"ISRAEL, WHY" "In Munich was fought the first battle" "Of our Red Army" "We must march" "Because Hitler must die" "Gert Granach 1973:" "Citizen of Jerusalem 1933:" "Member of the Communist Youth of Berlin" "In Munich was fought the second battle" "Of our Red Army" "We must march" "Because Hitler must die" "The records of death:" "Six million names" "21 meters long for each of the 21 death camps." "What's down there?" "What colour is it?" "Gray, gray!" "Where is it found?" "In the crematoriums." "Where did the smoke come from?" "The bodies of Jews." "I'm horrified by all these things." "I can't forget these images before me." "They show the extent of the Nazis' cruelty." "Taking away children, torturing and killing them, burying Jews alive..." "The Jewish people was the most hated in the world." "But why, why this hatred?" "Because they had their own faith..." "They always resisted being converted." "They've always been hated." "Beno Grünbaum, Kibbutz Gan Shmuel" "That's why we came here, so that we'll raise our children to be just the opposite of what we were at their age." "You think it's right for them?" "The opposite, in their very bodies..." "We lived in Poland in constant fear of being beaten, of being driven away, of being rejected." "Even if antisemitism wasn't so active, there was always this antisemitism which treated us like inferior beings." "So now we want them to... as they say "hold up", hold up their heads." "It's the first motto of the Zionist movement." "You met physical fear?" "Sure, a number of times." "Colonal Benjamin Shalit, Chief Psychologist of the Army" "Ygal Yadin" "Professor of Archeology" "Chief of Staff of the Army 1948-1951" "A regiment of paratrooper recruits taking oath at the esplanade of the Wall." "...and even to sacrifice my life in defence of fatherland and for the freedom of Israel." "All together..." "We swear!" "Prof. R.J. Zwi Werblowsky" "This normalization will never be a true normalization in the usual sense because the normal existence of the Jewish people, the Jewish reality, is not to be normal." "No formula of normalcy works both for Israel and others." "The Orthodox Jews of Jerusalem announce the beginning of the Sabbath." "A kibbutz in the desert." "On Mount Hernon, under Israeli rule since 1967:" "The first Jewish snow." "As we consider ourselves normal, the abnormality of Jewish existence will come out." "Perhaps there's a mysterious spirit in Jewish history that always draws us away from this normalization we thought was complete and something always diverts us." " There's no reason!" " Then you're under arrest." "But let me go!" "No, you're under arrest." "This is a fascist country." "Aren't there any other colours?" "No." "Everything's sold." "Impossible to restock." "Jewish market in Jaffa" "Give me 200 grams." "Is this TV?" "No, it's for France." "Ah, French products..." "Another piece of cheese." "Avraham Schenker" "Zionist Board Member" "We'll never be dissolved" "Berlin will remain Red" "The Red Front is on the move" "Who will free us?" "The Communist Party!" "Who has betrayed us?" "The Social Democrats!" "Karl Liebknecht" "We swear to you" "Rosa Luxemburg" "We hold your hand" "In January, at midnight" "A Spartakist" "Standing watch" "Standing with pride" "Standing on the Right" "Fighting a race of tyrants!" "Bullets whistle past!" "The Communist doesn't care!" "The Russian Jews" "So, you are Russian?" "No." "I was Austrian." "Czernowitz." "1914, the war." "1918, war over." "We were Romanian." "1940... we are Russian." "Russian since 1940?" "Yes." "And in 1941," "when the war began..." "Sent to Siberia?" "Why?" "My father-in-law and mother-in-law were manufacturers." "Of what?" "In Czernowitz..." "Who are you awaiting now?" " My brother who lives here." " Since when?" "Since... 1948." "When did you last see him?" "32 years ago." "32 years." "My sister lives in London." "She's a pharmacist." "My brother is a lawyer." " A lawyer where?" " In Tel Aviv." "You wrote each other?" "Yes." "For the last 15 years." "He knows you're coming today?" "Why isn't he here?" "Is he down there?" "Let's go fetch him." "They won't give him permission." "You've already spoken?" "With an officer." "He said:" ""You don't have permission."" " Your brother's name?" " Polessiou." " I'll go fetch him." " Please do." "Where is he from?" "Georgia." "Does he speak Russian?" "No." "How old is he?" "80." "Why did he come to Israel?" "He wants freedom." "He was in Leningrad, then with the Red Army up to Berlin." "He was wounded." "Has