Original subtitles

it's easily the most contentious piece

of real estate in the

world and there's no hope none of ever

talking about it without pissing

somebody if not everybody

off maybe that's why it's taken me so

long to come here a place where even the

names of ordinary things are ferociously

disputed

where does Falafel come from who makes

the best hummus is it a fence or a

wall by the end of this hour I'll be

seen by many as a terrorist sympathizer

a Zionist tool a self-hating Jew an

apologist for American imperialism an

orientalist socialist fascist CIA agent

and

worse so here goes

nothing I took a walk

World felt theol Rain on My

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Shoulder found

something

girl ier

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la la

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la was raised without religion one side

of the family long ago Catholic I think

the other side Jewish I've never been in

a synagogue I don't believe in a higher

power but that doesn't make me any less

Jewish I don't think these guys

sandbagging me at the Wailing Wall they

don't seem to think so

either only have yes so that makes me

a not the first time for minutes see

you right I'm right

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yes what's going on there thank you

gentlemen

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[Applause]

what I've never felt so much like I'm

masquerading as something I'm not I'm

instinctively hostile to any kind of

devotion uh certainty is my enemy you

know I'm all about doubt questioning

oneself in the nature of reality

constantly when they grabbed hold of me

and in a totally non-judgmental way

essentially you know God's happy to have

you you know here you go oh man you

know my my treachery is

complete just cuz I was raised outside

the Faith with no particular attachment

or loyalty to Israel doesn't mean that

plenty of people on this Earth don't

hate me in

principle I know that but the state of

Israel I never really knew what to think

first look around it's like everybody

says it's pretty it's awesome it's Urban

sophisticated hip like Southern

California only

nicer then you see the young grafy in

the streets and you start to get the

idea this is

Jerusalem I'm taking you through

Damascus gate which is one of the gates

to the old city and these uh walls are

pretty ancient people say that the

deepest go back to King David and then

as history progressed they built up the

wall so that the the top bed is the is

the is the newest bit and by newest you

mean I mean up to about to the Autumn

and time which the the Turks left here

about you know 1 15 years ago and the

Brits came and they conquered us I

wasn't here born here now cooking in

London yotam oeni is the widely known

respected chef and co-author of the book

Jerusalem

basically this city was divided into two

until 1967 when there was the famous Six

Day War yep and the whole of the bit

that we're traveling in now walking in

is East Jerusalem it's the Palestinian

part and that was up until 67 was belong

to Jordan MH so now it's under Israeli

control very controversial because uh

for the Jews for the Israelis the city

has been unified but obviously for the

Palestinian they're on your occupation

as far as they're concerned

we just have to go through a typical ffo

place because it's so much part of the

culture here and again contentious

because you know Jews or Israelis made

Falafel their own and everybody in the

world thinks Falafel is you know Israeli

food but in actual fact it's as much a

Palestinian food and even more so

because you know they it's been done for

Generations here and here you get falfa

that's just been fried you don't get it

any other way and when I go to a place

like that and I see he's got a few balls

left in in the ball from the previous

customer I don't take that I want him to

fry him espicially for me and that makes

all the difference in the world it's a

whole different animal isn't it

so is there historically provable answer

to who invented who made it first the

one thing that is very clear that is in

this part of the world Palestine Lebanon

Syria it's been cooked for many many

many generations on the other hand you

get like Jews from Yemen coming here in

the50s so they can say hey my great

uncle was in Syria at the time and his h

i remember distinctly so there is

actually no answer to it but the

question food appropriation or who owns

the food is massive they can go on

arguing about it

forever the old city is divided into

four quarters there is a Muslim quarter

