Film: The Fault Line (Israel)

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Transcript

00:00:00: SOUND UP; [MUSIC PLAYS]
00:00:26: CAPTIONS, GRAFITTI
00:00:57: CHARLIE [NARRATING]: Borderlines. Fault lines. Lines of demarcation. A line in the sand. Through time, great powers draw new lines. But the map is not the territory.; [MUSIC PLAYS]; CHARLIE [NARRATING]: Entering the West Bank, the Occupied Territories, we pause to scan our current method of dividing cultures. Of separating our Biblical brothers.
00:01:35: JIHAD: So this is Jerusalem. East Jerusalem is primarily Palestinian Muslim. And Israel recently built a wall, which is a de facto border between Israel and the West Bank. And as you can see here across the way, the wall includes as much empty land as possible, but excludes from Israeli territory, the heavily populated Palestinian territory, so it’s now considered West Bank territory.; CHARLIE: You know how they talk in the Bible, an eye for an eye? Nothing’s changed. All three religions stand for peace. I have barbed wire on my fingers, a wall across from me. The whole concept is love they neighbor — see, love thy neighbor. Wall, barbed wire.; [MUSIC PLAYS]
00:02:34: JIHAD: We’re going to go check out a checkpoint now.; CHARLIE: Let’s go check it out at the checkpoint.; [MUSIC PLAYS]; CHARLIE [NARRATING]: Canaanites, Philistines, Romans, Turks. This land has seen a grand parade of migration and conquest. The churn of empire rolls on. During the Six-Day War of 1967, Israel annexed the West Bank from Jordan. The pressure cooker continues to simmer and seethe. The Palestinian population feeds its fever with lethal martyrdom. Israel has cauterized the wound with a fortress of walls and checkpoints. On one side, the dream of security. On the other, a nightmare of futility.; [MUSIC PLAYS]
00:03:36: CHARLIE [NARRATING]: Moving on toward Bethlehem, we stopped at Gilo. We wanted to visit a woman who’s one of the last holdouts in the territorial land grab.; CHARLIE: [EXITING TRUCK] We’re on, we’re dancin’, buddy.; CHARLIE [NARRATING]: Our Palestinian guide tried to persuade the woman to allow our film crew to interview here.; GUIDE: It's better for him to go in first. Before we go blasting in with cameras.
00:04:02: CHARLIE [NARRATING]: We were immediately stuck in a quagmire of mistrust and suspicion.; MAN: [TRANSLATED, CAPTIONED] They are making a film about Palestine.; WOMAN: Why? I don’t want that. Curses on Palestine. A am sitting here and fighting with the Jews, and I am fighting with the Arabs and what are they doing for me?; MAN: You are a good example. Tell her... you are a good example!; WOMAN: Curses upon good examples!
00:04:34: CHARLIE [NARRATING]: While we waited to sort things out, I asked Osi, our Israeli driver, for his take on the walls.; OSI: Eh... the walls, nobody like it. But probably this is...; [YOUTHS CROSSING BRIDGE, YELLING]; OSI: ...this is the reality. From the beginning of the intifada, more than a 1,300 Israelis were killed. A lot, a lot of Palestinians were killed this way. Since the walls are built, 99 percent, no, 98 percent, were prevented. So, it’s so sad to say that this is the response. We will be happy to remove it. But let’s start with this change first.
00:05:21: CHARLIE [NARRATING]: In the meantime, our negotiations with the Palestinian woman were getting nowhere.; MAN: [NO TRANSLATION]; WOMAN: I am sitting here scared of the Jews, scared of the Arabs. I am struggling. What have the films brought me?; CHARLIE [NARRATING]: It appeared that our negotiations had hit the wall. Where can we go from here?
00:05:59: CHARLIE: You know, you can pro or against wall. I’m neither. It's important that you always look at both sides.; [MUSIC PLAYS]; CHARLIE: But you know, it always takes in life, that one bad seed to ruin the bowl of cherries. That’s just the way it is, it has nothing... you know, look at, have you ever wanted to go on a group activity or the field trip, and one kid does something and it gets canceled. Well, one seed can ruin the whole thing. So, you know, put yourself in the other position—you’re just a family taking a walk, and car drives into the restaurant and blows it up. So you’ve got to understand the wall from both sides.; [MUSIC PLAYS]; CHARLIE: I’m not saying it’s right or wrong. But if you’re having problems with your neighbor, and they were always harassing you from outside, you might put hedges up in your front yard wouldn’t you, to close yourself off, and get some peace? I would.; [MUSIC PLAYS]; CAPTIONS; END OF FILM

Now Viewing: The Fault Line

In the Occupied Territories of the West Bank, barriers to communication inevitably mean barriers to peace. In this compelling video, Charles Annenberg Weingarten and his crew make their first venture into the West Bank, landing in the contentious border town of Gilo. When Charlie attempts to interview an elderly woman — one of Gilo's last Palestinian holdouts — he quickly discovers that in such a politically charged landscape, communication is never neutral.