AL-WALAJA, West Bank –  Palestinian activists are calling for a “Global March to Jerusalem” this Friday to mark Land Day, an annual event that commemorates the killing of six Arabs who were protesting the Israeli practice of expropriating Arab land to build Jewish settlements on March 30, 1976.

Since then Palestinians have commemorated March 30 as Land Day and have turned it into a general day of protest against what they see as discriminatory practices by the Israeli government.

But 70-year-old Abu Nidal doesn’t need a special calendar day to remind him of the Israeli occupation and their confiscation of his land. Nidal just needs to wake up every morning and look outside his window to see how the Israelis are confiscating his land.

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 He lives in the village Al Walaja, nestled in the hills between Jerusalem and Bethlehem. Half of the village of just over 2,000 is considered to be part of Jerusalem and the other half is part of the West Bank. So now the Israeli security wall snakes through the village.

“Land Day is like a music record being played over and over,” he said. “I live out of despair with no future in sight, I see no light only darkness.”

'Global March to Jerusalem': Israel's borders on high alert as huge protests loom

When the Israelis sent huge yellow bulldozers to the village in 2010 to start working on the separation wall, no one bothered to check on whether or not the wall ran through Nidal’s farm land – which it does. And it has not only been 86 olive trees that were up rooted by the approximately 26-foot high concrete barrier, but also Nidal’s family graveyard.

It was his grandmother’s wish that every family member be buried on their 11-acre farm land. But the Israelis have a different plan for the confiscated land. They are planning to build not only the wall, but a recreational park for Israelis on the other side of the wall.
As it stands now, Nidal can only look at his mother and grandmother’s graves from a distance with the dreadful knowledge that soon the wall will be his only view.

“It’s not only a question of land confiscation, but also of making our life so miserable that we will have to pack up our lives and leave,” Nidal said. “But, of course, I want to be buried alongside my mother.”

This Friday when demonstrators take to the streets commemorating Land Day, Nidal won’t join them; his battle is being waged in the Israeli courts. But he pointed out that his case doesn’t have much of a shot. “The court is Israeli, the judge is Israeli and the lawyers are Israelis.  It’s a losing battle.”

Nidal’s story is just one out of many. There are approximately 2,300 Palestinians living in the village of Al Walaja and everyone I talked to had a similarly desperate story. The common theme to all the stories is the feeling they live in a prison surrounded by a wall and Jewish settlements.
 

 

 

JERUSALEM – The Har Menuchot Cemetery looked like it was painted in black Wednesday. Hundreds of mourners, many of them men dressed in the black suits and broad-brimmed hats worn by orthodox Jews, came to pay their respects for the four Jews killed by a gunman in Toulouse, France, on Monday.

The bodies of 30-year-old Rabbi Jonathan Sandler, his sons, Arieh, 5, and Gabriel, 4, and 8-year-old Myriam Monsenego were laid on stretchers after being flown to Israel from France.

Small white cards were placed on each body indicating their names.

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The announcer asked dignitaries to limit their speeches to five minutes due to the heat and out of respect for the bereaved families.    

In tears, Shlomo Amar, the Chief Sephardi Rabbi of Israel, was defiant. "We will keep on fighting and teaching our youth with our heads high up,” he said. “Our enemy will not defeat us.”

A woman started shouting and other weeping women soon followed. Someone brought a large cotton cloth to cover the victims’ families from the sun.

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe sat still with a somber face throughout the speeches; eventually, he spoke in French, which was translated into Hebrew. "The French nation is in shock,” he said. “I came here today to show the French nation's respect. We will do our out most to protect the Jewish community in France. We will not tolerate terror."

Monsenego's grandfather was asked to say a few words, but he couldn’t find the strength to stand up and talk.

Photo Blog: Jerusalem funeral for victims of French school shooting 

But Myriam's eldest brother, Avishai, offered some words. He wailed and had one last plea for his dead sister” "Please give strength to father and mother to overcome this tragedy.”

Then the slain rabbi’s father, Shmuel Sandler, spoke about his son, "You were a magnificent person killed by a barbaric person," he said. Unfortunately, the middle of his speech was interrupted by police using a megaphone asking the owner of a Daihatsu car to move the vehicle because it was blocking the road.

While the bodies were taken to be buried, I spoke to David Naor, a relative of the Sandler familyr. I asked him about the news coming out of Toulouse that the suspected gunman had been found.

“Finding the killer won’t help the dead children,” he replied. “But it helps to know that he won’t kill again.”

