Israel - Palestine, 60 years of conflicts

On May 14, 1948, in Tel Aviv David Ben-Gurion proclaimed the creation of the State of Israel. In accordance with the United Nations resolution, we proclaim the founding of the Jewish State in the Land of Israel. The Jewish people finally have a country.

Three years after the fall of Nazism and the massacre of six million of them, Jews can settle in the land of their ancestors. For the Arabs who live on this same land in Palestine, That day is that of the Nakba, the disaster. Fleeing the fighting or driven out by the Zionist army, more than 700,000 Arabs are leaving the country.

families are convinced they're only leaving for a while. However, these refugees will soon become a people in exile. which seeks by all means to return to the country they call Palestine and that others call Israel.

War. Underground army. Terrorism.

Popular revolt. And repression. Suicide attack.

And reprisals, and sometimes hope of peace. The fight for this same land claimed by two peoples has continued unabated for 60 years. A Palestinian teacher who became a hijacker.

A student from Cairo promoted to guerrilla commander. A child from Gaza who grew up in a refugee camp. But also the son of an Israeli pioneer and a reservist pf the army And a young director from Tel Aviv, unwillingly plunged into the heart of the Intifada.

Using personal photos and movies, Here's how five radically different destinies have gone through a tragedy with no end in sight. 1949 These are the borders of Israel. More than 700,000 Palestinians have taken refuge in neighbouring countries.

In Lebanon, In Syria and in two parts of former Palestine that remained Arab. The West Bank annexed by Jordan. and the Gaza Strip under Egyptian control.

Refugees are massed at the borders. They left in a hurry. and they are waiting to go home.

1967. 18 years later, the refugees are still there. Concrete structures have gradually replaced makeshift tents, but the hope of a return to Palestine is as strong as ever.

Leïla Khaled was a 23-year-old teacher. She is a rebel, a great fan of Che Guevara. In her journal she writes, The Zionists have driven us out of our homeland.

They live in my city because they are Jewish and they have the strength. But one day, we, the survivors of the desert, we will have this power and we will take back Palestine. Leïla Khaled lived on the Mediterranean coast, in Haifa, in the beautiful districts of the city At the creation of Israel, his family fled the fighting and took refuge in Lebanon.

Here she is with her brothers and sisters in front of the house. It is the younger. She is four years old.

It was just before she left. Since then, she has been preparing for her return. I was embroidery on a canvas I did it all the time to hang it in our house in Haifa.

It was an illusion, but I was convinced that we were going to liberate Palestine. - In the 1960s, Leïla Khaled's Palestine has already changed. Israel is a country in full development, where people live in the western way.

A new generation was born, which knew neither Nazism or the exodus. On the beaches of Tel Aviv or Eilat, a far cry from the concerns of the young Palestinian. However, in the spring of 1967, Leïla Khaled has reason to believe it.

In Arab capitals, the crowd is heated to the limit. Here in Egypt, the demonstrators are shouting death at the Jews. President Gamal Abdel Nasser calls for the destruction of Israel.

He is supported by his Soviet ally. and by the Arab world, which does not want this new neighbor. The war of reconquest seems imminent.

In the south, Egypt is moving its troops closer to the border. In the west, the Jordanian army is on alert. In the north, Syria is preparing for war.

On Arab radios, Jews are warned in Hebrew. Disaster is going to befall you. Israel is going to take everyone by storm.

At 7. 45 am on 5 June 1967, Israeli aircraft take off in the direction of Cairo. The pilots were only informed of their mission at the last moment.

In a few minutes, the planes are in Egypt. The Israelis attacked first. Egyptian aviation is annihilated.

On the ground, Israeli tanks drive enemy troops across all borders Among the tanks, there is that of Major Uri Hurvitz of the 45th Brigade. Uri is the son of an Israeli pioneer. His father fled Russia at the beginning of the century to escape antisemitic massacres.

With a group of Zionists, he founded one of the very first kibbutz in the country. Kfar Giladi, near the Lebanese border. Tents, a first farm, a second, then a whole village on a remote hill.

Uri was born here. He grew up at the same time as the kibbutz. This piece of land is his whole life.

He is proud of what his parents built. For him, this war is about survival. - We were defending our house.

There is no other place in the world to go. No other place. What would have happened if they had won?

They would have exterminated us all, and we knew that. - Israeli troops don't just defend. They are conquering new territories.

In the south, they invade Sinai And this small strip of land called Gaza where several Palestinian refugee camps are located. Among them is the Rafah camp. The refugees are far from the modern and western way of life in Tel Aviv.

