“Where Olive Trees Weep” Premiere Starts Today! 21 Days of Transformative Conversations
Where Olive Trees Weep<support@whereolivetreesweep.com>
Nori: Zu
Dear joseba,
[whereolivetreesweep.com]Where Olive Trees Weep premiere starts today, accompanied by 21 days of conversations on Palestine with leading historians, spiritual teachers, trauma therapists, poets, artists and more. Don’t miss our opening conversation at 10am PDT today! It will bring together directors Zaya and Maurizio Benazzo with the main film character, Ashira Darwish.
We’ll learn about the motivations and circumstances for creating this powerful cinematic work. We’ll hear Ashira’s impression of the film, find out what has changed since the documentary was filmed, and get an update on the rest of the characters.
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‘Where Olive Trees Weep’ June 6–27, 2024 https://whereolivetreesweep.com
‘Where Olive Trees Weep’: A 21 Day Journey Begins: Ashira Darwish, Maurizio & Zaya Benazzo
(https://www.youtube.com/live/UK_NuWGpAW0)
This conversation is released with the premiere of the documentary ‘Where Olive Trees Weep’, along with 21 days of talks on Palestine with leading historians, spiritual teachers, trauma therapists, poets, artists and more.
‘Where Olive Trees Weep’: A 21 Day Journey Begins With co-directors Zaya & Maurizio Benazzo and main character Ashira Darwish
We learn about the motivations and circumstances for creating this cinematic work exposing the harsh realities of life under Israeli occupation. We also hear Ashira’s impression of the film, find out what has changed since the film was recorded, and get an update on the rest of the characters.
‘Where Olive Trees Weep’ is a poignant, heartbreaking film about the struggles and resilience of Palestinian people under Israeli occupation. It explores themes of loss, trauma, and the quest for justice. We follow, among others, Palestinian journalist and therapist Ashira Darwish, grassroots activist Ahed Tamimi, and Israeli journalist Amira Hass. It features Dr. Gabor Maté as he offers trauma-healing work to Palestinian women tortured in Israeli prisons.
The program expands on the themes explored in the film and provides a larger historical and social context.
https://whereolivetreesweep.com/event
Transkripzioa:
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for for [Music]
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good the morning good afternoon good evening wherever in the world you are
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welcome thank you song of air I probably would mispronounce air F
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fala
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FAL yeah welcome my name is maio Beno my
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name is Zia benatu we are speaking to you for the unceded territory of the costal Mi walk and South
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Palo land colonially called Sebastopol California Northern California
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yeah and today is the first day of the film Premiere where ol trees whep and we
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have prepared a 21 days Premiere and every day we will have a conversation on
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palestin with uh historians musicians artists poets journalists spiritual
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teachers so it will be very rich program please tune in whenever you can um and
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share with your friends yeah the movie is available since last night so I don’t know if many
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of you saw it I see some little nauy here and there thank you so the movie is
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available in case you haven’t seen it go to the website where olive trees weep and you can get all the information is
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by donation as we will know and with a great sadness I we can
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say that the film feels very timely um um because we’ve been watching
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now for what 243 days um we’ve been collectively what witnessing the
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Unspeakable brutality unfolding in Gaza and we hear now daily on the massacr
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happening there um at this point the official number says 36,000 people have been
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killed but the reality that number is much higher is more probably like
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200,000 and 16,000 children and at this very
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moment there is about that’s what we know 3500 children on the bring of
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starvation so it’s a really it’s a d dire times to be releasing the film and
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yet it feels time and we hope with the film to give more context to people who
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don’t know why is happening what’s happening today
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um at this very moment there is no hospital left in Gaza no school all the
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universities have been destroyed we have watched the Erasure of places of worship
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of mosques of ancient churches 14,000 years histories has been erased in front
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of the eyes of the world and Israel keeps targeting all the cultural centers
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the libraries any kind of record of people life um any Remnant and traces of their
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roots of the land have been tension wiped out so genocide is not just mass murder
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but is also the intentional Erasure of whole society and
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culture and this this is happening also in a context of um very well-coordinated
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misinformation campaign silencing and complete
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denial which I want to say it’s changing slowly we’re starting to see some more
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truthful articles coming in mainstream media but it’s been 400 243 days and
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it’s changing very slowly so um in May 2022 we traveled with Dr Gabor
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he invited us and Ashira uh reluctantly initially like who
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are was very reled rightly so uh Gabor was traveling to the occupied West Bank
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to give a workshop because air invited him to Palestinian women who have been
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incarcerated in in prison by Israel uh
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and he was offering a trauma healing Workshop so we we he said come with me I
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not sure what you can film but come along air was like okay come along I’m
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not sure what you can capture and if you have the capacity to capture but here we
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are um we were there three two years later yeah um we’re releasing the film
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initially we had no idea if we had a film or not but here is the film and this is the time that wanted to be U
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yeah the Fe had a life of his own like like we know better than just
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simplify the film has a life on his own and it decided that now is the time to come out and rightly so and as Z said is
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a absolutely mixed feeling of feeling honored to be able to be the
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instrument of this movie to take birth on the other hand it’s painful to have
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to be the instrument of such a film I mean because the moment is really
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yeah I would have preferred to do a romantic comedy let’s put it this way and be here with you to celebrate that
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the world is so just and peaceful and everybody’s you know is having such a
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easy but here we are here we are and should
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we introduce air you don’t need an introduction but for those who haven’t seen the movie we just G to do a brief
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ashir Darwish ashir Ali darsh worked for 15 years as a TV and radio journalist
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and researcher in Palestine for the BBC Amnesty International and Human Rights
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Watch she’s the founder of katarsis holistic healing a trauma therapy
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project pioneering a type of Sufi active meditation that draws its roots from
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ancestral and Indigenous knowledge thank you Ashira and Ashira is
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now here with us in in Turtle Island in this continent so so honored and happy
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to have you sister welcome s thank you I’m honored I’m honored to be here
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and to be able to speak uh and to be able to I would say freely speak I I
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when Z Morita told me um that we’re going to start with the film The most important thing for me was I want to
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come out and Shout I want to come out of Palestine and Shout because we haven’t been able to even open our mouths
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uh throughout this whole ethnic cleansing
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genocide in the West Bank in 48 lands we have been silenced and it just
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feels it just feels great to be able to speak just to be able to speak and say
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what’s going on um and to do anything possible right now to let the world wake
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up and see what’s going on and to hopefully uh make it
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stop and just so everyone knows air arrived last night literally in the US
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yes all this month she could not speak she could not share anything just to protect her family as long as well as
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other women that we interviewed for the film at the end we decided that we
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cannot include their interviews because would not be safe for them they they’re
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still living there and air you can speak more but nobody can speak uh at this
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very moment they are it’s it’s always been there hasn’t
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been space for us to speak as Palestinians but the situation since October 7th has escalated to a degree
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Which is far beyond what I’ve experienced um we have we’ve normally
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like if you to give you an example if you go to prison if you speak out uh
