The Neighbour Before The House: In the architecture of the wall
Duration: 01:35:03; Aspect Ratio: 1.366:1; Hue: 31.129; Saturation: 0.019; Lightness: 0.611; Volume: 0.138; Cuts per Minute: 0.558; Words per Minute: 74.257
Summary: “The Neighbour Before the House” is a series of video probes into the landscape of East Jerusalem. This footage, shot with a security camera, is an experiment that exceeds the instrumental aspects of surveillance imaging, and uses the technology of power as a device with which to narrate, quite intimately, over the architecture of a deliberate and accelerated occupation of a city. Instances of inquisitiveness, gestures of jest, memory, fear, desire and doubt, pervade the project of watching. Stories float up, as Palestinians from different neighbourhoods evaluate what can be seen—messianic archeological digs; Israeli settlement activities; takeovers of Palestinian properties; the Old City, the Wall and the West Bank. Pans-tilts-zooms become ways in which to frame the view, as these residents speak about the nature of their distance from others.
(it is now silent we cannot hear anything)
(it is still silent. the camera is moving but I cannot hear anything still)
I can't hear anything, yea probably this needs to be in the mixer here we go...
(Mahasen and Shaina exchanging comments regarding the sound)
(Mahasen and Shaina are trying to fix the sound still)
OK now it is better. why dont you keep the headphones on and then you can measure
Now you want us to do one region and then the other?
-yes exactly.
-Now I want to come back here a little bit, the hotel which is a bit up, tamam, and then a bit like this
..exacty..
This is the hotel that they have put outside the wall
No not yet... it is not yet as you can see the wall stops near it. It is supposed to circle it from behind and close it but they want by force to make it in Jerusalem.
Tamam so that surveillance can be from there ...watching the wall because it is very high
Tamam.
They broke it and they forbade the owners to come to it and they cannot come because they have west bank IDs. Now if we move downwards where it used to be the entrance to Bethany where the car is now heading down ....this used to be from where you entered Bethany from Jerusalem and kept entering Bethany to Abu Dis sorry now to Bethany direct, like this to Abu Dis
tamam, if we move now we can see how all the shops are closed these are also distinctive ...
Only these two are open but all the others are closed.
-These are closed because their owners have no jobs?
No because this area here is dead now as it has turned from being the entrance of Bethany to the end of Bethany.
They flipped it,...
...exactly the entrance has become the exit and the exit has become the entrance.
Exactly and you can say that their owners had Jerusalemite IDs and now they cannot stay there so they closed them and left.
(now he is telling Mahasen that she can add some spices to the story but that it is true and he is not lying )
After that?
-Now you can take this region, come close, zoom, please take the camera over there to the wall..I say we take one region after the other so that you do not forget anything ....
From here there are all these empty houses who left their houses and moved to Jerusalem in order to keep their Jerusalemite ids
I say you start from the hotel then we move to this area we explain about it it is better like that so you do not forget anything
Exactly... OK what else is there?
-...with regards to the wall how it was built and how no one can go to the other's place
Here all these houses are empty except this house where a woman and her husband live. They are old and all of them have Jerusalem ids except this couple who have west bank ids by coincidence so they stayed.
This is what? -this is just a normal building?
-No this is Wazwaz building....-No no it is a normal building.
Ofcourse this region needs some explanation
I don't know... can we move the camera to show behind this where the gate was and where it is now and how it has become difficult how it was open and they closed it completely?
We can talk about this how they dug the land
Exactly, here it was all agricultural lands how they ripped the olive trees and broke them down
you see the stones?
(no speech)
I am trying to see if you can see their compound? Not beyond this over here... there this house is right behind me and no one lives there,... there is her son but he is not always there he comes and leaves.
(we can hear stuff from outside)
OK I think that's the end of...
Can we do this house and the proximity to the wall infront of his place because two things Mazen had said I don't know if he told you that the houses there were Jerusalemite and now they left. If we can get the spatial relationship between his house, this wall, and then we must move it form upstairs and from the other side to take the gate.
Let her do this one now
(OK they are now discussing)
What we are going to do, is come back here to the hotel where I am going to start talking.