They live in a different era. There is no water in the house and no electricity. A few streets away from the main road lives the little Abdel Salam Shehadeh, five and a half years old, with his brothers and sisters.

His father experienced the exodus in 1948. He lived a little bit further north, in a village that is now owned by the Israelis. That morning Abdel Salam is sleeping when the first Israeli tanks enter the Rafah camp.

- I was woken up suddenly. There were people all over the street. We heard, the Jews entered the city.

It's panic. Nobody really knows what's going on. On the main street, I see lots of dead bodies.

For us, after 67, everything was going to change. - In Jerusalem too, everything is going to change. The Israelis invade the Arab part of the holy city.

A dream that they could not fulfill in 1948 during the War of Independence. After 2,000 years of exile, Jews are masters of the Temple Mount again, the first holy place of Judaism. The Minister of Defense, Moshe Dayan, the man with the blindfold and the victorious General Yitzhak Rabin are at the foot of the Western Wall.

The news spread like wildfire. - I was in radio contact with my boss and a guy I knew was in Jerusalem. He called all the units and he told us: “We have conquered Jerusalem.

“ I was there, sitting in my tank. It did something to me when I heard to the radio that they had taken the Western Wall. Even today, I feel things that are unexplainable.

- Yitzhak Rabin, the victorious general becomes a national hero. In a few years, he will even be the head of the Israeli government. Its triumph is absolute.

- The Israeli soldier is an excellent soldier. He has the will to win. He knows why he is fighting.

He has the courage to fight and combat training. - In just six days, the Egyptian, Jordanian and Syrian armies are defeated. These images of the Arab rout are going around the world.

Not only was Israel not destroyed, but the Jewish State multiplied its area by four. The soldiers of the Hebrew State planted their flag in Sinai, in Gaza, in the West Bank, in East Jerusalem and in the Golan. In 1967, the way the world looked will change.

Israel is no longer the small Hebrew stat e under siege, heir to the Holocaust. So, in Paris, General de Gaulle launched this controversial definition of the Jewish people. - An elite people self-confident and domineering.

- The tone is set. Israel is no longer a victim. It has become a military power.

In neighbouring countries, the Arab defeat came as a surprise. Salah al Tamari is a Palestinian, born in Bethlehem. When the war started, he studied in Cairo.

He does not participate in demonstrations against Israel because he's revising his exams, but he listens to Egyptian radio, which announces major Arab victories, until the day he finds out the truth. - I remember, I was coming back from university, When I got to my building, There was a neighbor listening to English radio It was Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Dayan who was holding a press conference in Jerusalem. It caught my attention.

I stopped to listen and he said We have arrived there and have no intention of leaving. I realized that everything we heard on Arabic radio was wrong. The Israelis occupied the West Bank, The Israelis occupied Sinai and the Arab countries had lost the war.

I could no longer stand on my legs. I collapsed on the stairs. I was demoralized.

Completely annihilated. - So Salah al Tamari has a certainty. To fight Israel, the Palestinians will only be able to rely on themselves, But they lack an army and a leader.

A training camp in Jordan, for some years now, a clandestine organization trains fighters, the Fatah. Its leader is called Yasser Arafat. He is an engineer.

He was born in Egypt, but his father is from Gaza and his mother is from Jerusalem. Arafat never had confidence in Arab countries. He wants to create an independent Palestinian army.

He is still only an unknown who lives hidden in a cave with a few fighters. Everything will change after the Battle of Karameh. Karameh is a refugee camp in Jordan, a few kilometers from the border.

Yasser Arafaty has his headquarters. From here, the fighters launch their guerrilla operations towards Israel. Among them, there is Salah al Tamari, the former student from Cairo.

- At the time, there really wasn't a chain of command. We were a small group. In particular, there was Arafat.

Every day, we waited for our turn to cross the border and participate in an operation in occupied territory, which I did several times. - On March 18, 68, An Israeli school bus explodes on a mine planted by Fatah. 30 children are injured and dead.

For Israel, it's unbearable. The reprisals are massive. An army of 6,500 soldiers must annihilate Karameh and these 300 fedayeen.

Against all odds, the Palestinians are maintaining their position. Al Tamari is in charge of the resistance. - What is important in Karameh It's because we, young guys, decided to fight.

The aim was obviously not to destroy the Israeli army, but to prove that we were real fighters, ready to die for their country. We knew that each death would be replaced by hundreds. and maybe thousands of volunteers.