there's a Jewish quarter there's a

Christian quarter and there's an

Armenian quarter each one functions

independently but people that live in

the certain area are all from that

religion right so here you see these

Israeli Flags over this house so

basically Jews have bought this house

although it's in the Muslim quarter and

that's very controversial to cause the

breaks the separation that people would

normally expect in this

city now we're walking in the steps of

Jesus Christ right as I so often

do so this is via do Roa which is the

last trip Jesus did before he was

crucified so people feel very emotional

they come here and they feel like oh my

God I'm walking in the steps of Muhammad

David or or Jesus it's like Jesus was

here I I feel like I should be more

something a little bit more bias a

little bit well it's too late for

me oh great you'd get your own Crown of

Thorns yeah it answer to the question

what would Jesus wear oh no no no no

that sister

off Israel is bordered by Egypt Jordan

Syria and

Lebanon in 1967 after the 6- day war

Israel took control of the Gaza Strip

the siai peninsula the West Bank the

Golan Heights and annexed East Jerusalem

in 2003 Israel began construction on a

wall along the green line representing

the Israeli Palestinian border the wall

now stretches 450 miles when completed

it will span 700 Mi 85% of it in

Palestinian

territory on one hand there's no doubt

that the number of suicide bombings fell

drastically on the other there's

this we cross from Jerusalem into the

West Bank also called Judea and Samaria

also called

Palestine since

1967 half a million settlers have moved

here all in contravention of of

international law many in contravention

of Israeli law though in effect it seems

to make little difference they're here

and in ever larger

numbers this is gnome one of our drivers

from Tel Aviv who I asked about the

graffiti on this house near the

settlements so what is price tagging if

something happens in the settlement or

some attack towards Jews kids from the

settlements would come and have a price

tag for every activity so they come to a

Palestinian Village like this they will

destroy cars they will write on walls

like this it says against Arabs state of

Israel is alive and death to the

Arabs

intimidating I mean you put with two

Targets on my house I'm

moving this is Ellie a settlement with a

population of over 3,000 relatively

isolated from the rest of Israel Amad

Cohen is the chief executive of the

Ellie settlement and its former head of

security here you see from up above most

of our

town you see the Palestinian Villages

all around I mean it's an unusual

situation a lot of your neighbors would

very much like you to not be here I know

most of them and most of them they're

happy that we were

here because we actually we gave them

prosperity for the past 45 years and

wherever the P the PLO came they lost it

I'm guessing a lot of people would

disagree with that

statement we work with high-tech

security Radars and

cameras so from The High Ground you can

see anybody uh walking at night you

could see from pretty far out definitely

and could you identify them after the

fact depends but we have our protocols

that we work with and we had our

successes

we drive to malal Lea another settlement

a few miles

away hot sun bleached Suburban

feeling behind its ring of electronic

surveillance sensors and security

everything they feel they need a school

public

transportation and a petting zoo

amakai Laura has lived here for 23 years

he's a wine maker and Amer

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cook oh pretty wow you're not kidding

around the salmon is marinated with

pomegranite

on the season I squeeze

pomegranate all year round where were

you before here I was born in

Pennsylvania so your parents bought you

over at age four yeah parents in their

20s with kids living in the relative

comforted familiarity of

Pennsylvania heading off to what must

have at least in part of their minds

been seem an uncertain yes it was very

difficult for them almost all Jews say

next year in y it's part of prayers that

we say all the time if I'm understanding

correctly you talk look the Bible it's

all right there it all happened here

that's sort of an nonnegotiable position

you see prophecies coming true coming

things coming to life again you know

mountains that nobody wanted to live on

nobody dared to for thousands of years

nobody wanted this place you know and

then finally we come here and uh

everything is flourishing again it's

makes you feel good you know it's You'