he any relatives here?" "No." "Did he come with money?" "Completely empty-handed?" "He says, "My hands are my cash."" "I'm happy." "Why?" "Because I'm finally here." "What does it mean, "finally here"?" "Finally in a free country." "Is it the only free country?" "But I am a Jew." "I am a Jew." "So it means something?" "Yes:" "Everything." "What's that, a Jew?" "A Jew is an ordinary guy." "Jacques Barkat" "For me he's no different." "He's a man like any other." "It's only the world that makes differences." "The world does?" "That's what I see." "You've suffered prejudice?" "Not me, as a rule." "But look what's happening in Russia now." "Should Russian Jews come here?" "They're abused over there." "You feel they are your brothers?" "Tell me." "Answer me." "My brothers?" "I don't..." "well, I don't know them." "You don't know them?" "Why is there such propaganda for them?" "Such propaganda?" "They see them suffer a lot, like the Jews in Syria." "Zushy Posner" "Tailor." "I was a soldier." "I'm not a tailor, I'm a shoemaker." "I can do everything." "Me, I only want Jerusalem." "My grandparents wanted to live in Jerusalem." "And I want to live there too." "I've waited for 17 years, I think." "But we haven't..." "Too many people want to go." "I understand." "It's a very bad thing because maybe you'll have to live with your sister." "But there's no room in Jerusalem." "I want to go to Jerusalem." "But we don't have housing." "If it were up to me, it'd be fine, but... but you simply can't find housing." "You see, I wish I'd been born in Jerusalem." "O.K. But one doesn't live as one wants." "I don't live as I'd have liked to and I can't give you housing there." "I can wait." "What is it to you, you won't live in Holon." "What difference does it make?" "You won't go by foot and you'll be so happy with the housing I give you there." "A person has to live where he can get work." "There's room at Arad?" "Maybe something on the Red Sea?" "Arad is 6 miles from the Red Sea." "You'll come to see me?" "He wants to live alone." "He doesn't want to live with his son." "During the war the parents were killed." "Her elder sister, who was a mother to her, now lives in Jerusalem, that's why she wants..." "Who killed her parents?" "In the Riga ghetto, the Germans." "Her sister apart, has Jerusalem a special meaning for them?" "No, only because of her sister." "Me, in any case, I'd like to live only in Jerusalem." "What's the kid's name?" "Regina." "How old is she?" "Two." "She'll be a real Israeli, a Sabra." "Does that make them happy?" "Yes, very." "But did they want to come to Israel?" "Genia Gordyetsky" "I've never felt that I was at home." "Yes..." "My only desire is to feel at home." "My own home." "At work, for example," "I've always been reproached for being the Jew, and I could feel it." "Is he from a religious family?" "No, not at all." "My family's so well integrated that we can't talk about religion." "Odd..." "His family was fully integrated and he wants to leave the USSR for here." "I think that I'm over-integrated." "Me, I don't even know Yiddish or the tradition, but I think my soul is not integrated." "I'm not a believer." "For me, that's a good reason no to be converted." "It's true that generally the whole process of conversion" "is very long and difficult and for someone who doesn't believe, it's a... farce, and they were willing because of political pressures..." "Through fear of scandal?" "Through fear of scandal, they were willing to convert me in three minutes." "Do they know what Arad is, where they're going?" "No." "That it's in the middle of the desert, and a brand new city, only about ten years old?" "No, he doesn't." "It's just that we'd no desire to go to Tel Aviv or Haifa where everything's already done, we wanted to go into a new city," "the city that's being constructed." "I don't have any right to make a request because Israel has given me a place to live," "Israel will be my fatherland, that's why I've no right to ask for anything," "I can only say, "Thank you."" "Has he read anything about Israel?" "I know a little of the Bible, that Adam and Eve were born here." "That there are - were - two cities, Sodom and Gomorrah," "and some..." "some traditional Bible tales." "Helena, explain to them we're coming into Jerusalem." "Ask them if they'd enjoy it if we took a five-minute detour to show them the view." "Yes, yes, I'd love to..." "I'd like to know if we'll pass by or near the Wall?" "The Wailing Wall?" "Does he want to see it?" "Why?" "Because it's the