In fact, that is what happened. - After 15 hours of fighting, Israeli tanks enter Karameh. The Palestinians are being decimated.

Half were killed. The others are prisoners or on the run. For the first time since the Six-Day War, Palestinians resisted Israel.

Hebrew soldiers are injured, there are even deaths. Military defeat becomes a psychological victory for Palestinians. In the eyes of the Arab world, the leader of the fighters is a hero.

Yasser Arafat comes out of hiding. He gives his first interviews to the international press. - We are going to establish our own democratic and independent Palestinian state.

A State in which, everybody, all citizens, Christians, Jews, Muslims, Will all live equal in otherhood. - He's taking over the PLO, the Palestine Liberation Organization, which brings together all the struggle movements. At 40, with his dark glasses and his keffiyeh, He now embodies the palestinian resistance.

Meanwhile Leïla Khaled, the young Palestinian teacher, is training in a military camp. She is not in Yasser Arafat's Fatah. She joined the PPLP, a more radical branch of the guerrilla.

She is waiting for her first mission. In 69, she was finally summoned What they ask her is quite extraordinary. - My leader asked me, are you ready to die?

I said, of course. He told me, that's not the point. Are you ready to go to prison?

Of course there are a lot of my classmates, of my brothers and sisters in Israeli prisons. He told me, that's not the point either. Are you ready to hijack a plane?

I laughed. All of this terminology was all new to me. I was laughing and he asked me why are you laughing?

I explained to him that I imagined myself running with a plane on my back and everyone running after me. I didn't know what that meant. He told me, are you ready?

I told him that I was ready for anything. I asked him, am I going to Palestine? He answered, we'll see.

- August 29, 1969. A TWA flight from Los Angeles to Tel Aviv makes a stop in Rome. Leïla Khaled gets on board with an accomplice.

Among the passengers, there should be Yitzhak Rabin, the victorious general of the Six Day War. - Something had to be done to make the world ask question. So who are these Palestinians?

It was clear that if we hijacked an airplane with a personality like Rabin on board, Israel could not ignore it. They would be forced to exchange it for prisoners. Unfortunately Rabin changed planes in Rome.

- After takeoff, the two pirates burst into the cockpit. The flight that was supposed to land in Tel Aviv is diverted to Syria. It flies over Israel.

For the first time, Leïla Khaled sees Haifa again, the city of her childhood. - I asked the pilot to get off. He got off.

Israeli military planes surrounded us. I said on the radio, we are the Popular Front for Free Palestine. Repeat.

The type of control tower said Popular Front Palestine. I said, I don't understand you, say it clearly. He repeated it clearly, three times.

For me it was a victory. It was the first time in our lives that we heard in another language Someone say free and Arab Palestine. - A few minutes later, the plane landed in Syria.

Passengers are being evacuated. The hijackers explode the aircraft. A spectacular gesture to challenge public opinion.

Leïla Khaled is on the front pages of the newspapers, but she is not going to stop there. - By hijacking this plane, We wanted to tell these people that there is a war here. That is why we are here in the Middle East.

To tell them, don't come here. - And you intend to continue the fight for your cause? - Yes.

- In the north of Israel, The reservist Uri Hurvitz must leave his kibbutz in Kfar Giladi again. This time, it's not to join his tank. The government recruited him to reinforce security on board airplanes.

Uri imposes new controls at airports and armed men on the flights of the Israeli airline El Al. Measures that will change everything. September 6, 1970, Amsterdam airport.

The El Al flight to New York is about to take off. Among the passengers, no one noticed Leïla Khaled and his accomplice Patrick Arguello, a South American activist. Despite the security measures, they boarded armed with guns and grenades.

Leïla went unnoticed. She had three cosmetic surgeries. for not being recognized.

What she doesn't know, It's there are several armed men on board. - What happened, the Israelis started shooting the minute we got up. People were asked to stay calm.

I ran to the cockpit. Patrick was behind me, it was shooting everywhere. - When the plane lands in London, Patrick Arguello is dead.

Leïla Khaled was immediately imprisoned, but not for long. A few thousand kilometers away three more planes were hijacked by pirates from Leïla Khaled's group. They landed at an abandoned airport.

In the hands of the Palestinians in Zarka, Jordan. It is an unprecedented operation. Four hundred American, English and Swiss passengers are being held hostage.

The Fedayeen want to exchange them for prisoners and Leïla Khaled is part of the conditions. - Our demands and conditions are very clear. And we won't go back to it, no matter what happens.