 
TEL AVIV, Israel – For decades, Israelis have heard so many tales of the daily humiliations suffered by Palestinians – from being hassled at checkpoints to house demolitions to curfews – that many of them have grown numb.

But Israeli director Shlomi Elkabetz has deployed an unusual storytelling device to draw attention to Palestinian grievances and catch the attention of his Israeli audience: In his new film, the stories of Palestinian suffering come out of the mouths of Israelis, speaking in Hebrew. 

“For three years I have been reading these Palestinian testimonies, which were given to human rights groups, and didn’t really know what to do with them,” said Elkabetz. “At first I was shocked, then I wanted to reject it all, then I wanted to shout and finally I wanted to do something.”

He did. His film “Testimony” uses a combination of dramatic and documentary devices while top Israeli actors stare straight into the viewer’s eyes and act out the Palestinian testimonies. 

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“By using Israeli actors I turn the viewer into a firsthand witness. By looking at a famous actor’s face, who’s speaking in Hebrew, the Israeli viewer becomes the witness himself.”

For many here, the army roadblocks, which dot the West Bank, represent the cruel face of the occupation. Palestinians on their way to work, hospitals and schools are forced to wait for hours in extreme weather just to show their I.D. cards at the checkpoints.

In one scene, Ronit Elkabetz, a famous Israeli actress who is also the director’s sister, explains how she was stopped by soldiers near the town of Jaljulia trying to cross into Israel. “The soldier stopped me and cursed me, I cursed him back. The soldier kicked me in the chest and I fell. He hit me for fifteen minutes,” she says in the film.

I asked the director if it was difficult to recruit Israeli actors for the project. “I can’t say it was a difficult mission; some actors really wanted to take part in this project, but of course there were some who rejected my request.”

Palestinians aren’t alone in feeling the effects of the occupation. Some Israeli soldiers come back from their obligatory service in the IDF in places like the West Bank traumatized by events they witnessed and took part in.

So the film also presents their experience as an occupying force. “For us, they are all terrorists,” one actor portraying a soldier dryly says about the Palestinians. “They ordered us to take him down, I shot him. I killed him.”

The film, which premiered last spring at an Israeli film festival and was subsequently screened at the Venice Film Festival, was released at select theaters in Israel last week.

To critics who say that the film only tells the story from the Palestinian perspective, Elkabetz said in an interview that “the purpose of the film is not to create a balance between the two peoples but to share an experience.”  

Many of the people who attended a recent screening of the film were interested in the director’s purpose in making such a controversial film.

“I will be happy if only two Israelis meet in the street and talk about the film,” said Elkabetz. “I’m of course also hoping my film will be one more step in the changing of the Israeli awareness to the reality out there.”

Watch a clip from the film above.

By Paul Goldman, NBC News

JERUSALEM -- "Shlomi, throw me the ball."

"Assi, it's your turn, pass and dribble."

"Mahmud, great pass. What a basket."

This might sound like a normal basketball game but it's not. The unique endeavor can be best described as an "oasis of coexistence" in Israel where Jews, Muslims and Christians play not only on the same court but in mixed teams.

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In 2001, American brothers Sean and Brendan Tuohey founded PeacePlayers International with the premise that children who play together can learn to live together.

It seemed quite obvious during my visit to practice that the Tuohey brothers were succeeding. Here on the court at the "Hand in Hand" bilingual school in Jerusalem, Israelis and Palestinians were laughing together, hugging each other and, most importantly, shooting the ball together.

"At first the kids and their parents were hesitant with some kids even crying," says Karen Doubilet, who is the PeacePlayers International's Middle East managing director. "But the transition is very fast, now they jump in joy and hug each other when they meet on and off the court."

'They are like me'
After experiencing so much hatred between Israelis and Palestinians, it was refreshing and exciting to see how naturally these kids reacted and played with each other.

Malak Ayub, 12, is a Muslim girl from the East Jerusalem village of Shoafat.

"Before I came to this program I thought Israelis only wanted to do bad things to us but now I see that they are like me, they want to play together," she said.

One of Malak's best friends is Hadas Prawer, a 14-year-old Israeli from the neighborhood of Mevaseret, which is located west of Jerusalem. I asked Hadas what she tells her friends when they hear she plays with Palestinians.

"I don't care what people think or say, I'm having fun and that's it," she said, before turning around and giving Malak a huge hug.

The traditional Hanukkah 'Sufganiyot' -- the Jewish ball-shaped doughnuts -- were waiting on the sidelines as a reward for the kids' hard work. All the children were wearing T-shirts with the US AID logo on the back, indicating the backing by the US.

