All this week, I am sharing a behind-the-scenes look at the production of my new public television special, “The Holy Land: Israelis and Palestinians Today.” Here’s a little clip I took on a no-man’s-land street….until a soldier told me not to shoot there.
Hebron is a thriving city in the West Bank or Palestine. With the Tomb of Abraham — so revered by both Jews and Muslims — it’s the place where I felt the most tension in the West Bank. Jews expect access, as do Muslims, and, with a history of massacres on both sides, trust is fragile there. Palestinians can do little but annoy the huge number of soldiers stationed there. Talking with soldiers who seemed to have little empathy for the people they were controlling, I thought of the troubling fact that in World War I, the French and Germans were so willing and able to slaughter each other on the Western Front because the vast majority of them had never broken bread with someone from the other side. The society in Hebron seems purposefully structured to prevent people from knowing each other. (I asked a Jew why, in a lifetime of living there, he had never shared a meal with a neighboring Muslim, and he blamed the dietary restrictions of their religions.) Seemingly likeable young soldiers were fun to chat with. Then, when it was time to go, one of them happily told me, “Time to bust down a door.”
“The Holy Land” has already aired to great success on stations in several locations. Many other stations, such as WTTW 11 in Chicago and KCTS 9 in Seattle, are excited to air it soon. Call your local public television station to find out when you can see it too.