and truly.

You teach somebody to hate,

and you don't give them
a reason not to hate,

you only give them
reasons to hate.

Like, in the case
of the Palestinians,

"The Jews took our land."

That's a good enough reason,
for starters.

Hatred beget-- begets hatred.

So, they hate us a bit more,
we hate them a bit more,

and goes on and on and on.
And you get a pyramid of hatred.

[ominous music]

Sometimes, the terror attacks
drive from a general purpose.

People feel that they have
to participate in jihad and go-- go and kill Jews.

Sometimes are made as a revenge.

The uncle of the two terrorists,
uh, was a terrorist himself.

He went and killed
three children and a security guard,

and then was killed
by the Israeli forces.

And the two nephews wanted
to revenge.

And they went and killed
three children of their own.

You know, Abraham had two sons,
and God told him

that his sons
would inherit this land,

and that his sons would be,

like, just grains of the sand
and the stars in the sky.

But we don't know whether Isaac
was the sand or the stars

or Ishmael was
the sand or the stars.

And so, they haven't
figured it out yet.

I don't hate Arabs.
I don't hate anybody

because they are what they are.

Um, I hate people
for what they might do,

but not for who they are.

[ominous music]

[Amir]
They confess, and not only, they're very proud of it.

They managed to kill five Jews.
For them, it's a big thing.

[Nitsana] They indicted them
in the military court in Judea and Samaria.

They filed an indictment
for terrorism,

and they found them
guilty for terrorism.

To behead a three-month-old baby
is beyond comprehension.

[wind blowing]

Who kills babies?

People in Israel wanted
to have them executed,

but it was very wise
of the court

to refrain from imposing, uh,
that kind of sentence on them,

because they would then
become a martyr.

And we don't want killers
to be martyrs.

[Amir]
We're trying to, to move on.

It's hard.

And...

...I'm not focusing
on those terrorists.

I don't pay attention.
I, I don't care about them.

I really, like,
don't wanna mention them.

I don't wanna--

like, I don't care
about them at all.

The, the...

[stutters]

...it might be, like...

...the only thing
I do care is that...

...they're s--
they're still alive.

I think that's...
a bit annoying me,

that they're still alive.

[somber music]

Th-- those terrorists deser--
deserve to die.

If there was a--
a death penalty in Israel,

I think that they were
the two firsts...

...that should,
should get that punishment.

- [wind howling]
- [rattling and thudding]

Wow.

[upbeat music]

In Israel, the Statute
of Limitation is seven years

to bring a lawsuit.

My name is
Nitsana Darsha-Leitner.

I'm the president
of the Shurat HaDin Israel Law Center.

Days before the Statute
of Limitation was over,

the Fogel family approached us,

the grandparents approached us

and asked if now
they can bring the lawsuit,

before it will be too late,

because it was
in the back of their mind

that they had to pursue justice,

but they couldn't
bring themselves to do it.

It takes a lot to go
and dive back into the case.

To relive the case,
it's a horrible experience.

The Palestinian Authority
denounced the Fogel family murder.

However, it was done
by two terrorists,

and now, um,
after trial, spend their,

um, sentence in jail,

and they receive a salary
from the Palestinian Authority.

They give them
12,000 shekels a month.

When you go and carry
intentional attack, you are responsible.

If you want to impose
this responsibility to your employer,

if you cannot prove
that he gave the order to go and kill,

but you can prove that
he was happy with your acts,

not only happy with your acts,

but he actually paid you money
for the act,

that proves liability.

This is why
the Palestinian Authority is liable.

This is why
the Palestinian Authority is

one of the defendants
in the lawsuit.

[singing in Hebrew]

[wind blowing]

Today, this house is no more
the Fogel family's house.

Although this old neighborhood
has-- it's-- is named afterward,

after the family.

This is the Fogel Street,
we call it.

Uh, this is
the Fogel neighborhood.

This house today
is a living house.

There's a family living here,
there are people that are going on with their lives.

Um, this family has--
got new children, everything is going on.

Um, for a year--
for a year and a half

after the Fogel family's murder,

uh, the life here stopped.

Everything was dark.

The windows, t--
all the lights were down.

[singing in Hebrew]

[Amir]
That's it. One family left,

but the, the spirit is going on.

What is to be a settler?

Um, to be a settler is
to live in the West Bank

in Judea and Samaria,

but otherwise, to be
a settler is also to live

in the country of Israel.

[wind blowing]

[gentle music]

In Itamar, we're facing
the mountain of the blessing and the mountain of the curse.