"Basketball is huge, especially with the girls," Doubilet added. "Most of these kids don’t have a constructive framework and we give them this activity almost for free. The relationships here will no doubt shape the way Israelis and Palestinians think of each other in the future".

About 550 young people aged from six to 18 enrolled in this program in the past year, bridging communities in Israel like Jaffa, Tamra and Jerusalem where Jews and Muslims live next to each other. 

Haled Sabah is a 20-year-old Palestinian from Shoafat. He joined the program seven years ago and is now one of its coaches.

"I see some racism on both sides but when kids play on the same team they just see each other simply as people," he said. 

TEL AVIV – The Israeli towns of Rosh HaAyin, which is mainly Jewish, and its neighbor, Kfar Kassem, a mostly Muslim town, enjoyed a peaceful relationship – until now.

The Israelis have had enough of their neighbors’ call to prayer.

They claim that the traditional call to prayer, which occurs five times a day, is a nuisance and disturbs their daily life. The 4:50 a.m. call is considered especially annoying.

“We hear the call to pray very loud, the situation is unbearable,” a local Rosh HaAyin resident was quoted as saying in the Hebrew version of the left-leaning Haaretz newspaper.

Another resident said, “We must find a way that we will not be disturbed and that they will be able to continue with their rituals.”

The issue is headed to the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, this Sunday. 

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Anastassia Michaeli, a member of the Knesset, will put forward a bill proposing a ban on mosques using loudspeakers to announce the call to prayer.

Her proposal stipulates that “religious freedom doesn’t need to harm the quality of life.”

Michaeli, who belongs to the right-wing political party, Yisrael Beiteinu, led by the ultra-nationalist foreign minister Avigdor Liberman, knows her bill will cause outrage among Muslims and among Israeli human rights groups. While Israel is a Jewish state, approximately 17 percent of its 7.4 million people are Muslim, according to a 2008 census. 

But she is adamant her new bill is not a “mosque bill.” Rather, she says, it is a “noise bill” aimed at improving quality of life, indicating that synagogues and churches also will be asked to adhere to laws restricting how much noise they can make. 

Mosques have been using loud speakers to announce the call to prayer in the country for decades, leading some to ask: Why is there a move to ban them now?  

Long list of controversial bills
It seems to be just the latest in a wave of controversial bills that have been introduced during the two years since Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu formed his right-wing coalition government.

Those bills, which haven’t all become laws yet, but are in various stages of legislation, include: 

-limiting donations from foreign countries to human rights organizations in Israel;

-a defamation law curtailing the media;

-outlawing calls for political boycotts on Israel or the settlements; 

- and the so-called “Nakba Law” that punishes groups that associate Israel’s Independence Day with a day of mourning (Palestinians commemorate the day after Independence Day annually as a “day of catastrophe”).
 
These bills have gotten the world’s attention – including from U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. She voiced her deep concern about the growing influence of ultra-orthodox groups on Israel’s society during a closed discussion at the Saban Forum at the Brookings Institution in Washington last Saturday, according to media reports.

Clinton criticized the wave of anti-democratic legislation and especially the exclusion of women from public life in Israel in the wake of limitations on women singing in public and growing gender segregation on public transportation.

She said the requirement that women are forced to ride in designated sections on some bus routes in Israel reminded her of segregated busing during the civil rights era in the U.S.

Men and women are segregated on public transportation in some ultra-Orthodox Jewish areas of Israel. 

'We will fight this bill'  
But Patin Issa, a Muslim who is the director of the Kfar Kassem municipality, said the new bill will not add honor to the state of Israel. 

“We will fight this bill, there is a minority here and it is the country’s duty to protect its long heritage and rituals,” Issa told NBC News. He added that this is a very delicate matter that needs to be handled “with silk gloves.”

He said that he is willing to work with the Israeli authorities to find a solution that will work for both sides, but that a one-sided bill is not the answer. 

Analysis

By Paul Goldman, NBC News Producer

TEL AVIV – Israel and Hamas are scheduled to swap prisoners on Tuesday, and the exchange raises some intriguing questions.

How many Palestinian prisoners is one Israeli soldier worth? Should Israel release people with blood on their hands? Should a democratic country negotiate with a terror organization?

The deal will bring home Sgt. Gilad Schalit who was captured in a cross-border raid in June 2006 by Palestinian militants who snuck into Israel and dragged him into Gaza. Little has been known about his fate since then, but demands for his release have been a major issue for Israelis ever since.   

