Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
SIMON OSTROVSKY: We just
arrived in Tel Aviv.
We're here on the beach.
It's really nice.
It's deceptively nice, because
20 miles that way is the West
Bank, which Israel has been
occupying since 1967.
And the reason we're interested
in the West Bank is
because the other thing that
Israel has been doing there is
building settlements.
So we're going to head
over there and find
out what that's like.
Israel conquered the West Bank
in East Jerusalem in 1967,
after three Arab nations battled
the newly minted
Jewish state in the
Six Days War.
Israel was only 20 years old at
the time, and its victory
was hailed as a David versus
Goliath triumph.
A lot of water has passed under
the bridge since then,
and what was supposed to have
been a temporary occupation of
the Palestinian territories
has turned into four and a
half decades of misery
for the Arab
residents in the West Bank.
Aside from the fact that the
West Bank is crisscrossed with
barbed wire, walls and military
checkpoints, over
300,000 Israelis have taken it
upon themselves to settle what
was supposed to be the future
Palestinian state.
According to international
law, the settlements are
totally illegal.
They represent a colonization
of the lands that are slated
for hand over to the
Palestinians under an
agreement that both
Israel and the
Palestinians signed in 1993.
As a result, the peace process
has ground to a halt.
And the much lauded two state
solution is looking less
likely than ever before.
I wanted to find out who the
settlers were and what
motivated them to pick up sticks
and move across the
green line to become the most
notorious squatters the world
has ever known.
But first, I decided to get
some counter-terrorism
training in a West Bank gun
range with a member of
Israel's special forces,
just in case.
We're in a firing range in a
settlement in the West Bank,
and these guys behind me are
civilians training to do
border security.
And they've got some pretty
mean looking guns.
STEVEN GAR: Is this
a safe gun?
No such thing as a safe gun.
Guns are made for killing.
You're standing at the entrance
to the synagogue.
Inside, there's a terror
attack happening.
OK, I want you to imagine.
You're standing in ready
position, pointing your weapon
inside the synagogue trying to
take care of the terrorists.
Remember how we defined
counter-terrorism as combat in
a civilian area.
We don't want to
hurt civilians.
We have to protect
them, correct?
This is not an Xbox.
It's not games.
We don't push a reset button and
then you get a new life.
There's real bullets outside.
There's a real possibility
that I'll
never see my kids again.
Up!
Simon's scared of me.
SIMON OSTROVSKY: No ***.
I was starting to think this
guy's job was just to scare
the crap out of anyone who
showed up for the training.
Turns out, I wasn't the only one
who thought it would be a
good idea to get
some training.
A Canadian woman we nicknamed
Sarah Connor had brought her
whole family along for
the fear fest.
It doesn't hurt to know how to
use an AK, though, right?
And for what it's worth, her
daughter turned out to be a
pretty good marksman.
Well, I hit it twice.
I didn't do as good as
the 10-year-old girl.
STEVEN GAR: Not bad.
SIMON OSTROVSKY: Do you think
it's important for everybody
who moves to Israel to
have this kind of
counter-terrorism training?
STEVEN GAR: Look,
counter-terrorism training, I
don't think it's important for
everyone, unless you're a
counter-terrorist.
You have to have an awareness
of terrorism.
SIMON OSTROVSKY: So why do so
many people carry around guns?
STEVEN GAR: I don't know.
I don't know.
Maybe to feel safer.
I think people think, you know,
I've got a gun at home
and I wake up and there's a
terrorist, I could take care
of my family.
Maybe that's what's going
through their minds.
SIMON OSTROVSKY: I discovered
that it was easy for a settler
to get a gun license
in the West Bank.
All they had to do was
qualify at a shooting
range like this one.
But Palestinians living in the
same area are never packing,
because Israel doesn't
allow it.
It turned out our trainer Steve
was himself a settler
who'd moved into the West
Bank from South Africa.
When we arrived at his
settlement, I was surprised to
see it looked more like an
American suburb than an
outpost in a hostile
territory.
The community that you live in
was built in the particular
place that it was built because
of the historic
significance of the place.
STEVEN GAR: Yeah.
Most of the little areas here,
they've actually found signs
of ancient Jewish settlement
there.
We feel that it's like
reviving the
past kind of thing.
SIMON OSTROVSKY: Right.
So you're saying--
your settlement is right
on the right here.
And some fields that
are used by
Palestinians are on the left.
Are there any confrontations
between the people working in
these fields and people
from your settlement?
STEVEN GAR: Not often.
Occasionally I've been called
in to what we call a hadira,
that's an infiltration.
I've caught, on a few occasions,
Arabs that have
infiltrated the settlement.
They've come to steal.
In my mind, also, I think it's
quite a clever way for them to
gather information, see how
quickly we react, by taking
all this information in.
So we've got to be
really alert.
SIMON OSTROVSKY: Do you ever
worry about your kids, that
they could get hurt?
STEVEN GAR: I think
every parent
worries about their kids.
SIMON OSTROVSKY: But do you ever
question your decision to
bring them out here, in such
close proximity to people who
aren't very happy with
your presence?
STEVEN GAR: No.
No.
I'll tell you, that's not
something I think about.
SIMON OSTROVSKY: It turns out,
the Israeli state has given
his settlement, and
many others like
it, its full backing.
But like most settlements, it
hadn't started out this way.
It was once an encampment
that was considered
illegal, even by Israel.
But over the years, the settlers
have learned that if
they squat a site in the West
Bank long enough, Israel will
give them its approval, its
infrastructure, and its security.
You don't feel that coming here
would provoke your Arab
neighbors, though,
into violence?
STEVEN GAR: I don't
see why it should.
Look, again, what I'm saying
is that I don't think that
it's right taking other
people's land.
I don't think it's
right for me to--
these guys are working hard.
They've been working these
fields now for maybe two
generations.
You should just now,
that's maximum.
When we talk about Palestinian
people, we're maximum talking
about maybe one and a half
to two generations.
The Jewish people have been
here for 5,000 years.
This dates back another 3,000
years ago that this
was active and used.
We're not just a fabrication
that this is, oh,
we want this place.
Understand that though we're
here for whatever reasons, we
were exiled out of Israel, but
we were given the opportunity
to come back.
SIMON OSTROVSKY: Now this was
an incredible fabrication on
Steve's part.
The notion that the Palestinians
had only lived on
this land for two generations
was totally false.
But the idea that Jews had a
historic claim to the West
Bank's territories that trumped
any Palestinian claims
was one I'd hear over and over
in the next few days, and
turned out to be a major part
of the settler ideology that
ran directly counter to the
two state solution plan.
Steve was an interesting guy.
Our shooting instructor is also
a settler, and somehow he
made being a commando in the
West Bank seem almost normal.
But the settlement he's from is
really established, and we
want to find places that are
newer, where people are
literally on an encampment at
the top of a hill and starting
a brand new settlement.
But they're on the wrong side
of the green line for doing
archaeological digs.
SOLDIER: This land?
It's for the Jewish people from
all over the world, OK?
MALE SPEAKER: Are you
recording me?
SIMON OSTROVSKY: I don't know.
I don't know.