symbol of our Jewish sadness." "Tell him we'll show him." "They're black!" "What do you say?" "Why are some Arabs so black?" "There are lots of very black Arabs." "Look, Jerusalem." "It's Sabbath today." "It's Sabbath tonight." "He wants to get near." "What's he saying to me?" "That I haven't been here for thousand years." "He hasn't been here for 2,000 years." "The great sin is innovation." "It matters little that the dress isn't essentially Jewish, that it's maybe just the Polish fashion of the, let's say 17th century, but the very fact that their great-grandfathers dressed that way..." "So it has the holiness of tradition, and then the Yeshivoth continue and perpetuate that tradition" "especially at Mea Sharim and as... the number of births in the families is rather high, there's always a heavy recruitment because each boy automatically enters such a Yeshiva." "There are Yeshivoth where they do a little arithmetic," "not mathematics but rudiments, a little grammar, but mostly the proper religious studies, the Bible and Commentaries, mainly the Talmud." "The ideal is to remain a life-Iong student of Talmudic literature." "I'd even say that in certain Yeshivoth becoming a rabbi is already a step down, that is, one makes a profession of this study of the Holy Law which should be its own aim." "Do these studies develop their intelligence?" "In a narrow way, no doubt, but it is developed." "Of course there are a few rather stupid ones but the average are very bright." "We have here a Judaism that aims at being complete and makes no compromises." "Would they accept a completely secular state?" "Yes..." "like the British mandate, because it's the rule of the exile, i.e. Living under a foreign power, under the infidels." "While living under a Jewish rule is living under heresy." "An infidel's rule is not the same as a heretical one." "The Zionist rule is the heretical rule." "The soldier's handbook?" "No, the Bible..." "Does it make sense to ask if you're religious?" "No, it has no meaning." "I'm a professor of the History of Religions," "I can't say what the word "religious"" "or "being religious" means today." "Why do you wear the kipa?" "Because I love traditions." " Like the Talmudists?" " Yes." "And I believe that all our Jewish existence today in Israel is fulfilled because everyone, even revolutionaries, even the non-religious and anti-religious, in the depths of their hearts are bound to a tradition." "Does this tradition have a meaning apart from religion?" "This tradition has no meaning apart from religion." "The question is whether one can achieve the meaning that was the meaning of religion in the same terminology and framework today and tomorrow and I believe there's a way one wants to keep a meaning that was true yesterday," "but if one holds on to it with this fixed rigidity, it becomes nonsense." "We observe Sabbath here at home." "I don't believe that I observe it as the Orthodox do, but each finds his own way to observe Sabbath." "One retains an identity" "showing by very specific actions that one wants to be part of the living chain of a historical tradition." "I know my grandparents let themselves be killed for that and it is this feeling of loyalty and continuity that matters." "For 3,000 years, the Jews have articulated their existence through these details and even on a dietary level and I am the outcome of this tradition." "It's a government where the majority calls itself non-Orthodox" " I don't mean non-religious - but then it freely calls itself... this majority calls itself non-Orthodox, but it's a non-Orthodox Prime Minister who leads the crusade against mixed marriages." "One's afraid to release something before finding the definitive expression of this... new reality which is taking form." "It's so lovely and quiet." "Masada!" "Does he know what Masada is?" "The last bastion of Jewish resistance to the Romans:" "Rather than yield, the 960 besieged" " men, women and children - all sacrified themselves." "It's a modern city." "I never thought it'd be so beautiful." "Abraham Yoffe" "Nature Warden" "General of the Reserve" "One of the victors of the 6-Day War" "The Panthers!" "The Panthers!" "The Panthers!" "The Black Panthers!" "Leaders of the Israeli "Black Panther" Movement" "These are the Arabs of Jerusalem, of the occupied territories." "Are Jews still construction-workers?" "Yes, a lot work in construction" " carpenters, iron-workers - and others who make..." " And what do the Arabs do?" " They lay foundations and dig." " And the