All language subtitles for VICE - S04E07 Palestine Now - Viva Cuba Libre

¶ ¶

This week on "VICE":
Young people are rising
up in the West Bank.

(speaking Arabic)

(explosions)

This is the kind of thing
that really pisses off
the Israeli soldiers,

and now they've started
to shoot back live bullets.

And then, the underground
cultural revolution in Cuba.

Relations are normalizing
because all the young
people in Cuba

are seeing how it is to live
in the rest of the world.

(speaking in Spanish)

(theme music playing)

(gunshot)

Crowd (chanting):
Hands up! Don't shoot!
Hands up!

The effort to broker peace

between Israel
and the Palestinian people

has been going on for decades,

and it has failed
at almost every step.

Now, that hopelessness
has given fuel

to a new uprising
in the West Bank.

¶ ¶

(indistinct chattering)

Every single day for weeks now
Palestinians have been
coming here

and clashing with
Israeli soldiers.

(tires screeching)

(indistinct shouting)

(speaking in English)

(sirens blaring)

Shihab-Eldin:
All across Palestine,

the youth are taking
to the streets to protest

the current state of affairs
in the occupied West Bank.

We're in the heart of Hebron,

which is,
for many Palestinians,

the most extreme example
(explosion)

of what life is like.

This is the front line between
them and the Israeli soldiers
who've been firing tear gas.

They're rolling tires across
the street with cardboard
in it burning.

This is the kind of thing
that really pisses off
the Israeli soldiers,

and now they've started
to shoot back live bullets.

(gunshots)

(indistinct shouting)

For decades,
the conflict here
has been stuck

in the same cycle
of bloody violence...

...with near-constant
casualties on both sides.

But what we found in
our time in the West Bank,

is today, the youth are
the ones leading the uprising.

And just like the young people
behind the Arab Spring,

these kids say
that their own government is
a big part of the problem.

(speaking in Arabic)

Shihab-Eldin:
The protests we saw

were sparked completely
by the youth.

Even the volunteer medics
that were treating the injured
were kids.

(speaking in foreign language)

Shihab-Eldin:
As the casualties poured in,

we talked to the protesters
on the ground

about why they are
risking their lives.

(speaking foreign language)

Shihab-Eldin:
The losses here
have continued,

whether it's
from Israeli bullets
or Palestinian attacks.

And with no leader
guiding the uprising,

the situation is
only intensifying
on the ground.

We spoke
with Columbia University
professor Rashid Khalidi,

an expert on
the Israel-Palestine conflict.

What makes
this uprising different
than previous uprisings?

First is the failure
of the Palestinian leadership

to do anything to relieve
the sense of despair

that Palestinians
have been feeling
in the occupied territories

since the occupation began.

The prospects
for young Palestinians
are extraordinarily limited.

No horizon, no future.
Things are much worse today
after Oslo.

Shihab-Eldin:
In 1993, the Oslo Accords
were supposed to begin

a path towards peace,
and established
an interim government

in the West Bank known
as the Palestinian Authority.

What was the expectation
of the Palestinian Authority?

That this was the embryo
of a Palestinian state.

The Oslo agreement was
supposed to accomplish
a continued negotiation.

The hope was that it would
lead to a two-state solution,

and the Palestinians could
have some arrangement

for autonomy
or self-government
within that.

Unfortunately, it's deluding
very few people in Palestine

and a lot of people outside
into thinking the Palestinians

are well on the way
to statehood. They're not.

They've moved away
from self-determination
since Oslo.

So, in a sense,
the Palestinian Authority
itself is an illusion?

It is.
It's a cardboard facade
behind which nothing exists.

Shihab-Eldin:
There haven't been
any presidential elections

in more than ten years,

since President Mahmoud Abbas
came to power.

And with polls showing
that nearly 70%

of the population wanting
him out of office,

the anger on the streets
is palpable.

(speaking in foreign language)

Shihab-Eldin:
Just down the street

from Mahmoud Abbas'
presidential palace,

we found a group of protesters
calling for him to step down.

(speaking in foreign language)

Shihab-Eldin:
A lot of the Palestinian
youth tell us

that they see
the Palestinian Authority
as a symbol of the occupation.

Why would they
be saying that?

Well, the aspect of
the Palestinian Authority

that's most unacceptable
to Palestinians

is its security
cooperation with Israel.

Shihab-Eldin:
That's because under
the Oslo Agreements

the Palestinian Authority
security forces are charged
with maintaining the peace,

which includes
suppressing protests.