We have the cliff hotel which we are coming closer to,....Okay now we are zooming in the cliff hotel where they have put their flag unfortunately. They have a container here but it doesn't show because of the trees.
...If you can move the camera a bit here, no the opposite ...so the end of the wall will show..
This is the area of the hotel where the hotel is not vacant....the wall is still going to continue and circle the hotel, however they are using this point now as a point of surveillance because it is one of the highest points. And they mean to keep this hotel in Jerusalem in order to take it over and make it a point for watching the wall. So the hotel and his owners are west bank id...so this is the cliff hotel. The hotel is currently empty but there are some soldiers who are using it as a watch point and what they are trying to do is keep it out of the wall so they can watch the wall from this point. The owners of this hotel are from the west bank and I do not think there is any solution to this hotel except for it to be in the hands of the Israelis. They kicked them out violently they broke the hotel.
OK now we get back to the place where Abu Dis used to be before. This is the entrace where Jerusalem went to jericho. Yes it was a passing point to the south,... no to the east. Currently, this has become the end of Bethany where it used to be the beginning.
Now we will come to the houses that are currently empty the ones that their owners have left. Before you come to these houses you need to come down with the wall to see how they closed this area.
-OK I want to come down and move a bit to show the wall move a little more and more... Okay that is all these houses and make a round on all the house and say how there are only 2 families out of 22 families who have all gone and rented outside.
Okay these houses that we will see... now we start with this house- most of these houses are empty. There are only two families living here and their owners have left because they closed down on them ....exactly these.
And this house- the house of an old man with his wife alone are living in the house because they have no ability to rent outside...
(Mazen tells Mahasen to add some spice to the story)
...Till here ....then we come to these lands that were dug... so she has to move the camera so we can show this area....
You can say that these are all lands that were planted with olives and all....
-I can say this now and then we will do it again.
I am now going to pan, these are the homes that are empty. After that concentrate on this house and how they closed it because when we turn around we will be able to show this house with the camera we will put this house with that and show it,... excellent!
How are we? Good? (laughs.... )
-(I talk with you in India)
-OK this is the last thing we are gonna do now basically we are gonna start from here...
Mazen: I would say go up from cliff and then pan in
-But I felt that I took the cliff here and now the film is going to be edited. I think if I start from here it would be fantastic...
From here, we see the houses that are currently now inhabited. Most of the families have left after the wall has been built. There are around two families living here and we will see the house of one old woman who is living there now which is this house and there is no one from their family except them.
After that we will come, 5 houses this area.... this region, ah here there is something important that I forgot to tell you...which is if you go back it would be better if I say it now as it just came to my mind.
I am interested in this side..this street , 7 minutes only it used to take you to Jerusalem, now you need to turn from Maali Adomim to get to Jerusalem and of course they cannot....they cannot..this is the street you see..exactly this is the wall dead end,so this street used to connect to the back side street..You see it stands there where it used to be the entrance.
So here, this used to be the beginning of Bethany, now it is the end.
Exactly!
(of course add some spice.. )
How many houses?
These houses are 5 houses? no they are around 1, 2 , 3 , 4, 5 , 6, 7 , 8 , 9 , 10, 11, 12 around 12 13 houses.
24 houses- how many houses are not inhabited, all of them except this one Yacoub and Ihsan Khader.
Tamam so here we will see a group of houses that are mostly empty their families left it because after the wall has been completed (better take). And then I will come back again to this street that they are now under siege, this house is also inhabited by an old lady and her husband. How they took a street from their own house.. here you see they opened this street and took from their land. I will also show the street that used to take the houses minutes to reach Jerusalem. Now they have to turn and go through the checkpoint.
Now you are good, exactly this is where the street starts and now we can see its connection and how the wall cuts through it.
-We have a problem with the zoom because its a little bit windy.
I think it is the weather.
From here we can see the wall and how the street is cut and these people, they opened them an alternative street to go to Bethany. They took from their lands...they took from their lands, from their house. You see where the car is standing and downwards.
Exactly so these are the houses that they took from their lands in order to open a road that takes them to Bethany; when they used to be directly connected to Jerusalem.