Russians?" " They haven't yet begun." "Are they happy?" "Some are and some aren't." "Why aren't they?" "They're so lucky with beautiful homes, when we have huts." "They're spoiled." "They take it easy, we work our ass off." "Who takes it easy?" "The others, the Romanians, the Poles, they take it easy, they drink tea, while we..." "And why do they drink tea?" "Because they're bosses, engineers and all that, they do well." " You're not a boss?" " No, I'm a worker, that's all." "Kibbutz Gan Shmuel" "Before, it was dunes here." "To live in the dunes is a bit inconvenient" " always too much dust - and then man must live in a place that's a little attractive." "There's a little anecdote that tourists who arrive - mainly from the U.S. - don't have any notion that all this is artificial, made with our hands." "You mean an artificial nature?" "Yes, and they always ask us how we were able to find such a place, such a pretty place like this, to build our kibbutz." "I always prefer the product of man's work." "Prosper!" "Look, if you put them..." "If you mix them up, put them outside." "Outside where they can see them." "Listen to me..." "If they're mixed, put the cases and cartons..." "Understand?" "You put it outside." "Here, you got men from Oran, Constantine and Algiers." "Real workers." "Real dockers." " Are you sure?" " Yes, I'm sure." " Outside we're put down." " Put down?" "Yes, put down everywhere, even in the army, or if I go to a tiny village, if I say I work at the Ashdod port, they insult me, they say we make strikes and get lots of money, and it's not true." "That's not fair." "Everywhere, in the Army too... because there have been so many strikes." "We asked for our rights here." "We had to start working..." "All of us were new here..." "Yes, we had to start from scratch." "No one knew the work?" "No." "We built this port, then we had to work on it." "These guys, they come with pen and paper, they say, "You don't like this work, but you get paid."" "Sometimes I tell them," ""Come on, get rid of pen and paper, put on work clothes, go down in the hold and work, you'll see what work is."" "See, we're only 3 million, so if this port goes on strike, it hits the whole country." "Are you socialist?" "Which means?" "I'm asking you the question." "Are you Communist?" "No, not that." "Far from that." "We are democratic." "Democratic?" "What do you think of the split here, some are very rich today, right?" "It's like everywhere!" "We don't mind." "Would you wage a class struggle against them, as in Europe?" "Right now, no." "In a country you need all kinds." "There is much to say about that." "No, there's no class struggle." "Not yet." "Maybe it'll come in 50, 100 years." " And why not today?" " Because we're at war." "This country needs us, all we must do is keep quiet and serve." "One thing you can say, thank God, from the 6-Day War..." "until today, the country's developed." "It's thrived, too." "Thrived and developed." "Some have thrived more than you, no?" "That doesn't interest us, each on his own." "Are you glad some Israelis are very rich?" "Of course," " in a country you need all kinds." " Rich and poor?" "You don't mind to be one of the poor?" "No, I'm happy, it's OK." "We're well-off." "The word "poor" doesn't yet exist here." "No poor in Israel?" "There's a Hebrew proverb that says:" ""Who is rich?" "He who's happy with his own."" " You're happy with yours." " Yes sir, very happy." "Why do they pray in the synagogue before working?" "You know... religion, I'm not too..." "To not have an accident, to..." "I don't know." "Are a lot of the Ashdod workers religious?" "Many of them, yes." "Ran Cohen" "Secretary of Gan Shmuel" "Paratrooper Commander" "That's the question." "The German Jews have entered every sphere of activity." "For instance, they control Education." "They founded the museums." "They've given impulse to the musical life here." "Paul Jacoby, Lawyer born in Koenigsberg" "They've created the universities." "They've set up the banking system." "They were pioneers in agriculture and established our officers's corps." "Police superintendent Schmuel Bogler" "Is it hard, your job?" "It's not hard, no." "You like to do it?" "How do you feel, arresting Jews?" "I don't understand." "What do you mean?" "I mean, doesn't it seem strange that the people you arrest are Jews?" "It's just as if it were other folks?" "Yes, I've never arrested an Arab, just Jews..." "Police state!" "Police state!" "Do you think Israel is a brotherly society?" "Yes." " More than