been here since uh 90 you look you look

over the look over the edge there

there's an Arab Village right how far

yeah there is one that you can see from

here at any point during that time you

ever go to anybody's house sit down and

eat not there but in other villages ever

sat down in a Muslim table Muslim table

your host and everybody else

coffee but it not there no because I

don't as a religious Jew I eat only uh

koser so so they respect that so they

don't offer

me so I got to ask you about something

that troubled me coming up the first

house before you come up the drive to

this Village the graffiti on the front

yes the targets spray painted on yes who

done it

villains bad people kids I don't know

May apparently

kids when you educate kids kids are not

able to understand complicated things

they see the world in black and white

when you get older you're able to see

the

gray and when someone hits you when I

understand why kids would do it

given what you told me earlier I

identifying the

perpetrators within the within the realm

of

possibility young people

why not paint it

over good

question I don't know maybe we should

you're

right elsewhere in the West Bank just

outside of

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rala meet Betty s and Mona

Anam two members of a group of women who

call themselves The Speed

Sisters the first all female Palestinian

racing

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team hi hi I'm Tony hi hi good to meet

you when I'm riding a car I'm the

happiest girl ever racing

it's in my blood here in Palestine it's

very small there's no roads so when I

drive I speed I feel

free did you find that people

underestimated you at first at the

beginning they could maybe make fun of

us but when we got good scores we win

all respect yeah well a car doesn't know

if you're a woman or a man

yeah a lot of girls want to join us as

Speed Sisters but some of their families

are very reserved they don't like their

daughters to be between men racing you

know Palestine is a very reserved

Society so are things getting better

staying the same or worse you never know

what's going to happen in Palestine one

day it's good and the other day it's

just you never know it's a crazy

country the local police would prefer

them off the streets for obvious reasons

but the track here such as it is has its

drawbacks it's basically basically a

parking lot across from the ofer

Detention Center what do they think

about this next door they ever give you

problems this is a Israeli jail it's

called one time we were here with speed

sisters and there was problems because

of the prisoners so I just stopped my

car over there and I was walking I

wanted to see what's going on and the

Israeli soldiers they came running at me

and they started shooting at me and I

got I got shot in the back it was a tear

gas the canister hit you yeah so my

Speed Sisters they took me to the

hospital I I

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fainted have you thought of challenging

the Israelis to put up a team I can't

race cuz my car is Palestinian what if

they come over here they're not allowed

to enter the West Bank and we're not

allowed to go to Jerusalem so how can we

can erise together okay silly question

it's right there for all to see and it

feels like something out of a science

fiction

film this is the

wall from the other side from inside

this place for instance the Aida refugee

camp in the district of Bethlehem it

doesn't feel like anything other than

what it is a

prison Abed abuur is the founder of the

AL Raad children's theater center so we

are at the north entrance of Bethlehem

and heading to AA refugee camp so this

has been here since 1950 yes it started

with tents people were under the tents

for about 7 years and later on the UN

saw that it was not temporary as it was

supposed to be so they started building

what they call

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shelters first impressions of the camp

