Democracy Now!
With Amy Goodman
"...The Israeli human rights group B’Tselem has given Palestinian families across the West Bank video cameras to document how they’re treated by Israeli soldiers and settlers. The project is called “Shooting Back.” Some of the videos depicting abuse by settlers sparked a national debate in Israel earlier this year after they were broadcast on Israeli television.
Oren Yakobovich coordinates B’Tselem’s video department. He recently traveled to the United States, joined me here in the firehouse studio. I began by asking him to explain the project, “Shooting Back.”
OREN YAKOBOVICH: “Shooting Back,” it’s basically giving a Palestinian that’s living in high-risk areas that’s probably going to suffer from human rights violation by the Israeli army and by settlers—we give them cameras, so they can film their life, and basically we can see the violation when it’s occurred.......
AMY GOODMAN: Oren, describe this first video we’re about to watch and listen to.
OREN YAKOBOVICH: Alright. OK, well, this is basically the first video that we took out for the media. It’s happening in Hebron. Just to understand, Hebron is the only Palestinian city where Jewish settlers living in the heart of the city. Usually the settlements will be outside of the major city, around or close by, but not inside. In Hebron, basically because Abraham, the father of our religion, is buried there, it’s a very holy place to the Jews also, and there’s settlements in the heart of the city.
The result of the settlements is a lot of restriction of movements on—that are being held on Palestinians. There are many streets that they cannot really walk. A Palestinian cannot drive cars in these areas. And there is a lot of violation that’s happening there from the settlers that are living there. There are very radical settlers, more radical even than the rest of the West Bank. And we know from a lot of years of watching the place or getting testimonies that a lot of violations is happening there.
What you’re going to see is a clip from a settlement called Tel Rumeida in Hebron. What we will see is a settler from this settlement, from Tel Rumeida, pushing Palestinians that basically are living across the street, on the other side of the road, pushing her back to her home, calling her “whore,” cursing her very viciously. And all this time, you see the soldier standing next to the woman doing nothing, not interfering.
AMY GOODMAN: Tell us about the Palestinian family, in particular the woman, both the Palestinian woman and the Jewish settler woman.
OREN YAKOBOVICH: Yeah, OK. So the Palestinian is part of part of Abu Eisha family that’s living in the heart of Tel Rumeida. They’ve been there for years, a lot of lot of years. In ’84, if I’m not mistaken, or ’83—I don’t remember—the settlement started, the Jewish settlement started in Hebron. The street that was open all the time to the family and to the people to come to visit her was closed. And now, this is the only Palestinian family that can walk in the street, the people living in this house. And they have nowhere to—the only way out from this house is through this road. So basically every time they’re going out from the door, they’re confronting the settlement—the settlers. And you will see this clip, and after, you see more clips, because we get a lot of material from this family. They are being attacked on a regular basis. Every time they go out of the house, there’s a good chance they’re going to get stones from the children or from the people that are living across the street, from the settlers.
AMY GOODMAN: And tell me about this particular settler woman.
OREN YAKOBOVICH: Don’t say her name, but she is a radical settler, and she’s living on the other side of the street. And she’s kind of representing the settlers population living in Hebron. And I have to say that even for the Israeli audience, she seems extreme, like she’s very extreme. But what we know about her, this is not the first time she’s attacking, not her, not her friends. There’s attacks happening there regularly on a regular basis. And what we see, that the army and the police are not enforcing the law, or there is lack of enforcement there.
AMY GOODMAN: Let’s watch.
HEBRON PALESTINIAN RESIDENT: [translated] She wants to lock us in.
ISRAELI SETTLER: [translated] Get in the house. Get in the house.
HEBRON PALESTINIAN RESIDENT: [translated] I won’t close the door.
ISRAELI SETTLER: [translated] Close it. Close the door.
HEBRON PALESTINIAN RESIDENT: [translated] Stay out of this!
ISRAELI SETTLER: [translated] Close the door.
HEBRON PALESTINIAN RESIDENT: [translated] Stay out of this! I’m not closing the door.
ISRAELI SETTLER: [translated] Sit here, in the cage. Sit here. Close the door.
HEBRON PALESTINIAN RESIDENT: [translated] I don’t want to go inside!
ISRAELI SETTLER: [translated] Close the… Get the camera out of here.
HEBRON PALESTINIAN RESIDENT: [translated] Call the police.
ISRAELI SETTLER: [translated] Turn the camera off.
HEBRON PALESTINIAN RESIDENT: [translated] It’s early in the morning. What do you want from us?
ISRAELI SETTLER: [translated] Shut up!
HEBRON PALESTINIAN RESIDENT: [translated] Don’t you [addressing soldier] see what she’s doing?
ISRAELI SETTLER: [translated] Whore.
HEBRON PALESTINIAN RESIDENT: [translated] You are!
ISRAELI SETTLER: [translated] Whore.
HEBRON PALESTINIAN RESIDENT: [translated] You are! Go away!
ISRAELI SETTLER: [translated] Whore.
HEBRON PALESTINIAN RESIDENT: [translated] Look what she’d doing! Go away!
ISRAELI SETTLER: [translated] Whore.
HEBRON PALESTINIAN RESIDENT: [translated] Go away, you bitch!
ISRAELI SETTLER: [translated] Whore.
HEBRON PALESTINIAN RESIDENT: [translated] Did you see [addressing soldier] what she did?
ISRAELI SETTLER: [translated] Whore. Whooooore. You’re a whore. Your daughters, too. Don’t you dare open this door!
HEBRON PALESTINIAN RESIDENT: [translated] Don’t you dare come here!
ISRAELI SETTLER: [translated] Whore.
HEBRON PALESTINIAN RESIDENT: [translated] I’ll leave the house, as I please!
ISRAELI SETTLER: [translated] Whore.
HEBRON PALESTINIAN RESIDENT: [translated] Leave us alone! Soldier, do you see what she’s doing?
AMY GOODMAN: That video was filmed in Hebron. The Jewish settler woman, the Palestinian woman was filmed by who, Oren?
OREN YAKOBOVICH: The sister of the Palestinian who’s being cursed is the one that’s filming. Basically, there is a kid there, sixteen years old, holding a camera while her sister is being attacked by the settler. You see that the settler is coming to the camera, trying to push her into the house. And her sister is just next to her filming. And she’s filming from—you see, I think it’s a barbwire or like, you know, a net from—
AMY GOODMAN: Through barbwire?
OREN YAKOBOVICH: Through barbwire, yeah, I think, because it’s called the cage house. Because they have so many troubles from the settlers, they have to build kind of a barbwire around their house so they will not—to protect the windows from the stones, to protect them the stone and from all kinds of things that they’re throwing there.
AMY GOODMAN: Did this video appear on Israeli television?
OREN YAKOBOVICH: Yeah. This video was—what was amazing, I need to say, about this video, that for the Palestinian, when they gave me the camera, they gave me the tape, they didn’t talk about this video, because for them it’s casual. They didn’t think there was anything special in this video. While we watched it in the office in B’Tselem, we said like there’s something very strong here that we need everybody to see. But for the Palestinians, they didn’t say anything about this video.
And then we put it out on one of the Israeli internet-used channels, and very fast there was a lot of—about hundreds of talk-backs and hundreds of clicks on this video. Of course, hour after, I got a great response from the rest of the networks in Israel, news networks. The day after, it was everywhere in Israel. It caused a major—
AMY GOODMAN: So it first appeared on the web, then the networks took it.
OREN YAKOBOVICH: Yeah, yeah, yeah
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