elsewhere?" " More, yes." "Why?" "We're all Jews here." "He doesn't want to shave." "His aunt died." "Then, why doesn't he shave?" "They don't want him to go home for a few days to see her." "To see her?" "But she's dead." "They don't want to... allow him..." "What has he done?" "He stole a car." "He did something else too?" " Is it all he's done?" " Other things as well." "What'd he do?" "In the car?" " What's his name?" " David Moshe." "He has a sad look all the time." "He isn't sad." "Was he born here?" "Born in Jerusalem." "His family comes from?" "Irak." "I worked as a "piccolo"." " What's that?" " A waiter." "I made good money." "Then I worked in a café in Tel Aviv." "But it wasn't a good café." "I left, worked somewhere else, then I wound up in Tel Aviv again and..." "And why did you steal?" "I don't know." "Was it premeditated?" "No, not at all." "What did you steal?" "A wallet, a guy..." "No, the people were asleep, I went into the room, took the cash from the trousers." "And how were you caught?" "When I left, some people there woke up." "I took money from three rooms, one after another." "When I left, people began to yell." "I went downstairs and they caught me." " You were caught in the act?" " In the act." " Red-handed?" " Yes." "When you did it, were you afraid?" " Afraid of what?" " The police, for instance." "Every thief has to think about the police." " Did you?" " Sure I did." "But on the spot I didn't think as I did later, that's normal." "And you needed dough?" "Yes, that was it." "What do you think of this country?" " Disappointed?" " Sure I'm disappointed." "I was in France, learning a trade, electronics." "I came here, and look at me now." " What'd you expect here?" " I didn't think about it," "I thought of joining the army at first..." "Tel Mond Prison" "So, you must've expected something..." "I'm disappointed to be in jail." "How is it here?" "It's fine, I've got no complaints," "It's not bad, we're free, we've got ping-pong and everything, it's great." "To be in prison, it's a thing you can't forget." "But how does it feel to be in a Jewish prison in Israel?" "I never thought about it..." "It affects me, sure." "I'm far away..." "I'm not accustomed to..." "Is your family religious?" "My father's parents were, my grandfather was a rabbi, but my father goes to the synagogue once a year." "Do you feel Jewish?" "Sure I do." "Why wouldn't I?" "You're in a Jewish prison." "But I'm Jewish, I have to feel Jewish." " And who is he?" " He's in charge..." " The chief?" " Yes, he's back here, this time for 30 months." "That's a lot." " What did he do?" " He stole too." "Did he ask to raise the dogs?" "No, we felt it suited him, all the more since he has 2 years to go, and lots of people outside are interested, and the army also needs dog-trainers." "Does he think it's fair to have prisons in a Jewish society?" "We must have them." "As in every country, yes." "Delinquency's very heavy in this country." "Why does he think it's so heavy?" "He finds it happening especially with Jews of Arab countries." "In his opinion, there's a major reason, the fact that not every youth can join the army, that they're turned down for various reasons." "I love the country, I love its army, I want to be a soldier, but I don't love its justice." "I believe that this whole framework of physical danger at the borders gives a special overtone to almost everything that happens here." "This truth, this inner knowledge... that one is in danger and all this political word-play makes us forget that we're really in a dangerous situation, that here, we're really open to the enemy's fire." "A profound Jewish reality... not only that of the canal, of Suez." "It's the basic Jewish truth." "Suez Canal" "They work, they work, they search probably in their bunker." "They work very quietly." "There is no feeling of... emergency." "It's quiet, absolutely quiet." "Do you like the war, Professor?" "No one likes war, I think." "No one likes it here, but... while the war is on everyone wants to know he's taking part in this, which is the history of our people, wants not to remain outside." "To know that one's in a living participation with all aspects of life here." "What happens here is part of our life." "Our life at home... is let's say... part of the front, and vice versa." "Each makes this round between civilian life and military life once or twice a year." "And it's hard for us to say if one is a civilian in military service one month a year, or a soldier in civilian life 11 months a year." "It's