Those two mountains
are big symbols

of the Jewish history
about this area.

Right in the middle of the,
the mountains, we have...

...plenty of stories
of the Torah,

of the Bible that were
inside Nablus, inside Shechem.

[Leah]
Here's the resting place of Yosef, who had a dream.

He maintained complete faith,

and in the end,
his dreams came true.

And that's exactly
the story of us,

the settlers. We had a dream.

We wanna go there to pray
on the tomb of Joseph.

We're not allowed
to go there. Not alone.

Not on daytime.

The stipulation
under the Oslo Accords

was to leave the city
of Shechem.

But they said,
"For religious purposes,

we will leave the holy sites
open for Jews."

[light ominous hip-hop music]

[indistinct chatter]

[Amir]
We go there in armed buses with plenty of soldiers.

We have to go in,
say our prayer, and get out.

[indistinct chatter]

[tense music]

[crickets chirping]

[indistinct chatter]

[drone whirring]

[shofar blowing]

[upbeat music playing]

[crowd clapping]

[man laughs]

[indistinct chatter]

[Amir]
We're now at the Joseph's Tomb

in the center of th--
of the city of Shechem.

And the Arabs call
the city Nablus,

which comes from a space here

the Roman emperor
called it "new city."

You see up here, Mount Gerizim,
the mountain of the blessing.

Right up there, Mount Ebal,
the mount of the curse.

And we're just in the middle,
uh, b-- in between

those two enormous mountains,

in the middle
of the city of Shechem.

[indistinct chatter]

- [shushing]
- [Yossi speaking Hebrew]

[praying in Hebrew]

[singing in Hebrew]

[Amir] Orthodox Judaism
forbids men and women from praying together.

So the woman must say
their prayers

from the courtyard
outside the tomb.

Even with an army escort,

traveling
into the heart of Nablus

is dangerous,
and attacks occur often.

[distant gunshots]

To the Palestinians,

it is an invasion of their city.

[distant explosion]

In this darkness,
and even when we look around

- and we hear the bombs
blow up just for-- - [loud explosion]

[singing and clapping continue]

[crickets chirping]

[light tense music]

[indistinct chatter]

Okay, so we are in Bruchin,
one of the most beautiful, uh, villages in, uh, Samaria.

And what we see here, uh,
is the new immigrants

that came from France
just a, a few days ago.

And all those beautiful people
that came to greet them

and tell them,
"Thank you for coming here."

[indistinct chatter]

Uh, a lot of children 'cause,
uh, we have this little, uh,

competition about demographics.

[Amir]
Children bring joy.

That's one of the things
that we're doing here,

making new lives,
making a new generation go on.

The Jewish nation is
the oldest nation in the world,

so we have to go on.

[chuckles]
We said, "Well, listen.

You can come everywhere
in Israel, you know,

you can come to Tel Aviv,
you have the beach.

But here, they are
part of something that is bigger than us."

There's something that
everyone wants in this life.

[crowd clapping]

[upbeat music playing]

Uh, we just arrived
in Israel ten days ago.

Uh, now, I came from Strasbourg,

but I was born in Morocco,
in Casablanca.

You know, in Strasbourg,
we close a chapter of our,

our life and we open a new here.

We always say it's,
it's like the wedding.

When you got married to someone,

you just felt in your heart
that it's the good decision.

[speaking Hebrew]

[cheering]

It's not just
you arrived in some place

where everything is
already built,

wher-- no, we're here
to build something,

and that's why we wanted
to come here.

You know, I, I'm from Morocco.

I live with Arab people.
Uh, it's not like, uh, it's strange to me.

[upbeat music playing]

[man speaking Hebrew]

[crowd singing and clapping]

[gentle music]

[wind blowing]

[Achishena]
So, uh, we are in Itamar.

I was born here, I grew up here.

Well... [laughs]

...the family surprised me
because I just got engaged.

Uh, this is my room. Welcome.

There is a range
right behind Itamar.

When I was a little girl,
a soldier shot higher...

- [gunshot]
- ...and the bullet came right through here,

all the way over here.

And the bed was here,
I was on top of the bed.

So it just went over me.

And by a really,
really tiny, uh--

- So it went through here.
- [bullet buzzing]

And then I didn't sleep
in my room for a week. [laughs]

[music continues]

- Uh, lemon?
- You know what? I'd like to get a melon.

- Right.
- This one.

Yeah. [deeply exhales]
I love also the corned beef.

- Maybe Friday night...
[laughs] right? - [laughs] Yeah.

[speaking Hebrew]

- We're thinking about it.
Yeah. [laughs] - [Leah] Yeah.