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The list of some of the Palestinian prisoners who will be released has been leaked to the press. Palestinian families finding their relatives name on the list will be reunited with their loved ones. Schalit's family will be able to hug their son again. But some Israelis are furious.

For Yossi Mendellevich the swap will be a very sad day. On March 5, 2003 a suicide bomber exploded himself on bus No.37 in the northern port city of Haifa. Yossi lost his son Yuval who was on board the bus. Yuval was 13 years old and was on his way to school when the bus exploded. 

On Tuesday, Fadi Juaba, who allegedly built the suicide vest worn by the bomber who killed Yuval, will be released to Gaza. “The state of Israel did an unforgettable thing,” Yossi told the Israeli Internet site Ynet. “We can change the colors on the Israeli flag from blue and white to only white which will signify our surrender to terror.”

I have been covering the Israeli Palestinian conflict since 1989 and I can say that this week’s prisoner exchange is just part of the deadly cycle of violence representing this conflict.

Palestinian prisoners have been exchanged for Israeli soldiers since 1979. On April 4, 1978 seven Israeli soldiers crossed the border to Lebanon, four where killed, two escaped and one soldier was taken by the Palestinian Liberation Organization. It took one year for Israel and the PLO to broker a deal in which they exchanged that one Israeli soldier for 70 Palestinian prisoners.

Now 33 years later and the teams from both sides are back at the negotiating table. This time it took five years of ongoing talks to broker a deal which will release Schalit in return for 1,027 Palestinian prisoners.

Since that first exchange in 1979 about 6,566 Palestinian prisoners have been exchanged for nine Israeli soldiers, 10 dead soldiers and one Israeli civilian.

This is a deadly cycle that won’t stop now.

Khaled Mashal, the head of the Hamas organization, held a press conference in Syria last week vowing to do anything he can to release the remaining prisoners in Israeli jails.

This means only two things:  more kidnapping by the Palestinians and more arrests by the Israeli army in preparation for the next prisoner swap.

By Paul Goldman, NBC News Producer

TEL AVIV – The grief and sorrow on both sides of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is torturous. Families from both sides have been left to mourn their lost loved ones after years of armed conflict. Young kids that died on the West Bank streets fighting Israeli soldiers and young Israeli kids that boarded a deadly bus not knowing a suicide bomber was sitting next to them.

It is natural for family members of victims to feel a mix of incredible emotions: anger, grief and a desire for revenge. 

Out of all those emotions one amazing organization was born: The Parents Circle Family Forum. Its members all had immediate family killed in the conflict.  But instead of hanging on to hatred and revenge, they have all worked to spearhead a reconciliation process between Israelis and Palestinians.

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“We are unfortunately witnessing an acceleration process of dehumanization,” said Dr. Aliva Savir, a member of the Parents Circle Family forum. “There is an urgent need to stress the human dimension of this conflict.”

This week, while leaders from both sides are at the United Nations and the world is focused on the Palestinians bid for statehood, more blood was exchanged on the streets of Israel.  But this time the blood was given willingly through intravenous tubes.

The family forum organized the “Blood Relations” project during which about 50 Israelis and Palestinian who had lost loved ones in the conflict donated blood.

Palestinian Wajee Tameise and Israeli Mashka Litvak sat next to each other while they made their donations. Tameise lost his brother to the conflict in 1991. Litvak also lost her brother, Arnon Litvak, who died during an army battle in 1970 and her father, Moshe Litvak, who was killed during the 1947 war for independence.

Their blood donations will be shared by both Israeli and Palestinian hospitals with the message "Will you hurt someone who has your blood running through their veins?"

“We want to be part of any future political agreement,” said Ali Abu Awwad, one of the project’s managers. “There is a need for an ongoing dialog towards peace, whatever the result of the Palestinian quest for an independent state is.” 
 

Palestinians are planning to make a push for recognition as an independent state at the United Nations next week.

While Israelis and Palestinians are divided on the subject, there is some nuances in their opinions. NBC's Paul Goldman and Lawahez Jabari took to the street in Tel Aviv and Ramallah, respectively, to check the pulse of both Jews and Arabs on the looming U.N. vote.

"For Israel it’s a good thing because I think we should separate ourselves and having there own country will eventually mean less trouble for us," said Yoav Glazer in Tel Aviv.

But Gabi Halevi felt that the Palestinians push for recognition should be done in a differently. "They should negotiate with Israel secretly, in a discreet way, not through the rule of the U.N. I don’t think this will be good for them."

Click on the video above to hear more opinions on the UN vote.