difficult to define." "Do all of you serve?" "Yes, without exception." "One goes gladly." "It's for the country." "One goes gladly knowing it's for himself." "For a Jew, living in Israel is the dream." "Mikaël Feldman Head of the Biology Department" "Where is he from?" "Irak." "Did he like it there?" "Very much." "Why has he come here?" "To the land of Religion, of the Law." "The Bible says you must come to Israel." "He says his children were all in the army." "What did they do in the army?" "What was MordechaÏ doing?" "He says he doesn't know." "How is that?" "He says he was in the army with the whole Israeli people." "He can't explain what he did, what he does?" "He says he was a soldier like all others." "Was he a foot soldier, on a tank, in a plane?" "He says he doesn't know." "He must have been in secret services?" "He seems to be lying." "It's possible." "What about him?" "In the paratroopers." "He did the 6-Day War?" " He was in the 6-Day War." " What did he do?" "He says he can't go into details." "I'd say it's a Jewish army, even if some of the guys you find here deny all that." "I talked to some soldiers." "They say: "We're the army of Israel, we're Israelis." "We're like all the others." "We just want to be a people like all the others."" "You don't care if we're no longer Jews, but only Israelis?" "Why not?" "If I feel right with a Druse, I'll live with a Druse." "I don't care." "None of us wants Israel to be made of all people, like America." "Why not?" "You want this country to be like the others?" "Honestly, I don't care." "A people that really is like other peoples wouldn't feel the need to emphasize this." "They're simply like all the others." "The fact that one wants to be like the others is symptomatic of a people who bore their election... willy-nilly, this burden of being chosen, but did bear it, a people seeking to enter the family of nations." "It's hopeless I think because we're different, maybe not different, but chosen anyway." "One can be like others and still be chosen." "But something here must be sought, one must search within himself." "What does it mean to be chosen?" "It sounds a bit cruel." "I believe that a generation that has been through the Auschwitz furnaces" "and has seen the establishment of the State of Israel has no need to discuss it:" "They know what it means." "Noamah Flapan" "Thanks to the professor." "I asked you to clean the guns in the bunker." "It's a Jewish army." "It knows that it carries a responsibility on its shoulders towards the whole Jewish people because the people of Israel carry on their shoulders a whole responsibility towards the whole Jewish people." "Ulpan (accelerated Hebrew course) For new immigrants" "He thinks he'll be happy in the U. S?" "I'm looking for freedom, not happiness." "He came to Israel to find freedom." "But I don't see it." "What's lacking for him?" "I thought it was a country of Jews and that here I'd be a real Jew and everyone keeps calling me" ""Russian, Russian..."" "He wanted to leave the USSR for Israel." "He wants to leave Israel for the U.S." "Because I understood that Israel is the 16th Republic of the USSR." "I've too much hatred towards the USSR to stay here." "Does his wife think like him?" "When he got there, he wanted to be a driver near the Red Sea." "I said I'm a professional driver." "I used to drive big loader's trucks." "They told me: "Not interested, here every kid can drive a car, you should work where you're needed."" "Like what you saw at Lod:" "I was told Arad was next to Eilat because I asked to go to Eilat and when I got there I realized it wasn't 6 miles, it was 200 miles, and that was the first lie..." "He hates his job at the soya factory?" "First, it was a job "l" found, not them and I hate it." "To this day they've offered nothing, and I'm sure it'll go on like that." "And what does she earn?" "Almost 400£ a month." "But the load's so heavy, she's overworked because it's a job for 3 people." "Why are they so impatient?" "They've only been here a month, and everyone who came here always suffered at first." "In Russia, you must claim:" ""I'm glad being in the USSR," "I like having a red passport."" "The same here, you must claim:" ""I like being in Israel, and I must be patient," "I should have patience, patience..."" "I don't want to hear those words anymore." "I don't want to hear Sabras, Israelis ask me:" ""Why do you have a 3-room apartment?" "When we came, there was nothing," "We built it for you and we have nothing, you have it all."" "Still