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prior to 7th October um on social media for example if you write anything in
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support of a liberated free Palestine if you’re in the 48 land or in occupied
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Jerusalem you can get a sentence of 6 months in prison for just saying you
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know we have a right to exist and um we have a right to resist um now it’s you can get a
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sentence of two years my friend is now um awaiting a sentence they’ve asked for two years for sharing a poem sharing a
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poem about resistance not even writing the PO just sharing it um Mur sits in
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jail wasn’t able to be with his wife for the birth of their second child just
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because he shared a post journalists um activists anyone anyone if if you say
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anything on social media you can get tracked arrested detained children also have been arrested for posting things on
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social media um if you dare to speak out uh in
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the normal media that you even have a higher risk if you dare to sing uh like
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deu you can get harassed settlers will come to your house you can get attacked No One Is Safe at this point just
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there’s no safety in sharing your opinion let alone even try to act uh or
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protest or demonstrate they have been crushing any form of protests in 48 in
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Jerusalem and in the West Bank and it has gotten to a situ situation where
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people are just terrified of of of saying anything and we just have to bottle it in there’s such a there’s such
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a it’s even it’s so hard to see what’s happening to the people in Gaz and there
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are families there are there are breath and and and and blood and we can’t even
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say that what is happening to them is wrong to that point uh we are crippled by the Palestinian Authority who also
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arrests detained and uh tortures anyone who is uh speaking out anyone who’s
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organizing protests we can’t it’s it’s it’s just unbearable and of course if you’re in Gaz and you dare to
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speak you get bombed into bits and pieces we have you’ve seen the AL jazer reporter his family his CH his child his
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wife were killed just because he was speaking out and other than the targeting of journalists directly and
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killing them it it has been it is I don’t the worst thing that
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I’ve experienced in my lifetime and it just doesn’t it doesn’t get any any
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better and I personally have had to make the choice to cut all social media so that I don’t even dare to raise my mouth
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because I was pregnant and because I I have a newborn so I couldn’t risk getting arrested and I can’t even speak
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out and now it feels like okay I’m out and I can speak but the rest of the Palestinians can’t speak
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and you were living in ramala what’s the daily daily reality in ramala like what
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is it just if you can give us a taste of it I I just heard that they bombed the
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market like two days ago they destroyed in the biggest Market in town so on a
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daily basis living in occupied territory is there’s nothing normal about living under occupation and what we have to go
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through is daily checkpoints daily human de dehumanization at these checkpoints um other than the fact that
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the Israelis go into our cities so the for since there’s like life pre 7th October and after um and if it what
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happened is it just multiplied so things just became um more aggressive and the
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settlers became much more aggressive and uh if you can imagine like a whole for
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us to go from where from Jerusalem to Ral which used to be a daily ride um all
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of the Palestinian uh bedwin uh camp like camps and houses have been
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completely eradicated the settlers moved them out by under threat of killing them and they’ve completely opened um
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ethnically cleansed entire areas and Palestinians can’t go so we haven’t been able to use most of the streets um for
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me to to go just to give you an idea why I had to go to rala because my daughter I’m from Jerusalem but because my
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daughter has um we wanted her to go to the kindergarten a specific kindergarten
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we couldn’t cross what would take us 15 minutes from Jerusalem to would take us
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3 hours we weren’t able to move around anywhere and this is nothing in comparison to the to what’s happening in
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Gaz but the level of control in the West Bank has become immense it’s it’s we we
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are we are living in cages and it’s just about survival um we wake up we see the
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news we know what’s going on in Gaz and we can’t go out to the streets we went out a few times in ramala and the
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Palestinian Authority rammed uh a protester killed them on the first protest to make sure that they they they
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curb any kind of protests um if you’re active in in uh if you’re in Janine if
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you’re in nablas it’s literally um Target Zone I wouldn’t say it’s a war
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zone because we don’t have we have an army um but Janine has been turned over
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and this was prior to 7 October they’ve been raiding nablas and Janine and trying to eradicate any form of
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resistance in the refugee camps this has been the strategy and this has been the strategy also in collaboration with the
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Palestinian Authority so they work together uh in order to B by the
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Palestinian authorities yeah so if you think government exactly it’s it’s so
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you would have if the Israelis can’t capture a Palestinian wanted Palestinian then the Palestinian Authority is sent
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to capture them or torture them or uh threaten them so you have there’s coordination on all levels in terms of
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the maintaining the security of Israel so internally there’s just it’s it’s
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boiling and bubbling and there’s no room to go with all
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that um yeah it’s it’s going to the market you have to think three four
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times a mother and her child and uh were shot in the car in Jeep which is close
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toala just because soldiers decid felt that there was a threat every move that
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you make leaving your house is a risk um and this is
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just in the in in the what in the safe Zone let’s say
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ra um but yeah in the rest of the cities where there to it’s a complete closure
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you can’t go after the houses they’ve they they’re go they’ve gone after the infrastructure um attacking people every
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day there’s like 10 engine 10 Marti a day you would find in nablas they’re
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targeted three Marti just this week so it’s it’s uh it’s a complete ethnic
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cleansing on all levels in Janine you see the the mass murder machines in
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operation and in the West Bank it’s been slow and
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ongoing for 70 six years and it just increased the vibe in the last six
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months yeah I think they’ve killed like 500 people since October 7 and there’s
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no Hamas right the no this this whole no Hamas there is Hamas there’s more Hamas
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now than there was before six October 7th this idea that there is no Hamas in the West Bank so they can kill everyone
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in the West Bank no it’s it’s it’s the it’s we use it sometimes sometimes
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people say there’s no Hamas and look what they’ve done to the West Bank the reality is there are we there’s rainbow
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of political parties AA in the West Bank and in Gaz and they have the right to be
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there and even if there was Hamas in Gaz and there is in the West Bank there is
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Hamas in the West Bank no one has the right to do what they’re doing and and
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the excuse you’re let’s say now we have 500 Palestinians killed since October 7th just to give you an idea in 2020 in
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23 it was the deadliest year for the Palestinians in the West Bank they killed over 300 people including children it’s it’s never using the issue
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they use the issue the bubble of of Hamas or political parties but at the
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end of the day this is an ethnic OCC ethnic this is an occupation with an ethnic cleansing uh ideology which has
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come in and has been active it it goes up in waves how it operates on us but
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they’ve been trying to to wipe us out all these years they’ve been trying to wipe us out clean us out kill us in all
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forms of ways if it’s yeah sometimes I think you know I used to say this before what happened in I used to say Ya Allah
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if they want to kill us why don’t they just kill us fast you know like come in put us all in in like burn the ghettos
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and burn us like fast so that we don’t have to go through this daily life under
