Journey into an Invisible War
The story of how Israeli settlements continue to spread into Palestinian territory despite international opposition.
Filmmaker: Paul Moreira
“We recognise that the Palestinian state must be big enough to be viable, to be independent, to be prosperous. We will be generous,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said.
But his words have rang hollow.
In the face of international condemnation, the incremental encroachment of new Israeli settlements onto Palestinian land goes on with little restraint.
”[Israeli
have much more rights than me. I am not allowed in the street where I was born.”]
With every square metre of territory that is taken, with every Palestinian olive grove that is burnt down, or house that is demolished, the land available for an independent Palestine state shrinks a little more.
But why is the settlement movement so difficult to stop? Who is driving it and why? Is it destined to continue until there is no more Palestinian land to take?
In this film, French producer and reporter Paul Moreira travels through the West Bank to meet Palestinians and Israeli settlers.
In Hebron, Moreira sees how the old Arab city is gradually being overwhelmed by Israeli incomers, whose security forces are imposing a bizarre street-by-street apartheid on the Palestinians who have always lived there.
In new hilltop settlements, built on stolen land, he encounters the sometimes startling intolerance of their ultra-orthodox communities who will do whatever they can to take more.
Meanwhile the outside world looks on helplessly – either unable or unwilling to intercede – and there are few signs this tidal wave of occupation and annexation is ever going to end.
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