OK I want to show lastly the lands where this region used to be an agricultural area cultivated with olive trees and...so here all this area used to be olive trees..it will now show from here...
...we will move the camera
Mahasen will explain what we have done...
We went over the hotel part and we talked about the hotel being a strategic point where they can do surveillance and they are gonna keep the hotel outside the wall because they would like to keep it as a point for surveillance. And then this is also a very good example for the small road where people used to connect to Jerusalem within minutes. You see here its a side road it we go all the way to here and then we can see the wall cutting that road.
Okay but night falling so that's the wall then.
That side of the street is Jerusalem so it used to take them minutes to go to Jerusalem and now they have to go all the way to Maali Adomin..ten minutes exactly by car.
-And now?
Now it takes an hour and a half... we have already mentioned it ...
Now the other thing that we also talk about are how these homes are empty. There are only two homes are are currently occupied this is one of them. And then we see here an old man who lives in the house with this wife, they are elderly people.
And then the idea here now is once we change the camera position.... this area here used to be olive groves so they had to cut the trees to make the road and continue with the wall.
Al go up and chance because we are losing light..I was hoping to get from here to see a bit of Mazen's wall. You see... OK but this house how the wall is cutting in and then we can zoom and see the grills and then if we tilt up.
Why dont you do that I can do the talking I think it would be better so you know exactly where it is.
OK lets start here..I say if she changes the camera it would be clearer..I am afraid we are losing light.
So let us do it now quick because...
Perfect. I will start here let me practice... we will tilt like this and show that it is all in a house.
This house has become part of the wall practically and we can see how they have put the grids on the windows if you go down you can see how they closed the windows with the wires and iron and how they took part of the balcony and this continues the wall...
-On what basis do they say that we want to build the wall like this and take...? Random?
They wanted to take the owners by force.
In summary, it doesn't matter how the wall comes, how they cut the houses and how they cut the families, and how in the same house they live in, they made them like animals.
Really Mazen, you should become a director. You have done great.
-Some german directors they didn't know anything so I brought them and told them everything.
It is just done randomly I guess.
In the Shayyah, there are some....
(unclear but it is some discussion on what to bring next before changing the camera )
Shaina talking : and before we change if we can do like one location like Bethlehem or whatever we see from here...
(long shot- pan over landscape- twilight)
(here an unrelated conversation...)
I want to show... do you see how the gate used to be? This is my gate this used to be my way and I would go out.
(Mazen is showing some pictures)
Here ...this used to be...
The idea is that they also take land. This is the before they took of his piece of land. Here they made holes and went down around 17 meters under so no one from the other side can come in.
You see how much iron they have put? The whole building doesn't have as much iron!
You see maybe ...change the camera/view...
(chatter and sound check still)
(still checking sound)
(camera is being set)
(conversation going on with family members)
(discussing camera position)
(discussing going to their grandma's house for better view of everything)
They should take now all the things. It will be more a discussion.
(casual conversation)
(the girls are leaving)
(still nothing)
(trying to find a small chair)
(camera is now zooming in)
Can you see the house over there?
OK so basically you can now see more of it but you can't zoom in fully.....because you can see now the tower.
OK this is the stuff behind .... the building behind the wall is a convent the italians , it is a convent but they are not doing a hotel a nursery.
This is good for them because they can enter their groups.
There is someone in there as well you can see there is a soldier...I think it is the guards..the police guards.
They dropped some soldiers? - They changed some soldiers.
OK now we want to bring the camera her and talk about the lands
...Is this my coffee?
OK bring the cam here and put it down..OK let me see if I can zoom...
How they opened a street..this is a street for the soldiers only the one behind the trees..can we tilt and see it....?
-We can move the camera and then we can see the street...
Exactly ...there is a car.... there it is for the settlers.
They ripped the trees and changed the road direction. So basically all this areas here was green. It was all groves before, and they discovered some artifacts and they uprooted the trees and destroyed the caves.
Actually you are very right there are some caves I don't know, would you like to go up the roof and see them?
-Yes we can it is not a problem. Now up we can do this now and then we can move the camera from the other side let her see...