These conditions are: The release of comrade Leïla Khaled And the return of the martyr's body and their evacuation to a safe place in exchange for British hostages. - In Israel, Prime Minister Golda Meir is calling for the utmost firmness. She doesn't want the British to release Leïla Khaled.

- What are these people going to do when will they be released? Is this young woman going at the convent? Is she going to get married and raise your children?

Is she going back to teach? She announces it herself. She's going to do it again.

At least try to do it again. I don't know which plane this time. - After six days of negotiations, the hostages are released.

They are still all surprised by their adventure. Most had never heard of Palestine. In exchange, the hijackers get prisoners released.

Once again, in front of cameras around the world, they're blowing up the planes. Leïla Khaled is extradited to Egypt where bad news awaits her. Egyptians are mourning the death of their president Gamal Abdel Nasser.

The man who wanted to destroy Israel in 1967. Leïla has lost one of her heroes, But other events even more serious occurred in a neighboring country. The explosion of the planes in Zarka provoked the fury of King Hussein of Jordan.

For some time now, the king has stopped supporting these Palestinians who believe they are in his country as their home. Their militia controls entire neighborhoods in the capital, Amman. Some of their leaders even openly call for the overthrow of the king.

Hussein knows that he is in danger. The explosion of the planes is the pretext he was waiting for. On September 17, he launched his troops into the refugee camps.

Thousands of dead, A carnage of which there is almost no image and that the Palestinians will call Black September. Once again, Salah al Tamari is at the heart of the fighting. - It was more painful than Karameh and the Six Day War When you fight against the Israelis, you expect anything.

They have occupied our land, they are our enemies. In this case, this is Jordan. They are our brothers.

We are part of the same people, of the same nation, of the same culture. Unfortunately, it happened and we paid a high price. - A new exodus is beginning.

Palestinian fighters and their families are being driven out of the country. They are fleeing Jordan in the direction of Lebanon. It is from there that Eyasser Arafat and his troops now want to lead the fight.

The head of the PLO will be able to count on the support of the Karameh commander. Salah al Tamari accompanies him to Beirut. Leïla Khaled is also going to Lebanon.

She is in charge of training in training camps. These two hijackings made her a star, But the era of the hostage-takings that end well is over. September 1972, Munich Olympic Games.

Something is happening in the Israeli pavilion. On the balcony, hooded men. A Palestinian commando took the Israeli delegation hostage.

It is called Black September in memory of the Jordanian massacre. It's a global event. Palestinians have never been so high-profile.

The operation ends in tragedy. German police are attacking. The hostage-takers executed the eleven athletes before being shot or arrested.

Bloody terrorism is only in its infancy. It is in this climate that Yariv Horowitz was born in Tel Aviv, Israel. Her mother is a pacifist, leftist activist.

Her father is quite liberal. and yet, even if at home, Yariv hears about happiness and peace between peoples, The general atmosphere of the country is cumbersome. - When we were children we were very afraid of Arabs because of terrorist attacks on TV and in newspapers, a lot of violent stories were being told.

about what Arabs did That's how we grew up here, in fear. - In the early 70s, terrorism was not the only threat. Little Yariv has other reasons to be afraid.

October 6, 73, It is 2 pm when the alarm sirens sound in Israel. We are in the middle of the Yom Kippur fast, The Jewish holiday of Grand Pardon. - One of my first memories are the sirens on Yom Kippur in 73.

I was two years old. I remember it because of the shock of my mom running with the pram. I don't know if I remember it or if she told me about it, But it's somewhere in my memories - This time it's a new war.

Egypt and Syria are attacking. Arab neighbors want to have back lost territories during the Six Day War. In Gaza, in the Rafah refugee camp, very close to the ancient Egyptian border, Little Abdel Salam grew up.

He is now 11 years old. He goes to the school set up by the United Nations. That day, he was listening to his favorite radio show.

- The radio has started to broadcast the national anthems. We understood that something unusual was happening. We learned that the Egyptians had invaded Sinai.

I remember the mayor asking us to go up to the roof to check if the bullets were Egyptian or Israeli. - The Israelis are caught off guard. Six years after the triumph of the Six Day War, the country is under threat.

Reservist Uri Hurvitz, the man from the kibbutz went on a mission abroad. When he heard the news, he rushed to the first plane. - When the Yom Kippur War broke out, I was in Canada.

