WASHINGTON, 16 January 2006 — As Israeli’s Prime Minister Ariel Sharon remains incapacitated in hospital, many find themselves reflecting on the consequences the illegal settlements in the occupied territories that Sharon — once known as “the Bulldozer” — developed and expanded.
One man who has boldly protested Israel’s occupation of the Palestinians is Israel’s veteran anchorman, Chaim Yavin of Channel 1. He shocked Israelis with his recent documentary that condemns settlers and Israel’s settlement policy, and shows the daily suffering and anguish forced upon Palestinians.
It is Yavin and his reputation that has made the series so controversial. He helped create Channel 1 Television in the late 1960s, and he became the first anchorman of “Mabat,” the evening news program on that station, a position that he has held for most of the last 30 years. He is, in short, the Israeli version of America’s Walter Cronkite, an Israeli cultural icon. Known in Israel as “Mr. Television,” Yavin’s “Land of the Settlers,” documentary covers two years of interviews throughout the West Bank and Gaza to meet with Palestinians and Jews. Filming the series with a hand-held video camera, he shows the very troubling side of the settlers. The result was so upsetting to some Israelis that his own TV Channel 1 refused to broadcast the controversial series, which was eventually picked up and broadcast on another Israeli TV station.
“Since 1967, we have been brutal conquerors, occupiers, suppressing another people,” Yavin said during a recent trip to Washington, where the first two of the 5-part series was shown.
Lewis Roth, with Americans for Peace Now, one of the groups that sponsored Yavin’s trip to the US, said the documentary “has had an impact in Israel because of what you see on the screen, but also because of who made it. Chaim Yavin has been Israel’s lead newscaster, and probably one the best-known voices and faces in the Jewish community.” In response to the uproar that this series caused in Israel, Yavin said: “I grew up in Israel, lived through five major wars, but the Intifada was the straw that broke my back. I was sick and tired of repeating the same versions of events from the Palestinians, Israelis and Americans….We are living a cause of desperation. We need mediation with the Palestinians. All in all, I thought it was time for me to see for myself what was happening in the occupied territories.” His objectivity caused an immediate, and severe, backlash.
“Even before the documentary was aired, there was an outcry by rightists in Israel who wanted me fired because they said I was no longer objective. I may yet lose my job because of the right-wingers in Israel,” adding: “This documentary is a journey log; it does not pretend to solve the problem.”
Reaction by Israeli journalists was swift and supportive. The right-to center Yedioth Ahronoth wrote, “The breath becomes short, and the heart is choked with anger. This is the only human response to ‘The Land of the Settlers.’ No, there is actually another reasonable reaction: After watching ‘The Land of the Settlers,’ every caring Israeli, every humane Israeli, should get up next Saturday, go to the settlement nearest to his place of residence, and drag its inhabitants, kicking and screaming, across the road to the side of sanity.
‘The Land of the Settlers’ will astound you, mainly by placing on the screen, over the course of many hours, the hard core of the shameful insanity of the settlers in the territories, along with the tacit approval of the Israeli governments, along with the helplessness of the army...” As Yavin speaks to settlers, Palestinians and soldiers, the viewer’s reaction is gut-wrenching. It is difficult to watch the pleas of Palestinians who beg the soldiers to let their ill family member through the checkpoint to get to hospital. And one is surprised when Yavin interviews a soldier patrolling the occupied territory who says: “I hope the next time I come back here, it will be with a passport.”