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"If we become a state recognized by other countries then we will have a better way of fighting for our rights," said Ali Shuker in Ramallah.

TEL AVIV – Ten years ago Americans woke up to a new reality and discovered that terror can hit within.

Here in Israel that same reality is a way of life. People here grow up living and hearing about bomb explosions, suicide bombers and terrorists trying to infiltrate the country.

It was just about three weeks ago that terrorists crossed the Egyptian border with Israel near the vacation town of Eilat. They killed eight Israeli civilians, including a couple who were driving their car and were shot at close range. A small al-Qaida- linked group based in Gaza praised the attack saying the attack sends a message against “the enemies of God.”

It's this reality that caused lots of Israelis to be very happy when they heard that the U.S. killed Bin Laden.

Hai Shaulian is a 44-year-old Israeli who works in real estate. “I feel now that the world is a safer place for my children. The U.S has woken up against the bad people out there.”

When you speak with people on the streets of Tel Aviv, it’s clear that they have become accustomed to living with the constant threat of attack. 

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“Here in Israel we had a lot of terror before 9/11, so we have experience with it,” said Adiv Cohen, a 28-year-old architect. “People in the world can now understand what we go through and feel.”

Tomer Helsgoff, a 29-year-old graphic designer, believes that the attack made people more aware of potential danger.

“I think that now people around the world are much more afraid and suspicious. For me as an ex-Israeli soldier we feel the danger in the air,” said Helsgoff. He added that people always need to be cautious of their surroundings. “You need to always be ready that something will go off, that something will happen. You live under terror all your life.” 

Yael Yosefi, is an 18-year-old who will be joining the Israeli Army soon. For him, the attacks are a constant reminder that the world is full of dangers. “People realize now that the world is a frightening place, I’m scared to be on buses and on the street.”

But in a strange way, the 9/11 attack seemed to strengthen even further the bond between Israelis and Americans.

“We feel very connected with America, we think that anything that happens in the U.S has an effect on us and vice versa,” said Yosefi.

“I think America showed the world that there are still rules. If you strike us we strike harder and that is what Israel tries to do,” said Helsgoff.

By Paul Goldman, NBC News Producer

TEL AVIV – During the hot summer months, Israel has always been synonymous with beautiful sandy beaches and swimming in the warm salty waters of the Mediterranean Sea – but not anymore.

It's now a common sight to see scores of dead, gray jellyfish covering the beaches’ white sand while kids poke them with sticks. It's even more common to see bathers running away from the water with big red sting marks. 

More than 200 million jellyfish, known here as “Meduzot,” have been attacking Israel, and there is not much anyone can do about it. The jellyfish are an invasive species called Rhopilema Nomadica that originally migrated from the Red Sea.

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They're coming here for one reason: They have few natural enemies lurking in these waters. The sea turtle is one such enemy, but massive construction along the Israeli coastline has devastated the turtle nesting habitat, leaving a paradise for the jellyfish.  

Dr. Dror Angel, who works at the Department of Maritime Civilization at the University of Haifa, says the problem of jellyfish is only increasing. "People bathing get stung, and for the fishermen it's a disaster, they catch them in their nets. And of course the electric plants suffer as well.”

Seawater is used to cool the turbines that supply most of the electricity in Israel.

"When we suck the water, we also suck the jellyfish,” explained Rafi Nagar, the chief maintenance officer at the Israel Electric Corp. near the town of Hadera. “And if we let them go through the filters, they can cause the plant to shut down, leaving millions of Israelis without electricity.”

Nagar has been working 24/7 to combat the enormous number of jellyfish.

"It's a very difficult problem," he said. "In the last three days, we pulled out 100 tons of jellyfish from our filters."

Nagar's crew has been nicknamed the “Jellyfish Busters.” They wear special goggles, rubber gloves and long-sleeve shirts and pants to help them protect themselves from the stings. They use long poking iron sticks to pull the jellyfish off of the filters, piling them into huge canisters. Nagar says that in his 33 years at the electric company he has never seen anything quite like this.

Alon Levi, a veterinarian who volunteers at the Israel Marine Mammal research center, said sailing in the Mediterranean last weekend was like "sailing in a soup of jellyfish.” But it’s not just difficult for swimmers and sailors; the explosion of the jellyfish population affects the larger eco-system.

“It's very sad since they eat small crabs and fish," said Levi.
 
Angel says we need much more information and research on the life of the jellyfish in order to find ways to cope with them.

One thing we know is that every female jellyfish lays 300,000 eggs – making it an almost impossible battle.