So they found these caves..of here first we want to talk about this land how they messed it up and uprooted the streets and opened roads. And form there I will show more..if you want, now talk about the towers and school, then we will move the camera and then move down here.
OK now you can talk about the trees
-OK I make a zoom out like this or if you do not want to talk about the trees now you can talk about the school so the beginning will be the end but you would need to edit it.
-No problem, see first how they moved the gate and put the gate there an soldier and maybe talk a but about the school how the children used to pass from there and enter the school
But I guess..we need to talk and top and move the camera to show the entrance of the convent but we can talk about a bit now and then you can repeat, but I will tire you because you need to edit it.
-No problem, with the edits, what we say in the beginning we can use in the end and so no problem with that.
OK, then we will start form the school which is right here and this is a convent they also have a nursery.
Before, the kids, they used to come straight from this area. Now they can't because of the wall.
And the tower you see the soldiers with this small opening ...which we can see now when we move around. We will go by car and from the car you can tape it and then you can enter it all together.
The idea is that the opening they have in the wall some people can go in?
-No not at all. They locked it completely and they put a guard in that tower, in this tower right here. I am going to try and zoom into the tower. 24 hours they are there.
OK now we can talk about the area... here's how it was before there were all these tress around. Now they will talk about the trees....
Then we cut and move the camera and continue what you were saying and how they cut them and opened the streets and discovered the ruins and destroyed the ruins as well.
OK you can start yallah.
OK I am gonna start with the olive grove thing. Did I start in English yesterday? Or Arabic? OK Arabic.
-Whatever. English is also fine and if we can, from the story here of the school and archaeological site. Then I have a question- why there is a triangle... of why there is the wall here and the wall there?
Yea you see her question is exactly ..
Yes I understood, but I am keeping this to later that this is an example of a house where they closed on it.
He is suggesting then, when we move the camera it will became more clear for you...when you do zoom.
Now we can talk about the olive grove and the digs..
Please come here bit... no the opposite I want to see if it gets the soldiers..can you zoom in a little bit?
-This is the highest I can get.
You see this is the old gate..where you could enter it by foot. My daughter and her husband, the people who had raised a court case but not I.
I am forbidden. My daughter,... yes these who had raised a case. This area here where I showed you, only for them they put them a special gate but when they moved they closed it. When they closed it, they closed it on everybody.
Yesterday was the court I wonder what happened. Are you afraid we won't get the news? Don't worry we will get it today.
Here this is a normal building. But here downwards bear into consideration that these houses here carry Bethany Ids. Their families are from Bethany.
Make a zoom... a bit up... a bit... -this is the highest.
Ah this what you see, is for the latin convent, the housing complex.
It seems there is somebody there...
-yes it is for the latin convent but it is now empty.
The wall you see how they put it it circles in between then you can see behind the convent there are blocks 9 meters.
Now basically this is a housing project, the one from behind this building the one behind the building with the white shutters there, is a housing project. This housing project is for a housing project but now its vacan't because people have left.
Behind the wall. that's the convent for the italians they have a nursery there a lot of kids come from this area into the other areas from Bethany. A lot of children come from Bethany and Abu Dis. People send their children to the nursery on the other side. And basically it is coordinated with the army to open for one hour for the kids to go. Now they close it, they don't open it for one hour finish. The first day they open it when they move they open it only one hour now they close it completely closed.
So how do the kids go now?
-They go from Maali Adomin. The sisters go and bring them by the car.
They say there is another point, that they pay something very little. These children don't pay so much.
I imagine they take very little from them because you know they are very poor and so it is almost for free- the school. Not as the rest of the nurseries.
Here is the gate you see? The door? You see how the guys have put the sand in order to pass the children...
Do I manage as an actor?
Now I say you talk about the convent and the gate and it always has army and the children go to school it follows the convent and they take few fees.
I think there is no need of that- to say how they help Palestinian children. I don't know, as you want.
Now the children do not go to school- how are they to reach?
So shall we stat again with the?
Shaina: the olive grove inside is it possible to zoom in and see it does look like there has been digs
-We will go in exactly here and you can take it with the small camera because we can tilt down a bit.