there's a rem aable number of

kids now it's about 6,000 people and the

two3 are under 18 years old so it's a

very young population

unfortunately with the continuous

degradation of political and economic

situation we are in a situation where we

have no playgrounds or green spaces

anymore children play in the streets

beneath walls covered in images of

Martyrs plane hijackers political

prisoners

6,000 people of that number

66% are under the age of 18 yes I don't

care where that is in the world that's

pretty much a recipe

for unruly Behavior I think would be the

best well especially yes especially when

you don't have any possibilities to

evacuate the anger and the stress in a

creative way so after I finished my

studies I came back here and I started

using theater as one of the most amazing

powerful civilized and nonviolent me to

express yourself to tell your story to

be truthful and this is for me the

remedy to build the peace within and

hopefully help them to think that they

can grow up and change the world and

create Miracles without need to carry a

gun and shoot everybody else or explode

themselves or burn themselves but to

stay

alive Abed takes me to the Camp's

Martyrs quarter to be fed by Islam Abu

Aura she runs a women's Collective

offering Palestinian cooking classes

helping her provide for six children one

of whom is

disabled in America kids grow up with

pop stars sports players yes never a

politician I mean it's Unthinkable for a

child to look up to a politician or to

look up to a military figure sports or

entertainment yeah here kids four 5

years old every day they're looking at

somebody who you know brought down a

plate yeah um I'm not questioning why

that is I know no do you think it's

helpful well I guess we have a

history we are people who are under

occupation people honor their Heroes and

their heroes are those who resist the

occupation whether they resist it

through armed struggle or non-armed

struggle and to tell you the truth

sometimes I have been in fight with some

political parties when they they put

images of people who were killed in

their own houses ahmed's sister in the

29th of October 2001 she was killed in

her kitchen by a sniper from the

Intercontinental Hotel but when these

political parties take this woman and

want to make a montage of photos with

her carrying a gun to say this is the

hero who liberated the Palestine sorry

this is not true this woman was K bu in

her

house you go today and ask the

Palestinians who is the Great Hero you

ask these kids who will they recognize

they will recognize a young man from

Gaza who is an Arab Idol named Muhammad

Assaf a singer who sings He becames more

famous than Abu Mazin and Arafat and and

everybody

else this is another image of Palestine

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you could almost believe for a minute or

two that some kind of Peace some kind of

reconciliation medium of the minds

sanity is possible after you visit majda

it's a restaurant in what looks like an

idyllic Village in the Judean Hills

about 20 minutes from Jerusalem it feels

like an alternate universe for a number

of reasons F my

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m baranes is Jewish yakub Baron is

Muslim from a nearby Village they're

partners co-owners of majda and also

married they're unsurprisingly friends

of

yoton together they grow and raise much

of what's used in their kitchen very

their food reflects both their different

backgrounds and their commonalities

we're going to spoil you now yeah here

we

go about

this it's

terrible so you grew up in this town yes

in this village where did you grow up

near the beach beach not not the

neighborhood but we met in the

neighborhood in

kib and we work together in hotel how

did that go down with the families

wonderful now now wonderful now good in

the beginning not so much Start little

bit yes with lot of questions answers

and slow slow they understand that we

love each other and they can do nothing

so they continue and they support

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us this is your special fried eggs H set

up farm eggs with peppers from your

garden yes

tomato that looks awesome beyond words

careful

it is incredibly beautiful here I don't

know why I didn't expect that uh you

know a lot of people come and say it's

like provance it's like Italy and say no

it's in

Rafa do you like okra I do roasted

tomatoes okra onion and mint and that's

all it is and what they do a lot here is

just Char the hell out of it so it's

like it's really is really Smoky just

from being in the pan for on very high

heat so good to get it so um generally

speaking who lives in this

area mostly Arab ethnically Arab in this

particular Town Muslims yes musim only

Muslim just m jewi only Jewish m is the

only Jewish in the

village and this that's a zucchini

that's been grilled and then we use the

bright so that's the sauce so it's like

that intense kind of goaty flavor very

typical for Palestinian cooking

right fun oh man it's good I just had

this incredibly delicious meal

completely oblivious to the fact that

it's it's entirely vegetarian if any of

the vegetarian restaurants in New York

served food that tasted anywhere near

this I would be I would actually go

there well yeah maybe I consider it

and this fresh zucchini with mint and

the apricot the little sweet apricots we

had all of this food is really intensely

delicious are you hopeful of course I

have my children we need to see them I

respect her religion she respect my

religion my family and together we can

build something for our kids our our

future country that's what we think and

that's what we give the message for our

customers of the attraction of this

restaurant the fact that it actually

manages to do what not so many chefs try

to do here and that is sort of mix

Jewish ethnicity or background with Arab

food getting in and out of Gaza from

Israel is truly one of the most surreal

travel experiences you can have on Earth

over 1.5 million people live in Gaza

most of them considered refugees meaning

they're not from the place they are

compelled to live now

in most cases they're either prohibited

from or unable to leave Israel decides

who comes and goes what gets in and what

stays

out apart from journalists Aid workers

emergency responders very few people are

allowed to cross into

Gaza in 2005 the Israeli Defense Forces

left the Gaza Strip and all Israeli

settlers were removed

now inside Gaza Hamas is in charge

considered a terrorist organization by

both the United States and Israel they

got elected in

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2006 this is Lea Hadad a native gazin

