SIMON OSTROVSKY: After spending the night in Tel
Aviv, it was time to head back to the West Bank for a
Palestinian protest, which was only about 30 miles away, but
things are never as easy as they sound.
In addition to all the usual barriers between Israel and
the Palestinian territories, the heavens had conspired to
shut down traffic across Tel Aviv for the annual marathon.
This was a celebration of fitness that I
hadn't prepared for.
It's Friday morning in Tel Aviv.
We're going to the West Bank where it's Land Day, and all
of Palestine celebrates their land.
But it's also an occasion when they clash with Israeli
troops, so we're going to see what that vibe is like.
We're having to carry all of our stuff across the entire
city, and frankly, it's really pissing me off.
This is the Qalandia checkpoint.
There's tons of soldiers and police here today because
they're expecting a confrontation with the
Palestinian demonstrators.
We're going across the checkpoint while we can
because once the trouble starts, they're
going to shut it down.
Oh, man.
Not another one.
You've got to be kidding me.
OK.
Now I'm pretty sure we're here.
Three hours after we set out from Tel Aviv, we were finally
in the seat of the Palestinian Authority--
Ramallah.
We met Tawfiq Haddad, a Palestinian-American who'd
agreed to take us on a sporting event
of a different kind.
Palestinians were marking Land Day, an annual event that
draws attention to the fact that the territory they
control keeps shrinking and shrinking in inverse
proportion to the amount of land controlled by Israel and
its settlers.
JAMAL JUMA: Land [INAUDIBLE] for the Palestinians
[INAUDIBLE].
When the Palestinian land has been taken, Palestinians
became refugees around the world because the Zionists
have been expelled them from their land in '48.
We are still, until now, suffering from--
in the diaspora--
from this refugee problem.
They want to keep their occupation and
colonization forever.
This is not going to happen.
SIMON OSTROVSKY: But their politicians say they want to
have a two-state solution.
JAMAL JUMA: This is lip services.
If you really, as a politician, want two-state
solution, prove it on the ground.
Stop your settlements.
Take out your settlers from the West Bank and Jerusalem,
and stop demolishing the houses and the ethnic
cleansing and confiscating the land.
Stop the wall that you are building.
Then we can believe that you want two-state solution.
[SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
SIMON OSTROVSKY: The protests were taking place at the
Qalandia checkpoint that I'd crossed through earlier.
And Israel's security forces were determined not to let any
of the Palestinians near it.
Meanwhile, a local cell phone company decided that the
madness erupting all around was the perfect place to
advertise its services.
So the funny thing is while this protest is going on,
somebody's handing out these hats.
And what these actually are are from the local cell phone
company because apparently, Palestinians never miss an
opportunity to do some direct marketing.
MALE SPEAKER: What are they fucking-- people are going to
die today and they just want them to be
wearing the Jawwal hat?
Land Day demonstrations like this one were taking place all
around the West Bank and along the borders of Israel and
Syria-Lebanon and in Gaza, where one of the protesters,
just 20 years old, was shot dead as he approached an
Israeli crossing.
But I'd heard that Palestinian demonstrators weren't the only
ones in the habit of throwing stones, so I headed to an
ordinary Palestinian town a bit further away from all the
commotion to hear their side of the story.
MALE SPEAKER: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]