That's his own wall so if we can ....
-I think when we can do it from the other side we will see more clearly.
Am trying to see if we can.
Here it will be tiring for you we will say how they changed the gates we will have to move the camera twice and I want to try not to tire you.
Okay you can start...
You see just till here... you can't move more but I think till here, wait a sec I will tell you...
That is a convent for the Italians and they also have a nursery in there. Kids used to go from Bethany and Ezariey and Abu Dis.
Let me start out by zooming out they are belong the kids but taking very small fees the kids attend the nursery, the bigger one only 5 years old.
-You can spice it up.
So this is the convent and basically there is a nursery. There they charge very small fees for Palestinian kids to go and attend the nursery.
Now before the wall was complete, people had direct access people from Bethany, Abu Dis could send their kids directly to the school but now with the wall, the nuns come and pick up the kids from the checkpoint in Maali Adomin and they make a detour to come to the other side of the fence the wall.
Now the building behind this building with the white shutters, that's a housing project for the latin church, and basically its vacan't now. All the occupants left after the wall was completed. Now here also we can see the remnants of an olive grove that was destroyed when the wall was built, and they also found they started an excavation for an archaeological dig which we can also see some of it right here.
Its a story.
-And what this dig was for- what were they trying to claim? what were they trying to look for ?
I think they found it while they were building right? While they were digging the sand to open the way, this showed. Basically when they were building and opening the road, exactly by coincidence.
If we go up we see a house that has been unfinished and then it looks because of this dig they have cordoned off this olive grove.
Listen, when we will move the camera to the other side, we will talk about.
OK no problem
This one here why isn't it complete?
-This is just a construction site, is not completed, no. This is just normal building you do not need to shoot because you want to show the suffering, not the normal buildings. They will say they have a good neighborhood. Its just basically people who are building their house.
Now show this in order that we move the camera and tape that.
OK now what do we have here? I do not see that we have anything here...I guess we just have the street...let's talk also about the street, we can see it?
When we move the camera it will be clearer.
OK changing positions and we cannot really see the wall from this side, just for the sake of our recording.
Shaina: That wall we cannot really get no?
-Leave this, when we will got here by car, you can video tape it and khalas, we'll put this with this.
Exactly he is suggesting we shoot it with the small camera and we'll see what we can do later on.
I'm going to stop that.
(fixing the camera)
Also I think what Nida and Shaina were telling, that it is good if we get to know the history- The area, is it only residential? Is it commercial? Or it is both?
When we move it to the other side, because we want to talk about the neighbors and so.
Also like for example, with Sheikh Jarrah you can see the politics of making it like a green area which means Palestinians are not allowed to build houses and they use this as an excuse to late drop their settlements on it.
So if there's pockets like this...
(Mazen is saying what is the relation to this , now we want to talk about the wall)
Right but what she means is... but here there is an important point which is that one is forbidden to build, one has to be 500 meters away from the wall. This is a new law now by the Jerusalem municipality and Bet Eil which is West Bank.
But for example if we come here to the hill where the trees are..for them this area is considered to be a green area?
-Not green because for them khalas they have taken it, they confiscated it.
From the hotel there is a gate when we move there, we can see the hotel and at the top of the hill it is locked nobody goes in except the jews who are living there. They can enter. Do you understand how? Now near the trees you cannot enter it has become theirs, they want to build there but when? we do not know.
ok so basically what we are going to see is the continuation of the wall
I will zoom out.
I would say to bring this from top a bit... wait a bit... zoom in so as just to show the wall like this and you can go on, so what do you want to say here exactly?
Here I think we spoke about this yesterday but the idea is that we want to show how the wall here is connected because what we saw yesterday night was not recorded.
ok so you wanna record now?
ok basically what we are gonna do here is see the continuation of the wall.
(Shaina and them discussing)
(Mazen is saying. you take a picture for me?)
(Shaina says ya and Mazen says but I did not say cheese)
You just want to show the beginning of the houses and stop.
Shaina: if you go up a bit from private home wall.
Go downwards.
Here is the wall, we want to show the gate.
Shaina: I know the wall has been built incrementally, when did it come here?
