All language subtitles for Global.Eye.S2026E03.1080p.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-7VFr33104D_track3_[eng]

Hello and welcome to Global Eye from
the BBC World Service.

Over the next half an hour,
we'll be bringing you

powerful stories
and insight from across the world.

I'm Emir Nader,
an international correspondent,

and this week I'm joining you
from Jerusalem.

Israelis and Palestinians

are reeling from more than
two years of war.

It's touched every home.

A peace plan for Gaza,
brokered by President Trump,

came into effect in October.

All of Israel's surviving
hostages have been released,

and thousands of Palestinians have
been freed from Israeli detention.

But now, as some families
attempt to look forward,

moving beyond the devastation,

for many others here
in the Holy Land,

the conflict shows no signs
of easing.

Israel itself stands at the brink of
an uncertain new chapter,

but one that promises
to have huge reverberations

not only here,
but around the region and the world.

Later, we'll bring you a
BBC Eye film from Bethlehem,

a few miles from here,
in the occupied West Bank,

where many expectant Palestinian
mothers face unsafe travel,

limited medical access,
and constant fear

while bringing new life
amidst the ongoing conflict.

And we'll bring you the story
of the Brazilian school

beset by violence,
crime and truancy

in a high-risk community
that defied the odds,

undergoing an incredible
transformation.

I've spent most of my journalistic
career covering the Middle East.

It's a region rich
in history and culture,

yet also defined by deep fault lines
and recurring crises.

And few conflicts have
dominated global headlines

as much
as the recent Israel-Gaza war.

This conflict's origins

can be traced back more than
a century,

but the current war
started in October 2023,

when Hamas gunmen
attacked southern Israel,

killing more than 1,100 people
and taking 251 others hostage.

More than 71,000 Palestinians

have been killed
by Israel's campaign,

according to the Hamas-run
Health Ministry,

around half of them
women and children.

Israel's last public estimate

is that it has killed around 20,000
fighters.

Most of Gaza's buildings

have either been damaged
or destroyed,

while Israel has at times either
restricted

or blocked the flow of aid
reaching Palestinians,

pushing Gaza into starvation.

I've been reporting
from this side of

the Gaza border
since the first days of the war.

I've seen the fear and division
at its most extreme.

Israel has blocked foreign media
from freely entering Gaza.

Instead,
local Palestinian journalists,

medical staff and international aid
workers

have told us about
the reality on the ground.

It's a war that's had momentous
global reverberations,

defining us and changing us
in far-reaching ways.

It's challenged the principles
of everything from

the ethics of weapon sales

to the future
of the Eurovision Song Contest.

Israel sits on the eastern shore of

the Mediterranean Sea, with
a population of ten million,

the majority Jewish,
living alongside Muslim,

Christian and Druze communities.

Freeing Israeli hostages
from Gaza was at first

a unifying cause for the country,

called out each day from this square
in Tel Aviv.

Yet very quickly it
became a fissure,

a sharp divide in Israeli society,

as backers of Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu's

military campaign clashed with those
calling for a hostage deal

to be negotiated with Hamas
much earlier.

Critics of Netanyahu and Israel
have accused him of responsibility

for security failures
on October the 7th,

and for enabling Hamas' build-up
over many years -

claims he's disputed.

His backers have said
that his determination

to pursue total victory has seen
the weakening of Israel's opponents

in the region, as war
escalated across the Middle East.

In some quarters,

the war has turned Israel
into a pariah state.

A number of international bodies,

including a United Nations
Commission of Inquiry,

have accused it
of committing genocide in Gaza,

accusations the government
has vehemently denied,

saying it has only
acted in self-defence.

Trauma has gripped
parts of Israeli society,

including some of the
tens of thousands of

soldiers who have fought
in the conflict.

Across the country,

people have dealt with the

trauma of suffering hostages,

of loved ones being sent to fight,

of life put on hold,
and families separated.

The current situation is difficult.
It was a very prolonged,

traumatic experience.
I don't think, if you go out into

the streets of Israel now

and you ask people
is the war over or not,

a lot of people would say no.
In certain populations,

we've seen much higher levels
of PTSD.

But you then also have
to remember - different populations,

different conditions,
different traumatic events,

and people with also different
pre-existing traumas.

Throughout its history,
Israel has promoted itself

as a safe place
for Jewish people around the world.

The Hamas attack
shattered that sense of security

and prompted a sharp reaction
in Israeli society.

It's been common to hear pundits on
TV chat shows

calling for the
collective punishment

of Palestinians or their
mass expulsion from Gaza.

Throughout the war, I've been
surprised by how little TV channels

here in Israel show the reality
on the ground.

Scenes of starvation
that have shocked

the world have been rarely
shown here and, when they have,

they've often been dismissed
as fake news.

Some moderate voices,
voices arguing for coexistence

and the collective healing between
Israelis and Palestinians,

have told me they feel marginalised.

The International Criminal Court

has issued an arrest warrant
for Prime Minister Netanyahu.

Yet here in Israel,

polls suggest he continues to have
a solid base of support.

I spoke to the pollster and
political consultant Mitchell Barak,

who has worked
for Israeli politicians on both

the left and the right,
including Benjamin Netanyahu.