I immediately returned to Israel. There is no other country in the world, neither in France, nor in Italy, or even in the United States, where people are coming back to fight. Young people, from everywhere, like I did, by dropping everything.

- The Yom Kippur War is not just another conflict between Jews and Arabs. It's a global crisis, because Arab countries have a new weapon, oil. They refuse to sell their products to Israel's friends.

In America and Europe, gas prices are increasing. The oil shock will shake up the global economy for years to come. After 15 days of fighting and heavy losses, Nevertheless, Israel won the war, but the country has shown its fragility.

Making peace is becoming a necessity. His main adversary is ready for that. On November 19, 1977, the unthinkable happened.

Anwar El-Sadat, the Egyptian president, goes to Jerusalem An Arab leader had never come to the Jewish state. Uri Hurvitz is at the foot of the aircraft. He who is so proud to be Israeli, he is impressed by the composure of the Egyptian president.

- When he got off the plane, he greeted everyone, He shook his hands and said hello. Then he went to see General Motta Gur. Sadat told him, You didn't think I was going to come, did you?

There I am. We answered him, welcome! It took a lot of courage to come.

He did it. A few years later, Sadat paid for it with his life. He will be assassinated by a radical Islamist, but for now it's a triumph in the Israeli parliament.

- Let's decide one thing together. We have to get there. Eye to eye between us and you.

We have to keep going so that even an old lady like me, Live long enough to see the day when(. . .

) - It's true that I've always said that. - You always called me an old lady Mr President. - All smiles, He's joking with former prime minister Golda Meir.

Finally, Mr President, From a grandmother to a grandfather. . .

Let me give you this little gift for your new baby girl. And thank you for the gift you gave me. [Arabic spoken audio] - At the same time, 200 kilometers away, in Lebanon, Yasser Arafat haranged his troops.

For his people, this visit is not a good news. An Arab country makes a pact with the enemy and the fate of the Palestinians is taking a back seat. - It was a dark day for all of us.

Because It was the first time that someone was violating our pact against Israel. Here is a people who occupy our country, who forcibly expelled us. In spite of everything, an Arab leader is going to negotiate with them, at our expense.

- A year later, Egypt and Israel sign the peace at Camp David in the United States. In exchange, Israeli troops evacuate Sinai which they have occupied since the Six Day War. For the first time, the Jewish state is at peace with a neighbor.

In the refugee camps, nothing has changed. Here in Lebanon, we are in the third generation. The Palestinians who arrived in 48 had children, grandchildren who have no nationality.

They are only refugees. From the moment they were born, They are taught that they are not at home and that one day they will return to Palestine. [Arabic spoken audio] - Palestine.

The return. Jihad. - They know everything about Jerusalem.

about Palestinian history and its symbols. The refugees are supervised and trained by PLO troops. Since his exile from Jordan, Yasser Arafat has made Libanson the new headquarters.

It is here as if he were at home. He built up a real army which is multiplying attacks in northern Israel. The reaction of the Hebrew State will not be long in coming.

In 1982 Israel prepared for an intervention in Lebanon, called Peace in Galilee. Yariv is now 11 years old. He is proud to see his big brother go to the front.

- I was proud of the idea that my brother Go and serve my country and defend it. He was leaving to help us survive. He was happy to leave too.

When he came back, it was a different story. - Beirut, the capital of Lebanon. The Israelis are besieging the city.

Operation Peace in Galilee turned into a war. Originally, the troops were only supposed to advance 40 kilometers. to secure the border, but the Israeli generals want to end the PLO.

They pushed all the way to Beirut. Weeks of street battles, face-to-face among civilians, on the streets of the capital. After 70 days of fighting, the Palestinians were destroyed.

The combatants are being evacuated from Beirut thanks to international intervention, and in particular that of a French contingent. This time Salah al Tamari will not leave, he is taken prisoner. He was released a year later.

during an exchange with Israeli soldiers. As for Leïla Khaled, she is in one of the trucks heading to the port. She is pregnant and she has just gotten married.

- It was very hard for us. In the truck that was leaving for the port, I was in tears the whole time. Because I felt it was a new exodus far from our homeland.

- After Jordan, Lebanon, Palestinians are back on the road to exile. Yasser Arafat sets sail for Tunisia with 4,000 fighters. Their families stay behind and a new drama awaits them.

A few days after the fighters left, in the refugee camps of Sabra and Chatila, hundreds of Palestinian women and children are being massacred. The men of a Christian militia have come to avenge the assassination of their leader, the new Lebanese president. A carnage!