But it's what the PA can't do
that's angering
the Palestinians,

which is their
inability to stop Israelis

from creating new settlements
in the occupied West Bank.

What has happened since 1967

is the establishment of
communities of Israelis inside
the occupied territories.

Every place that a settler
goes, the military goes.

Every place the military goes,
restrictions against

the native population,
the Palestinians, follow.

This is why settlements
are such an enormous factor

in the West Bank
and occupied East Jerusalem.

Shihab-Eldin:
We met up with Daniel Luria,
the head of an organization

that helps move Jewish
Israelis into East Jerusalem,

reclaiming land they say
is theirs by divine right.

I'm gonna take you now
to a predominantly
Arab neighborhood.

And about 12 years ago,
Jews started to return
to the old village.

(speaking in English)

Okay. Good to know.

So you're
carrying a gun?
Yeah.

(speaking in foreign language)

What's he saying?

Um, he says
all of this is a lie,

and you are robbers.

This is everything here.
This is the center of it.

Whose land is this?
Right.

Whose land is Jerusalem?
Whose land is Israel?

Why can't it be
both people's land?

It can't be.
Why not?

It doesn't work.

(speaking in foreign language)

You can tell that this
is as tense as it gets.

Come, come, come!

Before 1948, this used to be
an old synagogue.

That's correct.
And now...

It's been returned. Correct.
It's been returned.

So, last week there
were families living here.
Correct.

And they were
the ones who were...

And those were illegally
squatting in an old synagogue.

For 77 years,
they were living here.

In a synagogue.

Shihab-Eldin:
Reconstruction started
here immediately,

but this isn't the only
new settlement on this block.

We met a couple
just as they moved in
down the street.

So, when do you move in?

(speaking foreign language)

Straight away.
It's their honeymoon.

He just got married,
he's moving in now.

Shihab-Eldin:
But as settlers were
moving into one house,

we met a Palestinian family
that was being evicted
from theirs.

(speaking in foreign language)

Shihab-Eldin:
As both sides maintain
claims to the land,

the Israeli settler population
has increased dramatically.

The settler population has
tripled in the last 25 years.

There were a couple
hundred thousand after
about 25 years of occupation.

There are another 400,000
for a total of 600,000 today.

Shihab-Eldin:
The Palestinians see

these settlements
as a provocation.

But when they clash
with settlers,

Israel escalates its security
measures across the region.

Nowhere is this
more pronounced than
the city of Hebron.

So, right now we're crossing
through one of the checkpoints
in Hebron.

Security is so tight here,
the city's been divided
into sections,

with the majority
of Palestinians living
in an area called H1,

and the Israeli settlers
living in H2,
which is where we were.

All of the shops are closed.
There's absolutely no one
in the streets.

It feels like a ghost town.

This street we're walking on
has been off-limits
to Palestinians

for years by order
of the Israeli military.

Right over there is
a Palestinian cemetery.

If you look,
all of the tombstones
are written in Arabic.

It's literally two feet away
from a street where
Palestinians can't come.

And even on the Palestinian
side back in H1,

we could see how rigid
this divide was.

(speaking in foreign language)

Shihab-Eldin:
As more and more kids grow up

under the rules
of this agreement,

it will only feed
into more violence
and a furthering divide.

Dr. Hanan Ashrawi was involved
in the early negotiations

of the Middle East
peace process,

and a former member of
the Palestinian Authority.

Young Palestinians
taking to the streets
and throwing rocks

say they're
not just disillusioned
by the occupation,

they tell us
they're disillusioned
by their own government.

The Palestinian Authority
is part of the occupation.

We're not surprised
that the young people
are disillusioned,

and they are angry.

They're sending a clear
message to the world.

The peace agenda,
the negotiated settlement,

the two-state solution
has not worked.

The leadership
could not deliver.

It seems like
there's a bigger
and bigger disconnect.

There is a wide gap, yes.

These perceptions
are cumulative.

If you allow
your system to atrophy,

your leadership
to become geriatric,

then of course you're going
to have a situation of total
discontent and anger.

The only way forward
is through elections.

We need elections,
we need a new leadership,

and we need the youth
to be part of this.

Shihab-Eldin:
Until that happens, the youth
seem to only gain more resolve

in their anger towards
both the occupation
and their own government.

(speaking foreign language)

(sirens blaring)

America and Cuba
have been adversaries

since Fidel Castro's
Communist revolution in 1959.

But this month President Obama
has made history

by becoming the first
sitting US president to visit
the country in 88 years.

We're focused on the future.