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misery and occupation having your kids being in prison having a h no one in the
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West Bank or in all of Palestine hasn’t endured from this life of dehumanization life of occupation there’s it’s just
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that there’s slow death and there’s fast death and the Israelis choose the pace they want to
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go and it’s systematic it’s on every level of existence of the it’s carefully
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planned impant from from from East Jerusalem not allowing us to get married to anybody
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if you have an East Jerusalem ID you don’t get married if you get married to someone from the West Bank you lose your IDs uh trying to kick us out from east
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from all of Jerusalem uh in 48 there’s 41 laws that discriminate against
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Palestinians of uh uh living in in 48 land it’s on every single level uh our
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neighborhoods what we get in municipality the education system they’re trying if they can’t get you by
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killing you or imprisoning you they’re going to try to push you so hard so that it’s it’s not a place where you want to
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live and you would eventually leave um so there’s it’s systematic in all of its
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forms it just gets sometimes uh Polished by the by the Liberals like Almer and
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sometimes it gets the strong hand by Netanyahu it just swings but the but the main target
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of this the existence of this whole state is to wipe us out a land uh without people that’s what they wanted
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and they got the wrong kind of people we’re not going any we’re not we didn’t
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they they should have finished us off in 48 cuz even with everything that is happening currently in they will not get
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rid of us and they can just use more Force but it’s not going to
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happen and the world is waking up the world is starting to see more and more
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but the world is always waking up a little bit too late it’s when when I was working with amnesty and we were working
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on the apartheid report I used to think like it’s betm an Israeli organization
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declared that Israel is an apartheid state 50 years ago they knew the agenda
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and now we’re working and we have to do so much legalities and go through the legal system which was created by the
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colonizers to protect the colonization in order to prove that this is an aparte or this is a genocide and we go to the
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ICC and we try trying to get Justice from there and I used to tell them by the time we we say aparte and it becomes
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a word the genocide is going to be we’re going to start working on genocide reports and sadly this is the
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reality it’s it’s it’s like the word wake the world wakes up very
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late um and it’s it’s it’s it’s 76 years
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late um and I think for the Palestinians the main thing that the shift that happened is we no longer wait
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for the world to actually shift um we don’t expect the world to save us
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anymore there was this we have the song way usually like where are the millions that are going to come and save us and
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now it’s like you guys stay occupied with your own and the Palestinians you
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know the Palestinians will will will struggle and will resist and those who
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are you know those who are with Humanity are have been with Palestine prior to
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the prior to what happened right now in Gaz this one just woke up more and more people who have been dormant but it’s
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it’s like you need to wake up and remember that you’re 76 years late so
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the the the RO needs to be like Amplified Amplified in ways that
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it’s it’s not and we don’t it’s not only about the ceasefire it’s not only about a ceasefire the ceasefire is going to
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stop them from killing uh a few people in Gaz and we need that desperately so that people can survive clear but what
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we need is an end to this occupation not One Day More it’s it’s it’s the calls that we also see the
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world needs to come to it’s like don’t put a plaster and bandage our our
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killing right now uh just so that the West can continue to live and this problem is put away in a
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drawer and continue sell the weapons and and continue to sell the happens and we continue to live the slow silent death
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in the West Bank and 48 and they eradicate us slowly slowly like mmud darwish’s poem uh about the natives and
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that we will become like the natives following the horse you know the our Remnant is will be the horses on the
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land so it’s it’s there’s a chance here for Humanity to correct what has been
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done and not only to us because I feel like we’re so connected to all the other
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um people of color and people who have been colonized and people who have suffered so this is a chance for all of
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us to clear this cycle and I hope I hope
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I see it I see that we it will happen because we have Faith and Hope and
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that’s the only thing that keeps us going um so
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yeah can you say something about how de humanization actually has paved the way
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to these gen side and how this has been you know in the work for a century or even yeah more than
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that it’s I think it’s it’s the whole Zionist ideology is created that Jews
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are better than everybody else uh and it uses the religion it it uses
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Jud Judaism as a vessel for Zionism and
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it’s the like for me it’s it’s with with the Palestinians in
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general that we want to achieve a situation where we live in Freedom and
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we believe that Jewish children whatever religion whatever Faith have the right
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to live and exist in Freedom and we see ourselves as equal to others
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whereas for the Israeli so for me I wouldn’t advocate for the killing of Israelis for me to achieve my freedom I
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would advocate for freedom for my children and their children whereas for
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Israelis in order to achieve their freedom because they see themselves they view themselves as far more uh far more
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um Superior to us then they wouldn’t mind killing a few hundred thousand
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children in Gaz in order to protect the one Jewish child and they have no problem in saying that this is the this
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is the ideology that Jews have this chosen land and that they are
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better than everybody else in the world and hence Zionism will accomplish the dream and protect this land for the Jews
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uh even if it means killing all the Palestinians there because Palestinian lives really don’t don’t matter exactly
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to the same amount so when you’re brought up in the Israeli system in the
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Israeli schools this is what you’re educated you’re you’re educated that you’re Superior to everybody else you
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you you it’s it’s fear-based to the point that it’s Eng engraved in each and
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every child’s veins that the whole world wants to kill you
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anti-Semitism um is is a threat and every second everyone is coming after
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you and it’s it’s Zionism uses this Jewish fear in order to advocate for all
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the murder and for all the control and for all they control the Israelis the Israelis are more occupied than we are
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because their whole religion is occupied their identity they’re they’re forced into an army where their kids have to go
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and shoot other kids and burn them and man them and they have to go back to their to to their bases and pretend that
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everything is okay and come out normal from this
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situation they’re
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indoctrinate and for the Zionist machine and there’s no there are some who refuse
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there are some who fight but it I used to say like every you know every Israeli has the choice and they can they can say
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no but the more I understand trauma I’m like how are they gonna Y how are they
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going to say no when there’s a prop one of the strongest propaganda machines in the world one of the
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most um ideological states in the world that says a home this country is only
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for Jews throwing information at them every single day and telling them that these people want to kill you and oh the 7th
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October was the example now let’s kill them all and the whole country even the
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left even what we used to consider left went with the way that yes they are coming to kill us so wipe them off and
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it’s okay to kill to burnaz to starve them to to to kill them all so that the