When they started, when exactly: has the wall been in your neighborhood? 3 years ago?
-Yeah.
Shaina: and what is the logic of being nice to residents and put in the Jerusalem yellow stone and then concrete?
-All this was 3 years ago and before 3 years they had it closed with wires.
Now here, the junction down has been there 5 years.
The one downwards was before..it stopped there, if we go down we will show where the wall is and then go up.
Now here if we want to zoom to show my gate, to show how when we show down to show how they were stuck when they closed the road down.
Yea basically this is the road we saw yesterday OK here this is the road, OK now show my road, it was all the way until here you see.
They had the same way as us from down and when we will go down I will let her video tape it, it will be clearer.
Shereen: but why she is asking,...
Mahasen: we 're getting to your question Shaina,...
Why is this part of wall different from the wall down? Because it comes between the houses.
And there also, it comes between the houses no? As there are houses from both sides. So why there is it made?
ok see here from here till exactly behind this house the blocks stop and here there are no houses here there is a street.
...and here we asked them to put the yellow ones they wanted to put blocks.
When we go down I will show you how it is.
They requested it.
Are we done here?
Shaina: Move it to the other side I just want to zoom it a little bit. If we zoom it a little bit and try to go from there to down, a bit more, zoom in see as high as we can go right OK thats about it no..so from there come gently into their wall just trace this wall at this zoom it might be interesting.
If you can explain to them that this slope here is the Jeeb way and it is forbidden for anyone to walk here.
Here when we will go down with the camera she will take it how they took the land of this house to make the road for the army.
Mahasen: Do you wanna do it? It will come shaking but that's OK.
What do we want with this roof- we will say it later, what I saw is that this is the house of Wazwaz family. If you move the camera a bit we will see how they have put the fence, when we go to the other side it will be clearer, I say this for you so when you enter this and that you can bring them together, you know?
Mazen: sorry I am going to tire you. I am talking as if I am the director. (laughs)
This is the wall dividing Jerusalem from the west bank , this house.
Exactly.
When we go to the other side we will put it together the pictures, wait till you see the balcony you will lose your minds, from the ground until the roof all of it is one piece of iron, if you see it from far, you think it is a prison or some of kind of military thing.
Here is the soldier, no no this is not the soldier, it is just one of the workers, very good now they are working.
Now you talk about the road and how they opened the road from here.
To continue, this is the soldiers road and now they are building a road that would connect with the soldiers road. They confiscated this piece of land.
(phone ringing and trying to see if the camera is good or not)
They started working now ..
So basically what they are doing now is that they are continuing, they are building a road that would be connected with the already built settler road and the soldiers' road.
There was an olive grove in this area, the trees have been pulled down and when they were doing the construction on the new road they have encountered some archaeological digs that they just left. And they didn't basically look into..
Yes I mentioned the trees, (Shaina asking Mahasen if she wants to do the road) because am not sure from where to where it is.
ok I hear you.
So basically this is a cave that they have come across while they were doing the dig for the new road, now we can see , I wanna zoom out a bit.
ok so basically here is the new road that they are working on that they will connect with the road right here which is next to the wall here we go...
...And it is only for the soldiers this is a soldiers road in front of their house exactly.
So this is part of the old road the old soldiers road that would connect with the areas that they are working on right now which is right here and we can watch them at work.
So what will happen with the people who will leave their homes they walk out of their house into the soldier's road?
-Ya.
Yani if I am living here, they open a new road only for the soldiers, here the road for the people and this road is for the soldiers when we go to the other side I will let you take a picture.
So this half will be for people and here will be for the soldiers road..
I think that's all for here
Do you remember the olive grove Mazen? For how long it was an olive grove before they....
-Maybe 50 years maybe 56 years this house here is very old maybe 100 years old and they demolished the house I don't have its picture, I was stupid I did not take a picture of it. I should have taken a picture of it their owners were the one who were forced to demolish it themselves.
Did they live here or have they left to rent another house?
-They are not here.
The owners of the house whose balcony is cut.
-Yes we have to take a shot at this balcony, we will now...
So we go to the balcony...
ok.