journalist and author of the Gaza

kitchen

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the catches are not as big as they used

to be and that's primarily because the

fishermen can't go beyond 3 to six

nautical miles you could continue

fishing but what happens uh they'll

shoot at the fishermen uh they'll spray

cold water at them they'll destroy their

boats they'll cut their fishing nets uh

they'll detain them so it's obviously

really Risky Business nine nautical

miles that's where that deep sea channel

is where you're going to get the really

good catches

so Gaza is the last Palestinian area

with access to the coast that's really

important to remember you know you have

the West Bank just an hour away but many

of the Palestinians there have never

seen the sea have never been to the

Sea the sultan family own a small farm

in the B SAA area of the Eastern Gaza

Strip um Sultan and her husband are

unusual and that they cook together this

is not typical in this part of the world

or in this

culture they use their own fresh killed

chickens to make the gazin classic mauba

a traditional Palestinian dish comprised

of layers of fried eggplant tomato

potatoes caramelized onions and chicken

sauteed then simmered in a broth with

nutmeg cinnamon cardamom and

rice it's a big family children

grandchildren all living under the same

roof and it can get chaotic

so let's talk about food and eat food

cuz it's just sitting here tell me what

do we have here okay so this is called

or traditionally made with lamb in this

case

chicken they're very concerned that

we're being very rude and we're not

we're not allowing no the others to eat

he's saying how can you be eating and

you're letting

everybody h

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for me being from Gaza being a child of

diaspora I always thought food was a

really interesting way to be able to

tell the Palestinian story being able to

discover this lost history this

Palestinian

past plus the food is really damn good

right that it is and it was I think also

important to be able to provide

Palestinians an image of themselves that

they recognize a very Humane image

because all they're seeing in the media

whether here or there whether on Arabic

uh channels or abroad you know is these

kind of very charactered images of uh uh

you know gunmen and you know wailing

women and this kind of grim you know

Synder block landscape uh you're not

entering into the private homes and what

does a kitchen look like or what does a

you know a family you see

here yeah do you like it she's asking oh

it's absolutely delicious really really

good

she wants you to open a restaurant for

her they keep cooking like this it's

really delicious Gaza has three

distinctive culinary heritages those who

hail from Villages that were either

depopulated or destroyed uh in

1948 uh and they constitute about 75% of

the population of Gaza and they kind of

bring with them their own distinct

Cuisine that's very different from uh

the cuisine of the city Gaza City which

tends to use much more heat much more

chili peppers from the cuisine of the

coast which is Rich uh with seafood of

course and a very sophisticated very

Urbane Cuisine curious what everybody

here thinks will

there will in your lifetime I guess the

first question would be in your lifetime

will you be able to uh visit

yaa she says you know she hopes she can

she also hopes she can go to Jerusalem

as well so so she's optimistic

yeah what saying that first he said

you're not allowing us to and then he

said then he corre self corrected and

said the Israelis aren't allowing us

to go

go this is the normal tone of voice he's

not upset by the way this is how we talk

we yell

what he what's he say he's saying but

you know give me a permit if they allow

of course I'll

go Leila's got something to show me a

watermelon salad thing she discovered on

a recent trip here that's really peaked

her interest so off we go I figure this

will take a minute

we arrive at what looks like a pretty

serious

gathering this is a Dian and we're soon

joined by um Sultan's husband Abu it's

an area where kind of the elders gather

to you know resolve Community problems

to you know kind of advise all these

guys are originally from beer saabi now

part of Israel so they're bound together

by traditions and a way of life very

different from here where they've been

relocated and lived since 1948 does he

think he'll be able to go to his

ancestral Homeland in his lifetime his

children's lifetime what's his guess we

will retain our Quran our told us

preordained the stone will will call

this enemy back me please kill him and

we understand that he hope and of me my

son my daughter

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so what they're making now is called a