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hostages come back and it’s like there’s the ground was already so
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fertile with so much hate and fear that they live every single day of their lives with this fear um and that’s why I
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say they are kind of more occupied than we are at least we have the freedom to say that we’re fighting for freedom and that what we we don’t want them all to
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perish we don’t want them we don’t want the the the from The River To The Sea
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does not mean we’re going to kill you all and put you in the sea it just means we want to be free in our land from The
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River To The Sea it’s it’s just that uh and it we don’t advocate for the same
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hate because at the end of the day religiously uh we believe that the Jews
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have you know the right to exist there’s respect between the the religions and the
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Palestinians uh we we opened our arms and homes to the Jews when they were um
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suffering in the Holocaust and we opened our homes I know in Jerusalem like our families which were kicked out in 67
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welcomed uh Jewish refugees and it’s it’s to see this
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and to see what’s happening to us now it’s it’s just unbearable and yes they
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do humanize us I I when I go on checkpoints we have so many tricks the Palestinians so I would um I used to
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cross and bring all my friends from the West Bank because when I grew up it was still open so in 2000 when the we
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supposedly signed a peace agreement and sold um Palestine for the pa the
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Israelis closed the checkpoints so as a kid all of my friends couldn’t come anymore to my to my home and Jerusalem
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was divided and there was checkpoints everywhere and this is like the peace that they promised um so I would like I would put
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everyone in my car and drive through checkpoints because I know how the Israeli mentality thinks if you don’t
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have a hijab and you have a tattoo and you look like a bunch of liberal
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liberalis in the car there’s no way that you can be a Palestinian they wouldn’t stop my car they wouldn’t ask a question
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sometimes we would be stopped and because of the way we look sometimes I would speak to Israelis in Arabic and
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they were like are you are you an Arab I’m like yes Palestinian to be exact I’m like no but did you were you did you
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live outside and I’m like why just because I don’t look like the image that was given to you that there’s a there’s
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a hijabi woman coming to to to to kill or that I’m not dark enough or and I can
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always see it with my mother who’s a a little bit lighter skinned and when she goes and does things and she speaks
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Hebrew versus anyone who they just they have this stereotype of what
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Palestinians are and they work everything around that you they to them
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as I said in the in the film with rats you can eradicate them they look at the kids in Gaz and they say oh okay they’re
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all future bombs y explode uh burn them they they’ve been taught this since
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childhood sadly and what needs to happen is they need to be re they need to be liberated in order
32:32
for us to be in order for us to be liberated their minds need to be liberated like I don’t advocate for
32:39
putting the to do nurenberg style uh uh
32:44
courts because at the end of the day these people need like hospitals that they
32:50
need therapy they need years and years and years and years of therapy to undo what has been done to them
33:01
and yeah yeah I mean imagine also the I mean we are hearing already a lot of su
33:07
not a lot but some suicide in the Army happening that they are also they there
33:12
some human beings they kids still that could feel perhaps and um imagine how I
33:21
mean trauma I mean you can’t even that that’s we we came to make a movie on
33:27
trauma and that proved to be impossible actually to even begin talking about
33:34
trauma but you have deep understanding of trauma and how it works and so how do
33:40
you understand that people who have experienced such a um severe
33:47
trauma would come to this new land and inflict the same uh the same violence
33:56
the same mentality which was inflicted on them on
34:01
the Palestinian like it’s so it’s you don’t see uh Jews
34:08
in in uh in America you know running with guns after
34:14
um Palestinians there’s something with the Zionist ideology and the creation of
34:19
the Zionist ideology there are a lot of Holocaust Survivors that um have
34:25
liberated minds and they’re not supporting supportive of the Zionist State the the the the ret truma and the
34:33
cycle began with the with the creation of the Zionist State and with the beginning of the ethnic cleansing and
34:40
had they even I had they even any created the state and it wasn’t an
34:48
based on ethnic cleansing I don’t think we would have reached where we are today if it was a state that was created as a
34:54
home for Jews as a refuge in a in a sense if that makes any sense it’s it’s
35:00
the ideology of removing the the the original removing the native of their
35:05
land and taking that land and it’s a colonialist ideology that sinks in with
35:11
the United States it sinks in with the West it sinks in with the ideology that we are superior and we’re coming to the
35:18
Middle East and putting this entity in the heart of your Middle East so that we
35:23
can control everything there it’s it’s a political agenda and they use the Jewish
35:30
trauma they traa perpetuated because they they know that there’s fear they
35:37
know that there’s fear because what the Jews have experienced is nothing I was I landed first from
35:44
Palestine into Germany and I wanted to go into see concentration camps because I’ve grown up with
35:50
this semi ADHD Obsession about it because I couldn’t understand how it
35:55
could be done and how people could do it to each other and I also didn’t
36:01
understand why the Israelis are doing this to us after what was done to them
36:06
and what happened you I think I’ve never felt darker energy in my life than being
36:13
in a moratorium room in in in the concentration camp I cannot even begin
36:19
to imagine or think that I know what it feels to be that person who watched your
36:25
their family go into a gas chamber that trauma is not something that I can even
36:30
comprehend um my my my small human mind can not even comprehend how people went
36:35
through it so I cannot see anything except for that design
36:41
estate used this fear this innate fear this intergenerational trauma that’s
36:47
that’s in their in the blood in order to control people into creating these
36:53
massacres again if if you look if you put anyone
36:58
and educate them in the Zionist State they will do the same thing it doesn’t have to be it doesn’t have to be a Jew
37:04
who survived the Holocaust I don’t think their trauma is the reason why there’s
37:12
this uh aggression I think it is the use of powerful people using the Jewish
37:19
trauma using the pain and the fear in order to manipulate uh and and create
37:27
these masked these masked soldiers
37:33
because I’ve seen I’ve seen drus in the Army I’ve seen uh so many people from
37:39
different sects and it’s the same mask it’s the mask of fear it’s a mask of
37:44
hate it’s a mask of dehumanization for the other they it’s they’ve dehumanized
37:51
themselves in order to be able to dehumanize us and it’s not it’s not the
37:59
replaying because otherwise you would see the Jews doing the same thing all over the
38:04
world and this is not a religious it is a religious war in the sense of what the
38:09
the the the Christians the new liberal Christians want to do and what is is
38:14
shown on the surface but the reality of it is there are people who are controlling them if you look at what
38:19
happened to the ultra Orthodox community in n narta in in in Jerusalem if you
38:25
look at the Orthodox community and how they live live inside the state and why they’re living as settlers in the
38:31
poorest areas and their uh social status you can see that this state is not created for
38:38
the Jews this state is created for very uh very rich affluent uh European Jews
38:48
uh and not religious Jews the ultra Orthodox Community does not live in the
38:53
same standards they do not raise their weapons they do not some of them are zionists but the majority of them are
39:00
anti-zionists and it’s it’s it’s a state that uses them it’s a state and it’s the
39:06
US also that’s complicit in this it’s not only the is that the Israeli government it’s a it’s an ideology that
39:12
was created to use this second world war they were too late to save the Jews and
39:18
they could have had the chance to go save them today’s um um uh uh dday dday
39:26
so late six million people perished before they arrived to save them and to
39:32
and to use after the Europeans and the Americans saved whatever is left they
39:38
used them they shipped them to a country they armed them and they sent them off
39:44
to start an ethnic cleansing and then they controlled them and they still continue to control and now the the
39:50
Rogue instrument they’re actually gone a bit Rogue with Netanyahu it looks like he’s he’s going against the American
39:57
government but at the end of the day it was a created state by colonialists protected by them kept by them belfer
40:02
declaration happened in Britain everybody in Europe used the Holocaust and use the trauma to put to use to
40:11
continue to to actually to continue the anti-Semitism they call us anti-semites I think the only people anti-semitic are
40:18
the people who made the decision to bring the Israelis over to this land because they could have they were
40:24
there always and they they they lived happily with the Palestinians and we
40:31
have yeah it’s it’s the creation of a state in their name to using their
40:36
religion sorry that was long no no no no there was there was like rting and you
40:43
you’re are such a powerful force bringing all the together together that
40:49
has to sink in all of us it takes time but I want to take a moment we’re going
40:55
to play one clip from the film and then we will continue so Sarah if we
41:00
can play the um first clip
41:08
[Music]
41:28
working on trauma in this context is extremely challenging because as we were
41:33
saying you are not on a situation where the traumatic situation had happened and
41:39
now people have a safe space where you can work on that so you need to
41:45
understand that working on trauma will be on a context of ongoing traumatic
41:53
situation you cannot make a normal life if you are all the time in touch with
42:00
the pain and the sorrow and the [Music]
42:09
grief um two things I uh this was film in
42:14
the cave of the patriarch patriarch so if you could say something about this
42:20
and uh visualize what that means I mean this is a temple that
42:27
both people are it’s a sacred place and how it’s divided and how it’s segregated
42:33
and how the Palestinian are treated and how they isra if you can give a a
42:38