[Achishena]
Okay. Um--

[Leah]
It's been a long time since we shopped together

for Shabbat food.

Now it's time for Achishena
to come into the kitchen

and move into the next phase
of her life.

Start learning
how to cook with mama.

[inaudible]

[soft pop]

- [Tomer] Well...
- [man grunts]

[Tomer]
I know it feels dangerous.

It doesn't matter
how tough it goes.

Doesn't matter, um...

...if you're afraid.

If you don't have any faith...

...you'll break.

[gentle music]

People who have faith
in something bigger than them...

...go on.

About five years ago,
and I see a Palestinian car,

and suddenly the driver
stops the car and he jumps out.

[speaks Arabic]
"Help her! Help her!"

I take my vest, so people, like,
can see that I'm a paramedic.

And this Palestinian father

comes out
and he gives me the baby.

I start giving her oxygen,

she was breathing,
she was just unconscious.

- And then,
a half a minute later... - [baby crying]

...she starts crying,
and I'm like,

"Wow! That's good!

She's crying. Okay.
She's not unconscious anymore."

And like, we had,
like, a hand shaking.

And that was, like, for me,
it was like, "That's it. This is the moment."

People with people,
just uniting each other.

As simple as that. Not,
not anything heroic, not anything, like,

peace process,
stuff like that. Just people to people.

We have a saying in Hebrew,

Devarim tovim.

"Do good things."

[music continues]

[speaking Hebrew]

[laughs]

[Moshe]
We've been through, and Itamar,

through very hard times
in our lifetime.

But with all the darkness,
there's an optimistic side of the world,

and we have to be
optimistic in our lives.

I think this message
is something that every one of us--

that takes to our hearts.

- So again,
it's a new beginning... - [laughter]

...we're going forward.

Last night, on shift,
I sat down, like, for dinner

with an-- a friend that is
a Muslim Arab nurse,

and she said, "Listen,
we're cousins, we're related!"

And it's the same thing.
We have very, very... similar stories

in our Bible
and their Q-- Quran,

and, uh, we're from the nei--
same neighborhood,

this area of the Middle East.

Yeah, we are cousins. We have
a lot of things in common.

That's why our signs say,
in Hebrew and Arabic,

"Jews and Arabs wanna
get home safely."

I hope that the world will have
the strength to hear that.

I don't want anybody to die
on any side of the conflict.

We're looking for peace
that doesn't neglect

land from any side.

That's what I think
this is all about.

We wanna get home safely.

[Greer]
When God created man, he created only one,

and we're all descended
from that one.

[Moshe]
We are blessed, we are all blessed.

[gentle music]

[wind blowing]

[indistinct chatter]

[bell chiming]

[bird chirping]

[Amir] We're here
in the ancient city of Jerusalem,

the holiest place in the world
for Muslims,

for Christians and for Jews.

It's a special thing.

To, to live in th--
in this ethnical place,

it-- it's very special.

[birds chirping]

We're here at the Kotel,
the Western Wall,

the wall where Jews
come to pray.

[music continues]

The stones on this wall
are ancient stones.

We have a sentence that says,

"We have stones
that have a beating heart,

and there are people
that have a heart of a stone."

It's a very, uh,
emotional place for me.

[inaudible]

Devarim tovim.

"Do good things."

[indistinct chatter]

We're trying.

[music increases]

[birds chirping]

[wind blowing]

[music continues]

["Bitter Sweet" by IZZLING]

♪ Let it be ♪

♪ What it has been ♪

♪ A mere glimpse of a love ♪

♪ Like a dove in flight ♪

♪ In the starlit night ♪

♪ Cast me away to the ocean ♪

♪ To the birds
to the island... ♪

♪ ...of the unknown ♪

♪ It's bittersweet ♪

♪ My love ♪

♪ It's bittersweet ♪

♪ My love ♪

♪ Let me float into heaven ♪

♪ The great big sky ♪

♪ Let the light shine on me ♪

♪ And make me feel all right ♪

♪ And in this dream
we're together ♪

♪ Well, heart to heart ♪

♪ Cheek to cheek ♪

♪ We'll wait for the next time ♪

♪ Or should we cut the cord
and just drift apart? ♪

♪ Release me ♪

♪ Unleash me ♪

♪ Undo the shackles ♪

♪ From my heart ♪

♪ It's bittersweet ♪

♪ My love ♪

♪ It's bittersweet ♪

♪ My love ♪

♪ It's bittersweet ♪

♪ It's bittersweet ♪