and a is basically baby watermelon under

rpe watermelon and this is kind of a

specialty of Southern Gaza generally but

also

Sinai uh it's usually something that's

made exclusively by men as as I was told

here so they begin you can see over

there they're fire roasting the uh baby

watermelons they cover them with

aluminum foil in addition they put them

through a wire kind of like a sort of

rustic uh skewer and then they yeah they

just throw them in

there and then the idea is they they

take the pulp out so that's what's going

on hey

Mama come here yeah and then what they

do while that's fire roasting is they

need an unleavened dough over there with

whole wheat barley uh plenty of really

rich extrav virgin olive

oil okay and then they throw that into

the pit as well or they dig a pit in the

sand over there and that's fire baked

right in the coals yep and then they mix

that all

together so it's interesting because

right now we're about what 35 minutes

away from Gaza City uh ask anyone in

Gaza City if they've heard of this dish

and

no so even in area small as Gaza you see

this really wide variation in

the so they're going to clean

up I give you a

gig many if not most of these guys are

not too sympathetic to my country or my

ethnicity I'm guessing but there's that

Hospitality thing anywhere you go in the

Muslim World it seems no matter what you

feed your guests you do your best to

make them feel at home oh we have to eat

maybe we

should you're supposed to eat this with

your

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hands you're saying if you if you eat

this you shouldn't have another meal for

3 days

where does this dish come

from this is a dish that's native to

Southern Gaza uh the Sinai the uh sort

of the desert beduan areas all the food

I've had so far in Gaza has been very

different than in anything else I've had

in the Arab world different flavor

Spectrum yeah totally it's kind of this

its own little gastronomical bubble why

you not

use you know I find that the food has

more flavor I get a better sensory

experience even children they like to

eat with their

hands saying God gave us hands to eat

with not

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spoons one can be forgiven for thinking

when you see how similar they are the

two peoples both of whom cook with pride

eat with passion love their kids love

the land in which they live or the land

they dream of returning to who live so

close who are locked in such an intimate

if deadly

Embrace might somehow someday figure out

how to live with each

other but that would be very mushy

thinking

indeed those things in the end probably

don't count for much at all

Natan galowitz runs a restaurant just 7

miles from the Gaza

Strip you and your family have paid the

worst imaginable price yes my daughter

was killed by a mortar sent by

Hamas in some Israeli towns and Villages

within close proximity of the Gaza Strip

bus stops double as bomb shelters an air

raid sirens warn of incoming missiles

fired from less than a mile away

rockets and mortar shells have been

known to fall from the sky in these

parts and no one understands the

consequences more than this man you are

not a fervent ideological Zionist no

you're not an orthodox Jew no and yet

here you are at the spear point right at

the tip uh there's your

restaurant this is a shelter there's a

shelter here you are after the death of

my daughter I just start to talk to whom

to people who want to listen

me I know that my daughter was killed

for no reason and I know that people in

The Other Side have been killed for no

reason children's old people I have been

a soldier in Gaza I

saw very poor people I know there is

interesting keeping these poor people

you can go far far but the the bottom

line is let's stop with the

suffering you know I went to the settler

community and I nice people and I said

to

you you know they were nice and you said

you said what did you say you said they

were all nice they are all nice I know

nice very nice Palestinian people

they're all nice but if you scratch if

you push they all want but they all want

to put they they'll all say throw them

in the seat

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most of the people they don't talk they

are very upset they are fed up and the

same goes from the other side to

us you have to find the right people on

both Village also on the down also on

the up and and make they talk and I am

sure that is

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possible the opportunity

to do that here are very very very

limited it seems agree and I mean when

doesn't even have to speak

metaphorically because there is an

actual wall that is a

wall I agree or a fence depending on who

you're talking to fence or wo oh oh oh

no he's a big wo it's ugly it's really

ugly you can see it is not far away from

here

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