glimpse of that and also speak about your work with the trauma with the trauma healing with katarsis and what
42:46
you what you see and what you’ve learned in doing the work you do on trauma
42:51
healing so the idea about the the temples or the the the
42:58
synagogues um we we say it in
43:05
Arabic um the U the nail of uh Zha that
43:11
in every Palestinian city um within each of Palestinian cities heart which is
43:18
palestin under Palestinian Authority control what the Israelis have done is in order never to believe and to ensure
43:25
that they are constantly they left something there so in Naas you
43:30
have a tomb in Hebron you have a tomb in Bethlehem you have a tomb and around
43:36
that tomb will be Mass security in Bethlehem it’s a whole the wall
43:41
surrounds the the the the entire Shrine uh in heon they’ve divided the
43:47
the actual mosque and cut off the the Muslims from visiting and make their
43:53
lives hell if they reach it and they’ve created entire sterile roads uh sterile in the sense that we the deu
44:00
we would de de purify those streets and make them unsterile if we Palestinians
44:05
step on them and as Palestinians you have to cross like monkeys from the rooftops because you’re not allowed to
44:12
use the land even though it’s your house you would have to jump into the roof the idea is control so there might
44:20
be religious it’s it’s there’s the religious uh places but the reality is
44:26
if if you look for example at the the Tomb in Hebron in Bethlehem the majority
44:31
of the people that go would be the settlers it wouldn’t be the the Orthodox
44:37
Community or the and they just use these as an excuse so to make the the to
44:43
ensure that whenever they want access into the center of the city they can have access into the center of the city
44:48
they make sure that they haven’t left completely any of the Palestinian cities so even in Jericho it’s there’s also
44:55
another small Point yeah there’s there’s another Shrine where the Israelis would come into buses and go and it’s also
45:01
used to instigate so when things are um when a government wants to create when the Israeli government wants more um
45:08
chaos in order to hide corruption or any problems internally suddenly they would
45:14
go in buses and a government official would go into these tombs to pray and
45:20
then there would be crashes and protests and things will break out it’s used they’re used as they’re used more
45:25
militarily than anything else and points of control for the Palestinians and point when I say points
45:31
of control it means points of misery for us checkpoints uh strip searching unable
45:37
to access these areas and and and yeah just Terror being in that area and in
45:45
that temple on the Palestinian side they have a metal gate right it’s in the on
45:51
the Palestinian side you to get in you have to go to three checkpoints the gate
45:57
is super narrow you can you walk one person at a time all the shops are
46:02
closed because there is no traffic of people all the coffee shop everything is Clos as you enter from the other side
46:09
you see I could go because I claimed that I was Christian and they let me walk with the camera we walk by on the
46:15
other side on the same temple on the Cave of the patriarch there is a huge Park and buses arve to the door with the
46:22
loan and green grass everything green grass ice cream official everything is
46:28
like Yay you know it’s incredible and the sterilized Road when I I we try on a
46:34
road they said they they stopped who are you what do you do said and the first gu are you Christian said yeah I’m
46:41
Christian okay you can go it it’s incredible a road in the middle of the town is blocked you have to walk three
46:47
miles to reach something that you see on the other side 100 feet it’s it’s it’s
46:53
where you can see the most uh visual uh it’s the most visual
46:58
apartheid when you go there because you can see it there’s no denying it they stop Muslim Jewish Palestinian you can’t
47:06
enter that’s it and the the thing you you say the door is we call it maata
47:12
it’s what they put the chickens in the name we use before they kill them um
47:18
because it’s used for animals and cattle uh and that’s what they use for us we’re always stuck between Barbed wires and
47:24
this Everlasting maata and if you cross that and you get stuck in between then
47:29
you’re stuck in between and the soldiers can do whatever they want to you and they do it and they do and they
47:36
do and so many Palestinians got killed I don’t have numbers but on that road the ster so many Palestinians got killed I
47:42
walked wants to do a documentary and I was booed and spat at by little kids and I was speaking English because
47:49
God forbid if they knew I was Palestinian I would have probably gotten rocks or sometimes they spray boiling
47:55
water and um acid water water and they just thought I was a foreigner and I was spat at uh cursed um by little tiny kids
48:05
and this is where the indoctrination like if you if you want to be a settler there then you have to be properly
48:12
brainwashed in order to to be to live there and to be who you are and to have so much aggression and and anger and
48:18
hate for everybody else we actually witnessed the kids coming out of school
48:24
and surrounding the soldiers and cheering up yeah around them it’s like
48:30
you’re the he you’re the Kill Them All kill them all then they came towards us
48:35
again in abon they came towards us with a camera said what are you doing here what are you doing so we oh yeah
48:41
Christian we do a documentary about all the settlers the settlers and the
48:46
situation now in the West Bank is if you think we have the Army then you have a a militia and it’s it’s the most AGG iive
48:58
and the most um I don’t know what you would call them because I it’s it’s
49:04
every time I was driving in the last well always I always have this like my
49:09
trauma response we talk about it my trauma response is before I leave I I I think about any like if I see Israelis
49:17
what do I say if I see a settler how do you escape what do you do with the children where do I put my child in which side of the car in case they want
49:22
to shoot or inside in case they want and the the the the settler militias
49:30
are yeah vicious are vicious are the they’re Terror squads they’re they’re
49:36
armed and they just got even more and more armed and America is just paying money getting machine guns to these
49:43
people so that they can kill kids in haa and you’re living around these around
49:49
these robots who are carrying these machine guns and ready to shoot you and kill you
49:56
the amount of fear that they also when you talk about trauma the amount of fear that we
50:02
have um I I have to say like for me it’s it’s shifted like before having kids and
50:08
after having kids because before having kids I I was I didn’t have that much
50:14
fear um I didn’t mind standing in front of soldiers I didn’t mind if if I saw settlers and they’re coming I would get
50:21
even more aggressive to scare them um but having after having children I just
50:27
it’s it’s a whole other world of fear that I’ve never experienced in my life um and I know the effect of fear on the
50:33
body so I’m always like trying to tell myself like a let go of the fear take care of the
50:39
kidneys but it’s it’s it’s terrifying it’s terrifying every single day is
50:45
terrifying every single night it’s terrifying like when I was sleeping in a trying to explain to my daughter that
50:51
there’s fireworks when I can hear the soldiers I I can we can hear the sound of the
50:57
of the of the shooting and it’s like when will this
51:09
stop and I look at the pictures coming from beheaded children burned charred
51:16
the amount of killing that happened on the earth in this past it’s
51:24
it’s I just can’t understand how the World continues to operate except
51:30
that yeah I’m just looking at the time and we
51:36
I would like also to take some questions but before we do that I if you can just say something about you work with
51:43
katarsis and your vision I mean how do you even Envision healing after genocide
51:51
where do you even begin so the for me the reason why I moved from journalism human rights work
51:57
into trauma work is because of my personal injury and my healing journey and I wanted to share that um Western um
52:07
Western psychology does not work with us and it’s imposed upon us as people of
52:12
color and people who of with occupied bodies it’s imposed on us that and and
52:20
the concept the idea that you would sit and talk about your trauma and do talk therapy after after during when you are
52:26
still occupied never worked for me and my experience was horrific I was ret traumatized every time I tried to do
52:32
therapy for my arrests and I wanted to be able to provide something else that works for us works for occupied bodies
52:38
works for brown bodies works for people who have gone through trauma that’s
52:44
intergenerational that’s continues to affect their genes and their daily lives
52:49
and I was blessed and lucky on this journey to find amazing healers and
52:54
amazing teachers and um I used Sufi whirling to heal from my
53:01
my my paralysis and um I used active meditations and I wanted to share that
53:08
and I wanted to share it first with children who came out of prison because that was my experience and I wanted I
53:14
felt that that was the point that changed my life and shifted who I am and who I would have been hadn’t I been in
53:20
that situation and I wanted to be able to give children the chance to come out of prison and feel alive again and to
53:28
feel to to refine themselves and redefine who they are after the arrest
53:33
because you lose yourself in in that in those places if you think of Hell on Earth and if you think that being killed
53:40
or your family being killed in front of you is something and being inside an
53:45
Israeli detention interrogation Center you would wish death every second um and
53:52
some people ask like why do the Palestinians go and do stabbing attacks or do suicide attacks because they don’t
53:59
want to go into prison because Prison is a much scarier place for us um and if
54:05
you think right now as we speak there’s 9,300 Palestinian bodies incarcerated
54:11
from them there’s 200 children from them there’s six 60 children that are held
54:17
without under what we call administrative detention without the right to a lawyer without any charges
54:24
just because the state of Israel decides to put them in there so it it felt like
54:30
I have to do something and it was my calling and um I I wanted to share these tools I started with children um women
54:38
and girls who came out of prison and that’s how I connected with Dr Gabor and that’s how we created the conference two
54:44
years ago and that’s how I met you guys um and um so we do therapy holistic
54:51
therapy Liberation therapy um for children women and adult and since the
54:57
war started we had our Center in Gaz uh we worked in cooperation with
55:02
Noah um sadly one of the buildings of the center was bombed and the two other
55:07
the kindergarten and the um and the and the center have been turned into
55:12
shelters right now and mo yeah there’s the head of the organization had to
55:19
leave Gaza um but we used to do amazing work there with the children and it was work
55:25
it’s the work that that what was wonderful is that our nervous system works with
55:34
our with our therapy in the sense that just as we just as we um we retain
55:42
intergenerational trauma we have intergenerational resilience and we’ve gone through the we’ve gone through the
55:49
n and the n and our bodies know that we have tools we have tools within us and
55:54
each and every body that comes from intergenerational trauma does have the keys and codes to heal it’s just about
56:00
how you work with these cues and keys so when I saw what was happening with the children inan when I worked with the
56:07
kids in in rala using our they taught me first a lot of tools um that are
56:14
available to us I sat with the children from bedwin communities and I was asking
56:19
them for about like you know let’s do some meditation and and and they were like no let’s scream and I was like y
56:26
let’s scream teach me how to scream because we’ve been told that we can’t scream so we sat and we shouted and