it's true what the Sabras say, that they have no flats..." "I don't want this flat, the Sabras can have it," "I don't want anything." "Why is he growing a beard?" "It pleases me." "That's the only reason?" "It already pleased me in Kiev, but there the people are so primitive I couldn't, because if I'd had a beard there, I couldn't get work." "Are people less primitive here?" "Not a lot." "Maybe just a step higher." "I know," "I idealized this country too much." "Perhaps he also idealizes the U.S." "Because it's a very hard country, the people aren't very brotherly, it's capitalism, no?" "That's true, I know." "It's the same here." "Is Israel capitalism or the 16th Soviet Republic?" "He thinks no one grasps it here:" "Not capitalism, not socialism, all sorts of things." "Tell him I've the feeling he'll be unhappy wherever he goes." "If I'd gone directly to the U.S., it wouldn't have been that bad, but what happens with me in Israel, in my country, the land of the Jews, that hurts." "Can't he stay and change things?" "No, let the others do it." "Who made this false promise?" "Like always, the Jewish Agency delegates, come to convince the Jews to leave and come to Israel." "It also hurt when they were told at Haifa:" "You're going to a city called Dimona..." " Right at the harbor?" " At the harbor." "In a city called Dimona, and Dimona isn't far." "They told us:" ""We'll take you to Dimona, 15 minutes from Haifa."" "We left Haifa in a truck at 8 a.m., and got there at 5 p.m., sir." "They told you 15 minutes?" "I said: "Dimona, where's that, sir?"" "He told me... 15 minutes." "So we got here at 5 p.m., sir." "No one wanted to get off." "To get off the truck?" "The behind-the-scenes story tells us that for 8 hours they had to fight with these families to convince them, talk them into it." "It's incredible, what had to be said to get them off that truck." "There were zinc huts, sir." "Huts..." "Leon Roisch Curator of the Dimona Museum" "The Law of Return says that the Jews' return to the fatherland is a voluntary and willful return." "If it's voluntary and willful... one can neither force them to get off nor even help them down with their bags." "Volunteering, the will to touch the ground of Israel, extends to taking the bags from the truck to the ground." "It was the desert." "We were the first 36 families, sir." " You're one of the first 36?" " Yes sir." "We came..." "only Moroccans and Tunisians here, there was nothing!" "They expected to find a city and found a desert." "They expected to find a house and found a hut." "They expected to find a bed and found a straw mattress." "What they didn't find..." "Water, none." "Light, none." "Nothing was organized." "You got bread at around 4:30 a.m." "You had to go a long way around to get Dimona by 4 and at 5, each had to take a machine-gun and stand watch." "Do you approve of lying to people to make them come to Israel?" "Lying is wrong." "However... don't forget that we were in 1955, and this country which had just been born was seriously threatened." "One had to built the country, one had to fill it." "To build, one had to fill, and to fill, one had to lie." "For years, a plaque was placed right where Dimona was to be born." "Because for years in Israel, they disagreed about opening Dimona..." "Dimona, which was to be the great key to the Negev, the key to the desert." "And this plaque remained for years." "And the passers-by riding donkeys or camels would say:" ""Here there will be no Dimona, there will be 'Dimiona"', which in Hebrew means 'imagination, dream.'" "And after, the Jewish Agency calmed us down, gave us work:" " "What do you do?" "Driver?" - "Yes," I said." "They gave me a pickax, that's what driving is." "40 years I was a driver and I got the pickax too." "And what did you do with it?" "I worked on the... huts." "So you see, the families came, and Dimona began to develop." "The families cried a lot." "Then passers-by - it's Jewish humor - passers-by also said:" ""It's still not Dimona, it's 'Dimhöna'."" "Dimhöna, another pun, another joke, it means 'tears'." "For if we must enter into the history of Dimona, if today in 1972 we've inherited the lovely city you see, the lovely station where we are, the lovely gardens, the lovely forest, we owe it to the tears of those first families." "Today, it is neither Dimiona nor Dimhöna, it is the Dimona of our Bible:" "A living Dimona, a pretty Dimona." "A Dimona not without problems..." "But the city built on the challenge of those first families who came, of those