The Israeli army was there. She let it happen. In Israel, 400,000 scandalized people are taking to the streets.

It's the biggest demonstration in the country's history. Yariv is in the crowd with his parents. - It was gigantic.

There were a lot of people. There was a lot of anger, for sure and people were ashamed. I think they wanted to show the world that they weren't responsible for that.

and they were against this war operation in Lebanon. - The Israelis are baffled. They can't bear the idea that their army could have made a mistake.

They thought they were victims. They find themselves aggressors and they will soon find out that the revolt is rumbling on their doorstep. The Gaza Strip in 1987.

Little Abdel Salam became a computer scientist. He just turned 26 and married his neighbor. Life in Gaza reminds us of Arab, Jordan or Egypt towns with one difference; It is a territory occupied since the Six Day War 20 years ago.

Israeli soldier patrols are daily. Abdel Salam can't stand them anymore. - We've lived in this camp forever.

We see patrols all the time. It's like a wall between you and your life, you and your freedom. These soldiers are an obstacle to your hopes, to your dreams, and you can't leave.

- On December 8, 1987, everything changed. Locals go to the streets throw stones at Israeli soldiers. A simple car accident started it all.

It is the start of the intifada. An Arabic word that means uprising. Abdel Salam has a camera.

He's filming and sometimes, like the others, he throws rocks. - It's the first time people have picked up stones to throw them away. I did it too.

I put my camera down and I threw stones, at least five or six. It had become obvious. We had to throw stones.

The reason is very simple. Is it to tell them what are you doing here? Your language is different.

You have a uniform that is hard to accept. You're behaving badly with me. You close the door.

You close the window. No more occupation. The message is very clear.

Faced with the stone throwers, Yitzhak Rabin, the winning general of 1967. He is defense minister. Like the others, Rabin is taken to school.

He is convinced that it is a revolt without a future. He chooses firmness. He recommends to his soldiers to be more aggressive.

He even asks them expressly to beat the stone throwers when they are caught in the act. Far from the hustle and bustle, in Tel Aviv, Yariv Horowitz became a teenager. He is enjoying his last moments of tranquility.

At 18, like any Israeli citizen, he has to do his three years of military service. In the midst of the Intifada, he was sent to the occupied territories. As it is part of the Army Cinema, Propaganda movies are ordered from him.

- One day, they sent me to the paratroopers to make a movie. to boost troop morale. They were at the end of military service It was supposed to make them remember the last few days.

It was supposed to be a very cheerful and funny movie. - Interviews are going to get out of hand. Facing him, the soldiers confess.

They say they were disoriented by this strange war that they become bullies. - They told me what they were doing. How much they were frustrated chasing kids.

who threw stones at them without catching them. How they caught them now even before they threw stones. - We're going down the street.

We see a group of 5 teenagers drinking tea and playing backgammon quietly. We pass by, We turn their table upside down and we start to hit them. We knew that as soon as we passed, they would have called us fags and Israeli bastards.

That they would throw stones at us. So we hit them first because then we wouldn't have caught up with them. - When I showed the movie to my bosses, they were shocked.

Because no one imagined that. From our point of view, the Israeli army was the most moral of all. Morality was its basis.

We are Jewish. We survived the Holocaust, we have to be very moral. When I got back they discovered the reality.

Kids aged 18-19, and I was also 19 years old, who had completely lost their minds. - Yariv's movie is an electroshock that dates back to the top of the state. The Israeli parliament forbids the same soldier to remain in occupied territory for more than three months, but every day of the intifada, the divide between Arabs and Jews widens a bit more.

September 13, 1993, in Washington, the White House. After six years of stone wars, Finally, an immense hope. Yasser Arafat was surprised by the intifada.

In order not to be overwhelmed, he must regain the initiative. Opposite him, the new Prime Minister is Yitzhak Rabin. He understood his mistake.

The Intifada is not a flash in the pan, they have to negotiate. Between them, There is Bill Clinton's America which plays a decisive role. The first Gulf War in Iraq left its mark.

Since 91, Americans are convinced that this region must be pacified as soon as possible. Not everything is settled, but peace is on the way. After months of secret negotiations in Oslo, Norway, they are going to sign an agreement that provides for the autonomy of Palestine.

The Israelis pledge to withdraw their troops from Gaza and from the West Bank. In the long run, these territories could become a Palestinian state. The whole world is waiting for the event.

The handshake between yesterday's mortal enemies is not a given. - When I was watching television, I saw the images bleeding. I saw the blood of the martyrs, anyone who had died in combat.