And I'm absolutely confident
that if we stay on this course

we can deliver a better
and brighter future

for both the Cuban people
and the American people.

So, muchas gracias.

It's part of the so-called
"Obama Doctrine,"

which is
the president's policy

of re-engaging with
traditional enemies.

And we've been following
the process with Cuba

since last year at the 2015
Summit of the Americas.

¶ ¶

(sirens blaring)

Smith:
We're here in Panama City
at the Summit of the Americas.

And it's a historic summit
because for the first time
since Eisenhower,

the head of state of Cuba,
Raúl Castro,

and the head of state
of America, President Obama,

are gonna actually meet

for the purpose of
normalizing relations.

Point is,
the United States will not
be imprisoned by the past.

We're looking to the future

and to policies that improve
the lives of the Cuban people

and advance
the interests of cooperation
in the hemisphere.

(speaking in Spanish)

Smith:
Now these statements
both represented

a sea-change in relations
between the US and Cuba.

The Obama Doctrine
is this administration's
foreign policy shift,

which now engages
in dialogue and treaties

with countries like
Iran and Cuba

that have long been considered
our enemies.

But this decision
in particular

marks a huge leap forward
in our relations.

Now, that's because
at the height of the Cold War,

the Soviet Union deployed
nuclear missiles to Cuba

as a strategic check
against American power.

This triggered
the Cuban missile crisis,

which brought the US
and the Soviet Union

to the brink
of all-out nuclear war.

But even though
the crisis ended,

the US tightened
its economic embargo on Cuba,

and travel between the two
was totally cut off,

thereby isolating
the Cuban people for more
than half a century.

Now, to gauge
the attitude within
the Cuban government today,

we spoke with Abel Prieto,

a former minister of culture
and a close Castro aide.

For our audience,
which is mostly young people,

there's a fascination
with Cuba.

I was wondering
if you could talk a little bit

about the cultural aspects
of what's happening in Cuba.

(speaking in Spanish)

We would love to.

Smith:
So we accepted
his invitation

to see what's actually
happening on the ground
in Cuba.

Because we had heard
that the country's
large youth population

was playing a big part in
forcing the regime to change
its policies.

And ground zero
for this social movement

is Alamar, Cuba's largest
housing project,

which is a hotbed
for political dissent.

Edgaro Gonzalez grew up
in Alamar

and explained to me just how
music had bridged the divide

between Cuba and America.

So, I grew up in this.
Like, every day, all day,

all we did all day was
listen to hip-hop all day.

Smith:
And how did you learn
how to speak English?

I listened to Biggie
every day.

Yeah.
You know?

This was my house.
Okay.

I had the only entrance
to the rooftop over there.

You know, you just
went up to the rooftop

and tried to get
some signal from Key West.

Smith:
Though Cuba has been cut off
politically for over 50 years,

their close
geographic proximity
has actually allowed

for music to be shared
over the radio.

And you just, you know,
move the antenna around.

So, you kinda put it up
to try to get a signal?

Yeah, try to get a signal.
From Florida.

Yeah, right there.

So, what effect did that
have on the young people
who live here in Alamar?

Whoa. You know,
they be kind of
letting love for hip-hop.

Everybody knew every
character of the Wu-Tang Clan.

People love American culture.

(speaking in Spanish)

When we were starting doing
hip-hop, it got really popular

the government started
realizing and said, "Yo,
we gotta shut this down."

And so Reggaeton now
would be the most popular
in Alamar?

Smith:
Now the reason why

the government would want
to control the music scene

is that for decades
it was policy here

to denounce
all things American.

(speaking Spanish)

Now, although this seems like
old Cold War rhetoric,

the regime is still putting
this out today,

as we saw firsthand at
the Museum of the Revolution.

We got the cowboy.

We got the Caesar.
Is that Caesar?

Bush Jr.

(speaking Spanish)

So they're saying thank you
for being such a bad guy

that we then
have a revolution.

So, it goes from
Batista to Reagan.

What does it say
about Reagan?

Smith:
But what we found out was

that the bridge between
cultures couldn't be stopped.

And the government was
speaking one way,

and the people another.

We're here in the barrio
in Havana with the biggest
Reggaeton star.

And we're gonna interview him
and talk about Reggaeton

and how that's pushed all
of these changes even further

'cause the government tried
to stop it, but they couldn't

because everyone
needs their dance hall.

(cheering)

(singing in Spanish)

Smith:
The music made in this tiny
studio goes all over Cuba.

Baby Lores explained to me
the importance it's had

in bridging the divide between
America and the Cuban people.