You can talk now.
Basically this wall when the wall was built they took part of this house's balcony which we can see now and this is basically the house is part of the house's border of the wall, they closed the windows with iron bars and they put the fence on the roof.
There you go so this is now part of the wall. And what is behind is west bank Palestine.
Yes what is inside?
-So on the right hand side and beyond is Palestine.
So this bit of land of the road... did you notice here how the houses come very near to each other?
And then it is in between the homes the wall is built. You see the proximity of the homes to each other. And now most of these homes are empty. There are approximately 13 houses that are close to where we are, and only two of these houses are occupied.
I think we can also tell that even some of the construction some of the buildings that are not completed the construction has stopped.
When we move the camera to the other side you will talk about that so we take all the homes together.
Shall we just move the camera to do the road?
(discussing where they will move the camera)
and the idea is to get his road with the gate and the neighbors road when they took your land and the neighbors land and how it connects..ok this is the last bit here...
(regular conversation)
(Mahasen is commenting on their picture and talking about their couple, etc.)
ok camera is now moving...
So basically the road here which was built for the soldiers, the land was confiscated from the house we see right here, this is the land, this is the house and if we pan to the left, this road is...
...and it is only used by soldiers and if we continue we see the construction side they are working on to continue this road and it is right here
ok that's it
ok so basically we can see here, one part of the fence and the property we are on and if we move it this way, this is the road we have talked about, that's the soldiers' road where it was taken from the property of this house.
Shaina: when we edit we won't have a previous, I know I realize this but it is like I said this story so many times ok lets just see...
Where is the best way to start, what if I start here?
Ya somwhere where the whole proximity, a bit to the left.
ok so from here we can see the road the soldier's road and this road has been taken from the land that we see right here and this is the fence.
It is not a fence, it is a wall.
So what I am trying to think now is that when we in the story we would start here almost that this is the house the wall was built then say that's the west bank neighbours leave then Cliff hotel or then that they are making the soldiers' road, then the checkpoint of the school is not allowed, then they take the hotel and occupy it with the soldiers.
-That makes a nice story so then that is the beginning.
And how they another homes are empty now, there's no people, they moved,.. yea we'll say that as well.
Nida: Later if you zoom out you will see the wall.
But this is by the Cliff hotel so home wall, so basically now what we can see....
Start a little higher to the right
So now what we can see here is part of the property that we are on right now adjacent to this property is the separation wall this road over here, is used by soldiers, and this land was confiscated from the neighbours in this area right here most of these homes are empty now after the wall has been completed.
People left because they do not have access to Jerusalem and if they do have access it takes them ages to go from inside the west bank to Jerusalem from inside the wall to the area here outside.
Now we can see the continuation of this wall.
....zoom in a bit
And we can also see here this road this road where it is connecting the neighbourhood, that is now inside the wall to Jerusalem and it was right here. And then at this point it was blocked, so if these people want to go to Jerusalem they would have to go to the Maali Adomin settlement by the checkpoint there ant it would take them ages to get to Jerusalem.
Over here is the Cliff hotel.
This is the furthest point that we can see, this point over here.
It doesn't come down more so it is the farthest building we can see here is the Cliff hotel which is its owners are from the west bank but the Cliff hotel has been confiscated, and now it is included outside the wall because the soldiers use it as a point for surveillance.
-That's the story from down with the neighbours.
Mazen: now we can take the camera downstairs by the road here and then we can talk about it.
Yes that we can do, and I will give you the pictures.
How it was my gate and how it has moved now.
Mazen we do one more with your gate seeing it down when you said they put 17 meters, I have the pictures and when you will put it, we will talk about them.
ok we ll talk about this wall now
We have pictures before this wall was built.
ok am gonna do it again starting from here and take it back.
I think.
This is before they start working they cut this one and they take this until here this is what was when...
And then is this your land?
They built here (I cannot hear very well what he is saying)
And when we go down you will take your video camera.
(Mazen sits next to his wife)
So the main gate to your house was there.
I think we 're done
Shaina: coz Mazen said that the moment they got incorporated they lost their electricity and water supplies but they get it through the west bank.
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