Five Broken Cameras

I've lived through so many experiences.

they burn in my head

like a hot flame

Pain and joy

fears and hope

are all mixed together.

I'm losing track.

The old wouds don't have time to heal

New wounds will cover them up

So I film

to hold onto my memories

These are my five cameras

Every camera is an episode in my life

Five Broken Cameras

I was born and lived all my life in Bil'in,

a village surrounded by hills,

just inside the occupied territories of the West Bank

I'm a "falah" a peasent. Like my entire family.

Then land draws us inward

As a boy, I used to work the land with my father.

We would pick olives.

Once, I didn't fell like working

My father hit me in the head.

So I ran away.

I preferred wandering

in the open valley with my friends.

One day,

Israeli surveyors come to take measurements

to put a separation barrier

in the middle of our land.

The first days the bulldozers come are very hard.

Yet those are also very happy days for me

Our fourth son, Gibreel, is born.

I get my first camera to film Gilbreel.

let me film too, Daddy.

Soraya and I

have four sons.

Each boy is a phase of our lives.

Each boy experienced a different childhood.

Mohamad, our eldest, was born in 1955,

in the time of hope after The Oslo Peace Accords

In his childhood,things were more open.

We could go to the sea every summer.

Yasin was born 3 years later,in a time of uncertainly

The very day the Intifada began in 2000,

Taki -Ydin was born.

The hospital was full of the dead and wounded.

His childhood was shaped

by the long siege the West Bank was under,

In february 2005, Gibreel was born,

Between my childhood and Gilreel's birth,

settlements were built closer and closer...

taking up more and more cultivated land,

so Israeli settlers could move in.

Modi'in-hit, the most recent settlement,

doubled in population within 5 years.

The barrier is supposed to secure

and separate the settlers.

But it's being built far from the settlement

and very close to Bil'in

So more land

is taken from the surrounding villages

Emad, don't let the kids out. Soldiers are in the village.

When something happens in the village,

my instinct is to film it.

I never thought of making films.

But now that I have a camera,

people begin to call me

to shoot special events in the village

So I've become the Bil'in cameraman.

But my camera doesn't work well.

What I have to film demands a strong camera,

not a fragile one.

This man used as a guinea pig is my friend Phil.

The kids call him "El-Phil."

It's a nickname. It means "the elephant."

O often find El-Phil hanging around with the village kids

I think kids like him

because they see a lot of hope in him

which is something not easy to find in adults.

Repaving the streets will solve all our problems.

How's our neighborhood? We'll fix everything today.

Have a drink! There's some juice.

But nothing to eat.

When fall comes, we pick olives on the part of our land

beyond the planned route of the barrier.

Stay off the construction site!

You'll be forcibly evacuated!

Don't come fordward!

No to the fence!

I am confused.

Seeing my brother Riyad hit by these people,

it takes me a while to realize that

they are special unit Israeli soldiers disguised as Palestinians

and planted among us to create chaos.

Shut up! Get going!

Let me go!

Untie me!

We begin to organize demostrations

with Israeli activists joining us.

Is there anything important you want to say?

Bil'in is here,

Part of the Matetyahu settlement is on Bil'in land

So is part of the Qiryat Sefer settlement.

and the new plan goes to here.

We want to know

how the Israeli Army approved taking these lands

How did the construction companies take them?

And then we decide that

every week, after the Friday prayer,

we'd try to get that land and protest.

Good morning, Bil'in!

Come and join us!

Men and women,

old and young!

We're not afraid

of tears gas or guns!

This is our land!

It's not use.

This is a small village

What do you think?

Have you no heart? No family?

Every one of you knows that this is village land!

You stole my land!

Don't do that! I'm telling you!

That's Adeeb.

Adeeb is always

looking for an opportunity to make a scene

We were born on this land

and we'll die here.

We'll live on this land for the rest of our lives!

The barrier construction continues,

without delay.

We have to be solid.

People from all over the world join our resistance.

They bring creative ideas to our protest.

They're with us in everything that happens.

That day, a gas grenade breaks my first camera.

The first camera witnessed winter 2005 to autumn 2005.

When it was shot, Emad also injuried his hand.

I have no job or fixed income.

Like most of the villagers, I live off the land.

In order to keep filming, my friend Yisrael gives me his camera.

Here's the camera.

The sunshade will fall off

if you walk or run while you're shooting.

Otherwise, it works just fine

My brother is released after a month of jail.

He was the first man arrested since demostrations began.

Gibreel's first year flew by.

I observe how every gesture is an exciting move.

I watch him through my camera,

trying to rediscover the world through his eyes.

Thanks to our pressure,

we are temporarily allowed

to cross the barrier.

When Gibreel pronounces his first words

it is a magical moment.

Where are we?

"Jidar", the wall.

"Matat," cartridge

There's a "matat."

Watch out!

Don't be afraid.

- What? -"Jesh," army.

"Jesh." What did they do?

"Jesh," Daddy.

Run, run!

We walk at our own pace, taking baby steps,

as buildings pop out!

of the land.

Hello, Abu-Mohamad (Emad).

Are you getting married?

A day of demostration in the village

is better than a wedding.

All groups - Spanish,

French, German...

Bil'in becomes a symbol of popular resistence

all over the world.

We respond to every political act,

like Israel's attack on Lebanon

in 2006.

Adeeb and Phil are

always on the front lines.

At least this time, it isn't me!

What happened?

They shot your camera?

Shoot him!

I'm bleeding!

I'm bleeding!

Calm down, Adeeb! It's not serious.

Oh, my leg!

He could have died!

Why do that?

Are you crazy?

You killed him!

Take him Don't argue!

Go on, take me!

Phil is released in the same day.

It takes Adeeb a year to recover.