56:31
after that we put the and the the is a bedwin type of and
56:37
dancing and when I was listening to the Rhythm it’s the same Rhythm that we do in calini and I was
56:45
like this works this works with our body uh Faith works with us we have we have
56:51
sum we are the ones who teach sum we have resilience comes from us rather than from outside to us it’s just about
56:58
bringing that up we don’t need to be sitting in after incarceration and being told that it’s our fault that we went to
57:04
prison and that there’s a problem with that there’s a pro we need somebody to tell us that you did you
57:10
actually what you fought for is what you believed and there’s nothing wrong with what you did it’s just how we remove the
57:17
the fear the the state of freeze that you’re in how do we retach your nervous
57:23
system to work with the trauma how to build resilience so that you can continue to live in a place under
57:28
occupation because we can’t teach a child to unlock to to to release all the
57:34
trauma and to release their responses uh if they’re living in San and the soldiers will come and they need the
57:40
freeze response because if they don’t freeze when the soldier comes and they run like a normal child they will be shot with bullets in their back there
57:47
are things that God gave to us innately in our bodies so that we can we can be
57:53
safe and we don’t want to mess with that nervous system um so we I saw it work I
58:01
saw it work with children R and we we we had the pleasure of having Dr gabber
58:06
which was amazing and to have you guys I was a bit skeptical in the beginning I was like what TR are they gonna find
58:14
here right rightly so I mean yeah and it was it was brilliant to see Dr gabber
58:20
work with all these women and to see Kath Temple a beautiful angel who’s taught us emotional Freedom technique
58:25
and she does all this work for free and supports all of the therapists that we have to provide more and more more
58:31
therapy and we had Zahir zahira mous who came from the Netherlands to do dance
58:37
therapy it was just a brilliant experience to have all these people coming and volunteering they all
58:42
volunteered their time their effort to work with not only former prisoners but also other activists and it was just a
58:49
wonderful experience and a healing Journey that for us and I think it was also an experience for everybody who EX
58:56
who came to to meet with us because they’re still connected and they want to do more um because once you see the
59:01
resilience you can also feel it um and you want to work with the Palestinians and the idea now of course with the
59:08
genocide how do you heal from a genocide you look at the images of
59:13
people in Gaz and and I I’ve been working during this time to keep my sanity
59:20
because any it it’s it’s it’s sometimes you can just die from seeing the images
59:27
and the trauma seeps into your soul I wanted to work with the women and children who were left in the West Bank
59:34
and cancer patients who stayed in the West Bank and I was working with them during this time and we’re providing
59:39
them with therapy sessions and they are resilient there’s something else there’s
59:45
something the faith is so strong and the faith gives us the power and the ability to go on the Y that we know in our
59:53
hearts that we will stay on the L land we will stay resilient and no matter what happens if they kill us they might
1:00:00
kill one two three but we will continue Keeps Us strong and it has the the the
1:00:06
type of healing needs to be an empowering healing because we can’t we’re not victims as I said the Israelis
1:00:12
need a different kind of therapy um but at this point with for the Palestinians
1:00:17
we need empowerment and we need we have how many thousands of Orphans right now that we need to work
1:00:24
with and what we want to do the vision is we we rebuild the center in Gaz uh we
1:00:30
already we still have the workshops with the women in in the in the West Bank we want to be able to do summer camps right
1:00:37
now for the children uh we want to teach more therapists uh we want to train more therapists we want to also exchange with
1:00:44
people from uh around the world who want to exchange so we have 400 beautiful
1:00:50
volunteer therapists from around the world that are offering now free therapy sessions to all the Palestinians wherever they are
1:00:56
um there’s beautiful souls coming together to do this and we have an angel who’s on the call who’s made all of this
1:01:01
happen because we do need support financially in order to do this work and we need angels to continue to come to
1:01:08
provide so that we can give services and we will do it it it might look like an
1:01:14
the end of the world but me knowing and seeing the faces that I know from Gaz
1:01:20
and the razawi who have left Gaz and are in Jordan and saying we will in Egypt will not move in from Egypt so that they
1:01:27
can return toaz with all of the destruction to rebuild it there’s resilience and there’s life there and we
1:01:33
live for that life and we know that we can rebuild whatever and our souls and hearts even if they have damaged us the
1:01:41
most important thing for us the Palestinians right now is to maintain our our our faith in ourselves and to
1:01:47
maintain our Humanity because what they want is to turn us into them and what we
1:01:53
need to do is to protect what’s in us to continue the smiles to continue dancing
1:01:58
to continue standing on the ground and talking to the Earth and and planting
1:02:05
the trees that you’re going to plant so that we can continue to stay there no matter what happens and singing our our
1:02:11
songs of freedom because it’s coming it’s happening it’s just a matter of time and
1:02:17
no there’s not a chance in the world that a brutal system will continue to
1:02:22
exist after what they have done they will not it’s just a matter of us holding together holding strong the
1:02:29
protests that are happening in the US the students everyone who’s moving in inch is moving a
1:02:35
mountain because we cannot in in Palestine don’t expect the Palestinians to March and protest and talk in the
1:02:42
West Bank or in or in 48 we need the voices of the free people around the world to push and they can do the
1:02:48
external push and the Palestinians will do the resilience
1:02:58
thank you air your voice is so important at this time you you you bring oh the
1:03:04
wisdom the the resilience the power the power the strength and it’s just deep B
1:03:12
to you and I’m I’m so delighted you are in this country even though this very country is part of the destruction but
1:03:21
here we can make a change today yeah and it’s happening but you have to go to the
1:03:26
art of to the art to make the real change and now yes you’re here your
1:03:32
voice will be Amplified and it’s much need and I’m here also to connect with
1:03:37
the natives of the land and the occupied bodies that are here so that we can do together and I think
1:03:44
it’s important for this land to also have its uh to have its
1:03:49
Shi because there’s there’s there’s Injustice there’s more occupation uh
1:03:57
here absolutely and it’s been put aside like oh it never happened but it’s Chang
1:04:05
as well it’s changing it’s changing um so if you could raise your
1:04:14
hand and we have received questions so we can read also some questions but if you would like to come live uh let us
1:04:22
know and ideally yeah
1:04:27
Alex uh let hello hey
1:04:32
Alex hey hi marah hello Shir thank you so
1:04:38
much uh I haven’t seen the movie yet so this is my first introduction I’m taking a
1:04:44
moment to to acknowledge what I’m seeing and
1:04:51
feeling in myself and um
1:04:57
I am drawn to Sufism so I have been but I’m from the Netherlands and it’s a safe
1:05:02
place to to be here and and look at what is beautiful and go
1:05:08
there but I’m asking myself am I crazy for running towards a fire if if I see
1:05:14
this happening and I have children who are not being bombed you know
1:05:22
where how how do I how do I have have something that I cannot accept and and
1:05:28
that you are teaching me that is happening here how how do I not lose my
1:05:34
Humanity I mean wheresoever I turn there I see the face of the Beloved this is what I’m trying to do but how how do I
1:05:43
how do I deal with seeing a beloved
1:05:48
hurt others I feel you
1:05:56
and being a Sufi does not mean we are in action in active it means action I think
1:06:03
a lot of people think that spirituality means sitting and praying in a in a cave um but the reality of it is it’s
1:06:10
it’s work it’s hard work it was never easy got killed and he was he was
1:06:16
kissing his uh his murderers and he was saying God will forgive you it he wasn’t
1:06:23
uh sitting and we don’t I don’t I don’t think that sitting is the time right now
1:06:30
in any caves it’s the time of action and it’s the time of movement so it’s it’s about organizing it’s about standing
1:06:37
it’s about raising the voice it’s about raising awareness it’s about doing the work it’s it’s it’s it’s uh we keep our
1:06:44
prayers and we keep the faith and the the Spirit guides us the Spirit guides us to keep the faith and to keep moving
1:06:49
and just trusting that but we don’t stop moving we don’t stop moving when we see children getting ch and burn to death no
1:06:57
no that’s the time to act that’s the time to move that’s the time to mobilize that’s the time to teach your children
1:07:02
of what is going on that’s the time to get your children on the street that’s the time to write letters that’s the time to do everything everything that’s
1:07:09
within your power to do um and it’s it’s
1:07:15
the world is not going to change if if we all sit sit and wait for it to
1:07:23
change keep your keep keep the spirit it you have to keep your faith and you have
1:07:29
to keep your spirit in the space of love but being in a space of love doesn’t
1:07:34
mean you do not act and stop what is happening and you do not do and you you
1:07:41
don’t get the fear the most important thing is not to allow Their Fear to infiltrate your body and your and your
1:07:47
spirit so I feel I feel that fear that is in me translating into blame to them
1:07:53
where I give my power away because then then they are to be
1:08:00
blamed it’s not about them being blamed there’s a blame of course there’s a blame they’re they’re committing a
1:08:05
genocide we see it it’s about seeing that it’s it they’re doing it there is
1:08:11
anger there’s rage let the anger and rage move you towards action rather than move you towards blame and
1:08:17
fear it’s it’s it’s being able to say that something is wrong and to say that
1:08:22
they are to blame the governments are to to blame Netanyahu is to blame I said the Israeli soldiers and the people who
1:08:29
are committing the crimes the commanders need to be taken to trials and God help them what will happen to them at the end
1:08:35
of the day the Judgment of God is far far far stronger than anything that we can we can provide on on on Earth I
1:08:42
don’t believe in prisons and I don’t believe that sending them to prison will help I believe in in divine intervention
1:08:49
and God will do whatever it takes the thing is to act to stop them and you stop them not by being weak and you
1:08:56
don’t stop them by being uh silence silent especially if you have the
1:09:02
ability to speak for Palestinians if speaking means going into prison and losing your life hold
1:09:09
off if you have the means and the power like people who have the means and the power and who have said their word and
1:09:15
who have taken action then do take the action but if you’re sitting outside in Europe and you’re buying Starbucks
1:09:22
no if you’re sitting outside and not in the street and not protesting then there’s something wrong if you’re
1:09:28
sitting in the temple and and and and and and you know talking about love and
1:09:33
peace no it’s not going to happen love and peace love and peace and all of while
1:09:38
children are burning is not going to happen thank you for for showing me that
1:09:45
you are not afraid
1:09:55
thank you Alex thank you our common belief all no would you
1:10:03
like to come on doesn’t have her hand on yeah um is
1:10:10