Prime Minister Netanyahu
really thrives on a chaos.

Some of that chaos he creates
himself - within his party,

within his government -
and some of it is external.

I would not write that
political obituary for Netanyahu.

He is nowhere near finished.

We have an election coming up,
probably not later than October

of this year,
and I can't say Netanyahu will win -

in fact, I don't think he'll win -
but he certainly won't lose.

And not losing means...he'll stay
Prime Minister, somehow.

Since the October Gaza
ceasefire came into effect,

over 400 Palestinians,
including children,

have been killed by
the Israeli military,

according to the Hamas-run
Health Ministry.

Israel, which now controls
over half of Gaza,

has said that it has opened fire
in response to

what it has called
ceasefire violations.

It has accused Hamas of
killing three of its soldiers

during that same period.

Looking forward,
huge unresolved questions remain.

What does the future of Gaza
look like?

Will Hamas agree to disarm,
a key stipulation of the plan?

With Israel's leaders vowing
they'll never allow Palestinians

to have their own sovereign state,

the future of diplomacy
looks fraught.

I've been here in Bethlehem,
in the occupied West Bank,

numerous times while the war
in Gaza was at its height

just a few miles from here,

and I've seen the reality
of how daily life here

is impacted by Israel's
ever-growing military occupation.

Here at the Aida Youth Centre,

this football pitch
is the latest example

of the reality of life
under occupation.

Seen as a lifeline to young people,

in December,
the Israeli authorities

said they would demolish it,
as it was built without permissions,

a claim local Palestinians dispute.

And as our next film
from the BBC Eye team reveals,

occupation leaves a mark

on the most significant milestones
of a person's life.

SIRENS WAIL

SCREAMING

BABY CRIES

Matil developed a complication

that a lot of extreme premature
babies develop.

It's unfortunately
a very bad scenario.

But things could turn around
with her.

BELLS RING

CROWD SINGS

MONITORS BEEP

SINGING

BABY CRIES

CAMERA SHUTTER

SHE CHUCKLES

Elsewhere on the World Service
this week -

BBC Persian has now received dozens

of rare eyewitness accounts
from inside Iran,

despite the ongoing
near-total internet blackout

throughout the country,

as recent protests have
been violently crushed

by government forces over
the past week.

The full story is
on the BBC News website.

And after a year-long investigation,

the BBC Afghan team published

a report exposing the internal
differences

at the very top of the Taliban
government in Afghanistan,

through audio obtained by
our reporters

and exclusive access
to Taliban insiders.

You can also find that story
on the BBC News website.

Now we're taking you to one of
Brazil's toughest neighbourhoods,

Cubatao,
on the outskirts of Sao Paulo.

For years, one local public school,
Parque dos Sonhos -

the Park of Dreams -

was known by a far darker nickname.

Beset by crime and violence,

half of its students requested
to be transferred.

But something extraordinary
has happened. In the last year,

it's won an international award
and been recognised

as one of the best in the world.

So how did an institution in one of
the most troubled communities

in Brazil defy the odds
and rewrite its own story?

BBC Brazil's Rute Pina
has been finding out.

This public school once
faced

constant break-ins, theft
and violence,

but today it's being recognised
as one of the best in the world.

We are in Cubatao, on the coast
of Sao Paulo in south-west Brazil

to understand what the school,
Parque dos Sonhos -

that translates to the
Park of Dreams - did differently.

It sits between Latin America's
largest port, Santos,

and the steep mountains of
Serra do Mar.

In the early 2010s,

the city ranked among the most
violent in the state

because it was often used
for drug routes.

The school teaches children
aged six to 14.

Back then, the violence didn't come
from the students,

but from outsiders and local gangs

who frequently broke into
the building.

Parque dos Sonhos is
in a neighbourhood

created to resettle families
who have lived in the Serra do Mar,

a mountain range near Sao Paulo,

prone to landslides
and high-risk informal settlements.

At first there
was almost nothing here,

just a forest, a river
and a few houses.

As a result, the school was subject
to break-ins and vandalism.

Regis, a history teacher,

was invited to become principal
because of his experience

dealing with challenging
school environments.

That's when he first heard
about Parque dos Sonhos.

Back then, the school
had only 116 students.

Even so, Regis set a big goal -

to turn one of
the most vulnerable schools

into the best
in the region within five years.

The first step was fixing
the basics - the walls,

the floors and the furniture.
With very little public money,

the school turned
to local businesses for help.

The full-time school
introduced 23 projects,

including sports,
journalism and theatre.

The hallways also tell a story.

Every classroom door features art
of famous figures like Mandela,

Malala and the Brazilian educator
Paulo Freire.

The Park of Dreams won
the world's Best School prize

in November in the Overcoming
Adversity category.

And the transformation
that brought the award home

also had an impact
on student performance.

The school's official score
more than doubled.

It rose from 2.2 to 4.6

on a state index
that measures school performance.

But for the teachers, the numbers
are only part of the story.

Last year, Parque dos Sonhos

served more than 500 elementary
school students.

This year, it will also begin
offering high school.

A new chapter for school once
considered impossible to save.

Thanks for joining me
in Jerusalem.

Global Eye will be back next week.
Goodbye.