Channel 4 - Battle for the Holy Land

[DanCanovas]

For the last 2 days I have watched the lengthy Channel 4 documentary on Israel and Palestine.

First of all I would like to say, that I have been a long time supporter of Israel and its people, whether its shared democratic values or its ability to survive against the odds I am uncertain. Indeed I found myself at University a few years ago defending Israeli policy against a tide of pro-Palestinian sentiment.

The documentary really surprised me and was quite emotional. The first part was very balanced and concentrated on the problems of land and ownership in Jerusulem. Both sides seem to have an ignorance of the other and you can see this when the reporters are moving from side to side, from area to area.

The 2nd part has just finished and I really found myself questioning whether I do hold the same values as the poeple of Israel. I saw film of Jewish kids continuously pelting families with stones as they went to school, I saw a Palestinian man who has to walk through 3 check points up a street to get to his house. I completely understand the need for check points in light of the terror of the past but the guy walks through these 3 check points every single day, twice a day. He is made to wait 30 minutes at the final check point whilst settlers stream past. its embarassment plain and simple, no defence, nothing. The soldier knew who he was and he was forced to wait 30 minutes.
I saw a family evicted from their home and moved to a small building next to their house whilst settlers occupied the building. When the deputy defence minister was confronted by the reporters, he apologises and say it is being sorted out, the settlers had still not got out! its an absolute disgrace.
I saw groups of people lined up shouting at Palestinian children, 1 woman shouting "im going to kill her, this is a Jewish street".... And you know what I saw the whole time, German people and soldiers standing in the same spot as those settlers shouting the same things.
Now I am very sympathetic towards what Israel has gone through and I think i'll always consider myself pro-Israel because my heart tells me that these people hold the same values as me, but this was a real shocker for me and I was very disappointed.

Dan