Laura Nora you see Nora I see Laura Harvey Laura okay yes she has the video
1:10:16
on Laura
1:10:24
yes okay I am so sorry I’m working and listening at the same time so I’m not
1:10:29
very good at multitasking I just wanted to tell you
1:10:36
Shir how moved it truly was movie
1:10:46
Just you want to do something but what can you do what do we do
1:10:55
I’m sorry it’s just a trais it’s a
1:11:04
tra how will we this in front of God when we have we sat here and
1:11:11
watch do
1:11:18
anything I’m sorry it’s okay I see the pictures of the babies I follow groups
1:11:25
trying to be active in my community um we have an Arab recreational center that
1:11:32
has meetings uh you know I’m trying to be involved but when you know the
1:11:37
government has been taken over by APAC you know that there’s all these millions
1:11:43
of dollars being put into our politicians our government has been hijacked we are going to do what Israel
1:11:50
tells us to do we’re not going to do what’s in the best interest of people we’re going going to do what’s in the
1:11:56
best interest of whatever the the Jewish lobbyists tell our government to do how
1:12:02
do we overcome that how do we fight that you fight it you fight it you fight it
1:12:08
you fight it you never accept it and it’s not only fighting it for me for the Palestinians it’s fighting it for you
1:12:13
there’s so many homeless people I’ve never seen so much poverty in my life
1:12:18
it’s ridiculous they’re sending billions of dollars to bomb children while their
1:12:23
children are hungry and sleep in the streets yes in Palestine you don’t see
1:12:28
that at least we we we take care of each other never see side we have not SE the
1:12:35
fight the fight here is even it people should be out of their mind yeah they
1:12:41
should I can’t get anyone to listen I I post the picture like I’ve just gotten
1:12:46
to the point the the bleeding and and deceased babies I just started posting them I don’t care just to wake people
1:12:53
like this is what is happening this is real thing but you’re doing something
1:12:59
there’s something moving there hasn’t been this many protests there hasn’t been this many protests in the US there
1:13:05
is something moving it needs to be more there needs to be civil disobedience there needs to be something to stop the
1:13:10
money from getting to to to Israel and I think we’re getting there but at the end
1:13:16
of the day the people are occupied the governments the government is complicit it’s not it’s it’s and they will be
1:13:23
there will be a stage of taking taking Israel to court but there are the governments the bombs that are falling on the children of they are us made it’s
1:13:31
yes they are and now you have our politicians signing them signing their names to them yeah because the whole
1:13:38
American System there’s a problem that you have a government the the that the whole government is bought by money when
1:13:45
I I did a state department visit and I was astounded by this idea that you just give your Congressman whichever company
1:13:52
buys the congressmen and they just buy their polit Ians with money the whole system needs an overhaul it’s and it’s
1:14:00
only because of Palestine it’s because if people need to live and continue to survive here there and there all
1:14:06
citizenship there’s no Health Care the country that they’re giving money to has one of the best Health
1:14:13
Systems it it Israel has the best health system social system and the US people
1:14:20
can die in the streets yes it’s have I
1:14:25
don’t the movement shouldn’t only be about us there it needs to be a movement
1:14:31
also because people are people are are like how how do they accept it even like
1:14:38
how is it acceptable they don’t know they don’t they don’t they are so wrapped up in uh the Kardashians and and
1:14:46
mundane silly things that have no meaning that when you present them with
1:14:51
a real issue like we have congressmen that have D citiz ens ship with Israel and they’re not required to tell
1:14:57
us why that’s a compromised politician because they and when you
1:15:03
tell them this they I’m a liar I’m a conspiracy theorist no it’s fact you
1:15:09
have the world at your fingertips look it up it’s not as it’s fair people
1:15:15
people people are there is more information and people are waking up and thank God we had some social media
1:15:21
otherwise half a million people would have been killed in Gaza and nobody would have heard people um it’s just
1:15:27
about mobilization and keep doing what you’re doing and it’s not only and and people need to understand in the US
1:15:32
they’re not only doing it for us if they want to get liberated you know the
1:15:38
Americans need to get liberated for themselves as well um stop sending the bomb stop killing us would be great but
1:15:45
yeah also allow the people of the land to live in their land allow the people of the land to heal their land and
1:15:53
racism it’s it’s yeah we we we Face occupation and and
1:15:59
brutality very physical and and it’s very in your face whereas people here are suffering in also the slow
1:16:08
death they don’t see that it’s all tied into one it is it is a global
1:16:14
conspiracy with very with a lot of rabbit holes that all are tied together
1:16:21
and I guess that’s that’s where the problem lies is how do you see get
1:16:26
people to see that this all individual we would like to take one or
1:16:33
two more questions before I thank you the movie was amazing thank you so much
1:16:40
our common beliefs there
1:16:45
weum um I can go on and talk about a lot of things or a comment about things but
1:16:51
I have a specific question about how we can actually hear in the United States help the
1:16:56
orphans um because this is a huge huge issue I mean you know my mother me as a
1:17:03
mother my instinct is to go and hug every child because I’m Mor all Beyond
1:17:09
heartbroken if feel frustrated as far as the political system the political
1:17:15
system needs to the lobby system needs to be stopped and we have to do
1:17:20
everything we can to actually overhaul this because that’s ruining our go our whole system it’s Ru ruining our country
1:17:28
because a politicians that I’ve met will tell you straight to your face we’re so
1:17:33
occupied with these lobbyists they’re sending us so much information that we can’t even do our
1:17:39
job like that’s really not that’s horrible so they’re they’re they end up
1:17:45
getting sucked into this Matrix of lobbyists and and of course the
1:17:50
strongest one is the APAC and then you’ve got the who knows the uh the Army
1:17:56
whatever lobbyist whatever it’s called and a whole bunch of others that they get so that you know so much information
1:18:03
gets sent to them but they’re not you know doing their job is listening to their consistant being out in the street
1:18:09
meeting people s Hearing what people want they they’re not doing that enough because they’re they’re overwhelmed with
1:18:15
all this other nonsense so as far as the political system Lobby system has to be
1:18:20
eradicated in my opinion just like the a high system in Israel has to be
1:18:25
eradicated it’s just it’s not doing anybody uh any good too much homeless
1:18:31
everywhere too much you know money is being spent left and right from where
1:18:36
the country is in trillion dollar debt and don’t ask me how they get money to go and and bomb little kids and it’s
1:18:43
just it’s it’s while we have homeless people everywhere and children starving
1:18:50
I think let me answer your question about the orphans so there’s the organization and they are collecting
1:18:57
funds and they’re um fostering children um it’s yeah so if you just go
1:19:03
to TA you will find you will find out more information how do you spell that my me and my I mean in English I
1:19:11
I’m trying to a w is it is t a w i n no t a w o o n I
1:19:18
think okay you put ta Palestine you’ll find out and um there there are that’s
1:19:25
one of the things that everybody is thinking about like what happens to the orphans after they come out um and I was
1:19:31
uh I started also connecting with the with people in bahin to see what options because they have had um good adoption
1:19:39
routes but in Palestine we’re not allowed so in Gaza specifically the idea
1:19:45
is they won’t be allowed adoption because they so that they won’t be relocated from another from their Homeland so they will have to stay in
1:19:52
Gaz and they will have to um we have to rebuild for them basically we have to
1:19:58
rebuild yes we have to rebuild and ensure that they have they can stay in their Homeland and with whoever families
1:20:04
and it’s it’s sponsorships through organizations that can support at this point we’re still we hope for less for
1:20:12
not for not another child to be orphaned by the end it’s it’s it’s all for the after for
1:20:18
the after after war after aggression
1:20:25
thank you thank you thank you maybe we could take one more Rising
1:20:33
question in air a few people were asking the therapist and they want to help and
1:20:39
support what would you say where would you direct um so just send me an email
1:20:44
we have a form and we have a lot of we have a lot of English speakers who volunteer if there’s Arabic speakers
1:20:49
please please please do volunteer because we have more requests for Arabic of course and we will also the the hope
1:20:55
is to send a delegation into Gaz so uh therapists who are interested in
1:21:00
entering Gaz once ra is given back because that was the option before they
1:21:06
took over ra but we will still plan to send a delegation of therapists into and
1:21:12
if not into into Egypt to do support for the children so I can post my email or it’s
1:21:18
on the it’s on my website it’s on my or they can contact sence Duality where the
1:21:24
is weep and we’ll pass it to you we we’ll pass Suzanne suzan very brief because we
1:21:32
have one last announcement we want to thank you very much for taking um me to
1:21:38
be so that I could speak I I just saw the film and um was
1:21:43
overwhelmed on so many different levels I am a translator I live in Spain I I
1:21:48
would like to offer to translate whatever I can into Spanish so
1:21:55
please um I’ll send my I don’t know where I’d like to send my it’s already it’s already trans being translated into
1:22:01
Spanish you could review it maybe make sure it’s good correct I could do that
1:22:07
absolutely then I just I also just wanted to say you know that I lived in Israel um for a for a long time um and I
1:22:17
I come from a family of Arab Jews my my uncle AB
1:22:22
serfati was a an activist and a political prisoner in Morocco for a long time so anyway I um I
1:22:31
face within myself I have faced Within Myself this incredible conflict of
1:22:38
identity uh and but what Gabor mate says in your film he says I I want the truth
1:22:47
the truth is what matters and for me what you showing to us is the truth
1:22:55
and what you are speaking to me is the truth and uh I am aligned with the truth
1:23:00
and so I you know would like to volunteer I don’t I don’t know what I can do to
1:23:07
hands on I’m an artist I work with children I want to make myself
1:23:13
available and thank you um you can there’s there will be
1:23:19
more information to support on the website so you can definitely check it
1:23:24
there yeah and on the fil website there is a long list of resources and also 10
1:23:32
actions that each and every one of us can do then you can choose which one works for you from donating
1:23:40
volunteering writing letters praying all of this we need every possible action we
1:23:47
need to use every possible to we have in our disposal so yeah please visit and
1:23:54
yeah thank you Susan thank you Susan thank you air we were gonna introduce briefly
1:24:02
so just to say with the um proceeds any donation that come from the film we
1:24:09
would like to support your work in rebuilding the center and in addition we
1:24:15
we are in partnership with the treedom from Palestine I read briefly what they
1:24:22
do yeah s you want to briefly introduce what freedom from Palestine does and I
1:24:29
think we have someone from the union righty hi
1:24:35
Cyrus you want to briefly hey do you have do it’s a pleas
1:24:41
partner yes uh I just texted abas are on the ground partner with the Palestinian Farmers Union so he can join our