When Arafat shook hands with Rabin, I hated it at the time. - For us, when we see the image of Yasser Arafat, it is necessarily accompanied by blood. When we see him shake hands with Rabin, we have very mixed feelings.

I remember Arafat arriving to shake hands with Rabin. It was a big question in Israel whether to shake hands with him. and the pause before Rabin reached out his hand.

He is like that and then he says to himself, Let's go, let's go. - The time for peace has come. We will have fought you, Palestinians.

We are telling you today, loud and clear. Enough blood and tears. Enough!

- A few months later, thanks to the Oslo agreements, Yasser Arafat, the leader of the fighters, returns to Palestine for the first time. He is making a triumphant entry into Gaza. He will soon be the first president of the Palestinian Authority.

Abdel Salam now has four children. He became a cameraman in a news agency. It is an unforgettable day.

- Since childhood, I saw Arafat on TV. He was our hero, the very symbol of our resistance. I believed in that day when Arafat entered Gaza.

I felt very strong things. I made images of the faces of happy people. We tell ourselves that peace can succeed.

I'm very optimistic at this point. In the euphoria of the negotiations, a few exiles are allowed to return. Salah al Tamari, the commander of Karameh.

For the first time since the 1967 war, he can go back to his city of Bethlehem. The case of Leïla Khaled is more complicated. Israel does not want a former terrorist.

She gets for few days an exceptional authorization to go to the occupied territories. - As soon as I saw the Israeli flag, it was terrible for me. It was the first thing I saw when I crossed the border.

I wanted to see my people. I went and my people received me. I would never have dreamed of something like this.

It was as if I knew everyone, when I didn't know anyone. - Leïla Khaled goes to Gaza to participate in the Palestinian National Congress. Abdel Salam is here.

He's filming his interview. - Are you going to Haifa? I don't think so.

I am not allowed to go there. - When you see a woman like Leïla Khaled who hijacked a plane, and we see her there, We tell ourselves that maybe maybe it's the start of peace. That the Israelis are going to make concessions.

That the Palestinians are going to make concessions. That we are at the beginning of a new era. That is not what happened.

November 4, 1995, The Square of the Kings of Israel in Tel Aviv is full of people. The biggest demonstration since Sabra and Chatila. It's a peace rally.

Side by side, the Israeli and Palestinian flags. At the podium, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin is moved. He did not expect such a crowd.

Ever since he shook hands with Arafat, some Israelis accuse him of treason. - We're not just going to sing peace, we are also going to do it. [sing the peace song] - The few words of this song will be the last words.

A few seconds later, he leaves the rostrum. A Jewish extremist shot him three times in the back. His supporters are appalled.

In the eyes of the world, Rabin represented hope. Even the American president doesn't hide his dismay well. - Yitzhak Rabin was my partner and my friend.

I admired him and I really liked him. Because words can't express how I feel, I will simply say Goodbye my brother. Farewell, my friend.

At the Kibbutz of Kfar Giladi, the emotion is considerable. Uri Hurvitz is 68 years old. He is having a peaceful retirement when he hears the news.

He knew the Prime Minister well. Rabin had come to the kibbutz several times to participate in ceremonies - It was horrible. I don't know how to say my feelings about this wild animal that killed him.

I was really sick, not just me, all of Israel. We've lost a leader. He was a really great leader.

- Rabin's assassination is a major blow to a peace process already in very bad shape. These successors do not always have the same certainties. Some like Ariel Sharon even openly declare that the Oslo Accords are the biggest disaster ever to befall Israel.

More and more Jewish settlers are settling in the occupied territories. They want to make it impossible to create a Palestinian state and they say it openly. - It's our country, It's not Palestine or the Palestinian state.

It's Israel. It's the Holy Land of the Jews. I am Jewish and we have the right to live in a Jewish state, and to stay whererever we want.

On the Palestinian side too, the peace process has serious adversaries. Yasser Arafat is increasingly contested. For some time now, Radical Islam from Iran is gaining influence throughout the Middle East.

Arafat is overtaken by extremist religious movements who refuse to negotiate with Israel. The most important of these is Hamas. This party has become unavoidable.

by getting involved in social life and in schools. Gradually, fundamentalism is taking hold among the Palestinians. - I remember my sister who had modern clothes, dresses, short skirts.

Now women are all the same, in black. - On both sides the tension is rising. Everything is ready for a new explosion.