(singing continues)

(speaking in Spanish)

Smith:
How does your music
get out to so many people?

Smith:
The paquete has spread
Reggaeton across the country

and evolved into kind of
a canned Internet

with hand-delivered
hard drives packed
with pirated music,

videos, and TV shows

that had not been
accessible to Cubans before.

But since traditionally as few
as four percent of Cubans

actually have
Internet access at home,

the hackers who
make the paquetes

have to steal Internet access
at tourist hotels

to get the material
that their customers want.

How are you?
Nice to meet you.

A leading hacker named Danny
showed us how he does it.

Smith:
How often do you download
from hotels like this?

How much, average cost?

The smuggled equipment
in this small room

sends pieces of the Internet
all across Cuba.

So you have to get
all of this equipment from--
Where does it come from?

So you can get
any series you want

and give it
to anyone in Cuba?

(HBO audio logo plays)

Smith on TV:
This week on "VICE":

The future
of recreational drugs.

He's got our show.

How many people do you think
in Cuba get a paquete
every week?

(phone rings)

So we're getting
a call in right now.

We saw a hacker who's
downloading all the shows,

all the Internet,
putting it into drives,

giving it to his runners.

It goes out all weekend,

which is one of the real
reasons why relations
are normalizing.

Because all the young
people in Cuba

are seeing how it is to live
in the rest of the world.

So while it's
been an underground
cultural revolution

that's moved the
Cuban people ever closer
to their American neighbors,

on our side, it's been driven
by our political leaders.

So we spoke to Ben Rhodes,

the deputy national
security advisor

and one of the architects
of the Obama Doctrine,
about this political shift.

In the policy changes
the president announced,

in addition to
the normalization
in diplomatic relations,

we basically are facilitating
any type of travel that can
be permitted

under a general license,
which will make it
much easier.

But we also authorized
certain commercial activity.

And telecommunications
is the most liberal.

We're opening the door for US
companies to help develop
infrastructure in Cuba.

You'll start to see
an opening, in certainly
the economic space.

You see Airbnb seeking
to get into Cuba.

You see the NBA
and Major League Baseball
looking to go down there.

Essentially, a flood
of interaction between
Americans and Cubans

that hasn't taken place
in over 50 years.

Is this part of this new
unfolding Obama Doctrine?

Absolutely, it is.

And the president's view
is we don't lose anything
through engagement.

We can break out of the past,

but that doesn't mean we have
to compromise our values.

People say, "While you're
making this change,

"you're putting aside
the things that America
cares about."

Well no, we actually think
this is a better way

to stand up for the things
America cares about.

Smith:
The Obama Doctrine
has caused a lot of pushback

not only on Iran,
but Cuba as well.

And now it's become
a debate that's cut
across partisan lines.

And at least two of
the presidential candidates
have publicly stated

a desire to unwind
these developments.

This is throwing an economic
lifeline to the Castros

at a moment when their regime
was vulnerable

and it was a serious mistake.

We somehow ignore the fact
that 90 miles from our shores

is an anti-American
Communist dictatorship

that oppresses its people
and sows instability.

Smith:
We spoke to Josefina Vidal,

Cuba's top negotiator
in dealings with the US,

about the shifting
relationship between
Havana and Washington.

On the Cuban side is anyone
thinking that okay, Obama
is obviously pushing

to normalize
relations with Cuba.

But as of today, Rubio from
Florida, Cruz from Texas,

would probably try to push
back the advances that Obama
and your government have made.

Do you think about that?

The changes
and the announcements

have been made
through executive decisions.

The next American president
can undo through the same
ways, means,

what has been done so far.

But I don't think it will
be easy to do that.

Because this is good, not only
for our both countries,

but also for the region
and for the whole world.

And I see having
a respectful relationship
that can enrich Cuba

and that can
enrich the Americans too.

Smith:
So what President Obama's
visit marks

is a step where two
traditional enemies

are for the first time
starting a dialogue.

If you look at the Iran deal,
the Cuba policy,

these are seen as these
hugely controversial things,

but Americans
generally support them.

Sure.
Washington doesn't.

For whatever reason,
it's easier to bomb
another country

than it is to sometimes
engage a certain country.

If this is really about
helping the Cuban people,

97% of the Cuban people
support normalization
with the United States.

What will be
interesting to watch

is how the interaction
with the United States

and the interconnection
with the rest of the world

helps normalize, not just
the relationship between
the United States and Cuba,

but Cuba's own position in
the hemisphere and the world.

¶ ¶