1:24:48
conversation treedom for Palestine we’re a small nonprofit uh that
1:24:54
sustainable Olive Tree farms we call them Freedom Farms in the West Bank uh
1:25:00
in conjunction with the Palestinian Farmers Union uh they are our partners on the ground our freedom Farms are uh
1:25:09
they’re small sustainable 2.5 Acre farms uh with 250 olive trees they are
1:25:15
irrigated and they are fenced for the protection of both the trees and the farmer and these particular Farms are
1:25:22
agents uh of so many things they’re agents of prosperity of communal
1:25:27
strength environmental balance um just by planting these Farms we also help
1:25:33
Palestinian Farmers hang on to land uh and making sure that Palestinian
1:25:38
land stays in Palestinian hands um and also climate action uh each of because
1:25:45
ol you know the cool thing about olive trees is they live for an average of 500 years so that this becomes a real
1:25:52
sustainability initiative as well and it’s a symbol of resistance for all
1:25:57
this time right this is a symbol of Palestinian resistance yeah planting olive trees we firming the connection to
1:26:05
the land and as you see in the film since the water in the West Bank cost up to 30 times more for a Palestinian
1:26:13
farmer if the farm is not if the land is not farmed the Israeli have an extra good excuse to take it out if it’s not
1:26:20
far for three years and a little thing I want to add when we went to see your side we realized that the person you
1:26:26
feature on your website is in our movie is somebody we met when we were by chance it was mutaz it was completely
1:26:34
what so there was it was this ancestral connection that brought us together as the two organizations so as Cyrus was
1:26:42
saying the donation we receive from you we will plant help plant olive trees in
1:26:47
the West Bank and in addition to work with air to build the school so we need
1:26:54
ashir you said you talk about big Angel but we also need a lot of small small Angel and each and every one of us can
1:27:01
be a small Angel each and each and every one of us can do something something some small little thing to make this
1:27:08
Insanity to stop so yeah it’s time to be active yeah is a buas here the thing
1:27:15
about moras um is his his farm was my initial introduction to Freedom farming
1:27:20
the Palestinian Farmers Union invented this wonderful model uh of how to do
1:27:26
farming in the West Bank which is by the way at a new low like the level of agriculture in the West Bank is has
1:27:33
never been lower contribution to the GDP than it is right now but the pfu uh
1:27:39
invented this concept uh of um Farms that are fenced
1:27:44
that are supplementally irrigated the the number of allot trees which is just right uh so that M’s Farm was the very
1:27:53
first Farm Farm uh that they planted in this regard and it was the first farm that I visited in the West Bank when I
1:27:59
was there that was my introduction to the Wonder and power of planting olive trees um M I don’t know if you know this
1:28:06
but he has a nickname Running Out of Time Jord
1:28:11
Valley we we’re really at the end of our time so I want to just final words to ashir again we at the end of our time so
1:28:20
thank you so much for joining us and let us know if in the next me minute or so
1:28:25
it’s already we’re out of time yeah if he joins us we want to give his voice as well hear his voice and Ashira uh a few
1:28:34
people are asking if you can ever go back I don’t know I was looking I was
1:28:41
looking at the questions and I I didn’t want to answer inah I will be able to go
1:28:47
back and um yeah there is there is a there is a risk but we’ll see how
1:28:55
things go um I won’t let go of my land y but and I but I want to be here for my
1:29:02
children um and yeah I will try once I once I stop
1:29:08
feeding and I can take a risk and then see inshah it will inshah by the time that I finish breastfeeding Yin ali uh
1:29:16
Palestine will be free so and I will be able to go back so we have a a year we
1:29:22
have a timeline a timeline two years two two to three years I breastfeed them so
1:29:29
inah let’s work all of us yes inah well air thank you so much for this
1:29:38
incredible conversation powerful inspiring and for bringing so many things to together and and touching our
1:29:47
hearts with your strength and your Clarity and and Beauty you you bring it you
1:29:55
weave it all so thank you for thank you guys for coming to Palestine and thank
1:30:00
you for for going to be allowed to ever go back but I would love to because I have now this hard connection with the
1:30:07
people we’ve met and with the land we will go back the land the land seeks its
1:30:15
people thank you so much for everything and for everything you’ve been doing since the beginning of this
1:30:22
genocide you’ve raised you opened hearts and Minds around the world and that that’s
1:30:28
not it’s it’s big and it makes an it makes a difference each and everyone being present here today makes a
1:30:34
difference every person shares writes talks makes a difference yeah we should think that
1:30:41
we’re not that our voices are not affecting yeah together we’re strong
1:30:48
yeah it’s not the individual that will make a difference it’s us together yeah
1:30:55
thank you everyone who was with us here today please keep sharing the film with your communities and friends we have
1:31:02
also lots of screenings all over the world I think now over 60 70 screenings
1:31:08
in the next days and we’ll be here every morning with different
1:31:14
conversations uh tomorrow um the conversation is dehumanization and
1:31:20
ongoing nagba in Palestine with Sharin say Kali Osama Magi and Nathan TR it
1:31:28
will be another very rich conversation so we welcome you back and bring you questions yeah and maybe you can
1:31:36
organize screening in your community because the impact of the movie when you watch it with other people I can assure
1:31:43
you is Amplified it’s it’s really a different experience of but I I want to Echo that
1:31:50
please share the documentary wherever you can and screen it and if you’re doing it in the US reach out and I can
1:31:57
also come visit you and do the screening together oh a bus has joined oh okay
1:32:04
let’s just see a bus just for a okay we’re going to change the linear time here and there is
1:32:12
okay mute there hello good afternoon and good
1:32:18
after evening from Palestine to all of you good afternoon good afternoon abas
1:32:23
you want to describe very briefly the work of your
1:32:29
organization we are the Palestinian Farmers Union that work for supporting
1:32:34
the right of Palestinian Farmers to stay their right for resilience their right
1:32:40
for accessing their land cultivating their land uh generating income of that
1:32:46
land and uh we are the umbrella of all Farmers across West Bank and Gaza
1:32:51
unfortunately now the situation in Gaza is very difficult and uh the agriculture sector and most of the Farms owned by
1:32:58
our farmer members in Gaza have been completely destroyed but inshallah there
1:33:03
will be a CH a chance where we will rehabil rehabilitate and bring back hope
1:33:10
to all our farmers in Gaza who will reestablish their farms and they will start producing fruits inshallah when
1:33:16
this war will be over and that will happen soon inshallah in West Bank we uh
1:33:22
we work a lot on cultivating olive trees and establishing Olive Farms as you may
1:33:29
know uh Olive sector in Palestine is the largest sector where all people love and highly value The Olive Tree it
1:33:36
symbolizes peace symbolizes love symbolizes the holing so all people love
1:33:42
that tree and would like to plant that tree it last for strategically for
1:33:49
hundreds of years to come and the income that is generated is very good for all
1:33:54
households so we help our Farmers cultivate and uh uh uh establish their
1:34:00
Olive Olive Farms and for us Olive Farm has different meaning from one side when
1:34:06
when we cultivate a land with olive trees we we protect that land from being confiscated or taken due to the
1:34:13
complexity of the situation on the ground The increased obset violence against Farmers lands in West Bank so
1:34:21
cultivating that land makes it difficult for being confiscated this is you know
1:34:26
playing with the already existing glows and second by establishing Farms we help
1:34:32
farmers generate income for their household and olive oil is one of the very important produce farmers are
1:34:40
loving interested in and olive oil among Palestinian families is one of the basic
1:34:45
basic uh need they all store during the year and they like to eat every day so
1:34:53
it’s it’s it’s a very important uh thing however the challenge was how we can
1:34:58
cultivate all of trees and establish a farm that can grow
1:35:04
up fastly and being protected so we came up
1:35:10
with this idea my friend cus mentioned model farms in the beginning we started
1:35:15
in 2018 with MZ Farm in Jordan Valley and we established that model Farm a
1:35:22
model farm for us means a piece of land that is cultivated by Olive
1:35:29
seedlings and um provided with internal irrigation
1:35:34
Network to ensure supplementary irrigation during the Heat and the hot
1:35:40
Seasons In Summer and then fined from all borders to protect that these lands
1:35:46
newly planted trees from wild animals and even from any attacks by settlers
1:35:52
who are you know occupying ing the surrounding uh settlements or so on and
1:35:57
this model Farm was really successful and based on the success we had with MZ
1:36:02
we expanded in that area and established 15 model Farms where M Farm is located
1:36:11
and year after year we started to expand in other districts in West Bank and now
1:36:17
we already have 55 model Farms have been established my colleague my friend came
1:36:24
to Palestine and had his tour and did that wonderful amazing great um
1:36:30
documentary video about cultivating uh uh peace and resilience through
1:36:35
cultivating olive trees and we started this partnership with treedom to
1:36:41
establish our freedom Farms what we call them now Freedom Farms and we so far EST
1:36:48
finished with uh two um Freedom Farms owned by two women farmers
1:36:54
and we are now working on another three ones to come inshah okay thank you
1:36:59
abas inshah let’s hope it’s G to work support your vision yeah may continue
1:37:06
may continue let’s hope protect the land and yeah and the resilience that is
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connected Palestinian resilience is connected to the trees is connected to the land to the
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water um so thank you for your work and we will do our best to be a partner and
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supports you so that’s the SEC let’s try to air the the second
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closing final words one word oh the olive trees are our
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life if this what he said about the olive trees and resilience we are rooted
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in that land just like those olive trees so keep planting olive trees we’re
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and we’re going to stay there we just keep expanding and
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growing okay thank thank you everyone this
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conversation will continue for another 20 days so keep tuning in and ashir will
1:38:09
be with Gabor mate in Oakland on June 25th we’re trying to add another screen
1:38:16
because it’s already sold out doubt but uh if we open that will allow another 600 people to join so tune in if you’re
1:38:23
local to the Bay Area or check our website for all the screenings that I’m
1:38:29
sure there will be something near you and if not you should organize one that’s right you can anyone can organize
1:38:37
it’s easier than you think honestly it’s easier than you okay we have to go thanks everyone
1:38:43
blessing thank you we see each other very soon
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w oh
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