Autumn 2000, on the Esplanade of the Mosques in Jerusalem, a new intifada is beginning. This one is no longer a spontaneous revolt. Very quickly, it turns into a real war.

Guns have replaced stones. The street fighting caused hundreds of deaths. Suicide attacks are the new Palestinian weapon.

Suicide bombers who claim to be members of Hamas or Islamic Jihad are blown up in the streets of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. Each time, the same panic scenes and the same images of carnage. Yariv Horowitz, the young Israeli who filmed the Intifada became a director.

He lives in the trendy neighborhood of Tel Aviv. He is afraid to leave the house. We were scared all the time.

It was twice a week, three times a week. We never knew. There was an attack two minutes away.

They were everywhere. It was depressing. It's really depressing.

With each attack, Israel is responding with violence. Entire neighborhoods are being bombed in the occupied territories. When Israel launched a reprisal operation on the Rafah camp, Abdel Salam is filming.

He sees his childhood neighborhood disappear before his eyes. Here he is in an orange teeshirt with his camera. That day, he narrowly escaped death.

- The Israelis destroyed everything. I couldn't even reach my neighborhood anymore. All my friends, my elementary school destroyed.

School is terrible. We have lots of memories. We can't find anything anymore.

It's as if my story is dead because someone came and killed my dream. It was like that in Rafah. I could not believe it.

- Yasser Arafat, the old Palestinian leader is nothing but a shadow. Hamas does not recognize its authority the Israelis don't want to talk to him anymore. He is sick.

At the end of October 2004, He was evacuated to France to be hospitalized. Al Tamari, the commander of Karameh, remembers their last dinner. - I had dinner with him a day before he left for Paris.

It was Ramadan. I was alone sharing this meal with him. He was really very weak, and when he left I knew I would never see him again.

Arafat never lacked courage. He went to the end of his ideas. and if our resistance movement has survived, it is thanks to him personally.

He was someone who could make peace with the Israelis. With the death of Arafat, the Palestinians have lost their guide. Disappointed with the peace process and with Fatah, they are turning massively to Hamas, which is winning the elections.

For Europe and America, Hamas in power is unacceptable, even after a democratic victory. They are cutting off their subsidies to Palestine. The situation is getting worse.

Fatah and Hamas are launching a fratricidal war between Palestinians. It is mainly on Gaza that the world's attention is focused. In 2005 Israel got rid of this territory.

The army is withdrawing from Gaza for the first time since 1967. Even the angry Jewish settlers must leave. They are forced to leave their homes.

Protecting them is too expensive. Israel doesn't want Gaza anymore. Palestinians celebrate the departure of the Hebrew soldiers.

However, these images are illusory, because Israel maintains control of all borders and therefore of the region's economy. In 2007, when Hamas came to power. Israel is imposing a total blockade of the territory.

The Gaza Strip is nothing more than a huge prison. Since then, every week, Hamas has been sending rockets into Israel and Israel is responding with air strikes on Gaza. On December 27, 2008, The planes of the Jewish state are bombing Gaza.

After a truce of six months, the conflict is starting again as violent as ever. This time it's a large-scale operation, a new war. Israel wants to put an end to rocket fire once and for all and with Hamas.

Hebrew tanks invade the Gaza Strip just like in 1967. In 60 years of violence, peace has not made much progress. Like this wall built by the Jewish State.

A wall of more than 700 kilometers which will be meandering soon around the entire West Bank, sometimes crossing villages. A safety barrier to protect themselves from suicide attacks, say the Israelis. A wall of shame to make life impossible, say the Palestinians.

Today Uri Hurvitz is 82 years old. The son of a pioneer who fought all wars still has the same confidence in his country. He is loyal to his kibbutz in Kfar Giladi.

Whatever happens, he intends to end his life there. Yariv Horowitz at 37 is no longer the little Israeli who was afraid of attacks. He is a well-known director in Tel Aviv.

He went back to see the soldiers he filmed during the intifada. He made it a movie about the turmoil of a generation. Salah al Tamari is 65 years old.

The Cairo student who became a commander in Karameh is now governor of Bethlehem, the city where he was born. A city disfigured by the wall. Abdel Salam Shehadeha spent his 46 years in Gaza.

The little boy who saw the tanks arrive in 1967 became the boss of a news agency. He lives cut off from the world by the Israeli blockade. As for Leïla Khaled, she lives in Jordan.

The young Palestinian refugee teacher who became a hijacker is now 64 years old. She is still living in hope to return to Haifa one day, the city of his childhood.