men who back there had been barbers, cobblers or merchants," "and who here learned to be workers, suffered to learn that they could build, could create, therefore go beyond themselves..." "Even though the war took my son, I'm happy." "Which war?" "In '56, sir." "My only son." " Where was it?" " Sinai." "The first to die in Dimona, my only son, yes sir." "And I lived through it, thank God." "I'm here," "I wouldn't move for 10 million." "Last year I went to see the family in Monaco." "I'll be truthful, sir:" "I said," ""I'm going right back to Dimona."" "You like Dimona better than Monaco?" "Oh yes." "My son is buried here beside me," "I have my friends, my pals..." "everybody knows me," "I'm the papa of Dimona, of everyone." "I'm the old man of Dimona." "I prefer Dimona." "In my country, I'm proud." "Very very proud." "I don't work, thank God." "I'm very happy." "I have my position, my car." "Are you rich?" "As I see it, I'm rich." "Because no one orders me around, and I order no one." "I get a piece of bread, I'm like a king." "No one orders me, I'm the boss at home, so I'm a king." "...and for that soul, afraid to let go of the ideal... it wasn't easy for us either, for my family." "With the ideal... we came." "With the ideal... we suffered." "You have to pay for everything in life." "For the ideal even more." "But time was going by, and nerves were... breaking down." " Your nerves broke down?" " Our nerves broke down." "But..." "I was lucky to have a strong wife who helped me to climb back, to understand through this crisis, that if we had come here, it was for something, it was for us, but especially for our children." "You wife, how is she now?" "Well, 11 years have gone by, now it's her turn." " She's breaking?" " Her nerves too..." "Her nerves are shot." "But she has an ideal cure:" "She has a little girl, one-year old a Sabra, as they say here, born in the country." "It's the first generation... born in the country." "He will make peace He will make peace" "Peace for us and for all of Israel" "Dolf Michaëlis, banker" "They ask us that we call it:" "'Reparation'" "The Germans said 'Restitution' too." "A word is made by the spirit of a people." "It isn't born in a vacuum." "I don't accept the word 'reparation'." "I accept only 'restitution'." "This is not 'repairable'." "It was the other way around." "The problem:" "We and the Germans." "There was something unique there!" "Because of the Germans, the very existence of the Jewish people was questioned." "Six million Jews, a third of our people, the best of them, were exterminated." "This State only could warrant our people's survival." "The political discussion was:" "Didn't the State have the right," "I would even say the duty, to demand reparations." "That was the real political debate." "But the private person as such... that's something else." "Each of us went through a conscience crisis." "Don't deny it." "Those who were in the camps forgave more quickly." "Why is that?" "Those who lost their children... who suffered in their flesh have pardoned more quickly." "It's very human!" "It's very human!" "This sculpture in burnt olive-wood, given to us by an artist from the South of France," "Madame Margaret Fernod, was given to me in peculiar circumstances." "After a lecture I gave in Marseilles about our Museum, at the consulate..." "She came, she introduced herself and said:" ""Sir, this statuette represents the condition of the Jews in a Nazi camp called Buchenwald, that skeletal condition." "And I was very attached to it." "I wouldn't sell it for any price." "But for Dimona... in the desert, your home, in Israel," "it will be fine over there..." "I present it to you."" "And I couldn't thank her, thinking of what it represented." "It represented six million Jews in that condition, later burned and then vanished." "And for us, that idea, that image, that memory, never will die." "And despite that, Mr Roisch, you support the idea of coupling Dimona and Andernach in Germany?" "Indeed!" "We must not forget." "But we must try to build, open in a new way." "And we will open it, despite the egotism and despite those who can't understand that hate must die away and love begin again." "Ceremony joining Dimona and Andernach" "Supporters and opponents confront each other in the presence of the German mayor, Herr Stephens" "You won't speak!" "We're losing time..." "You won't speak, I tell you!" "I ask you to sit down." "Ladies and gentlemen..." "Honored municipal councillors of Dimona..." "Dear colleagues and friends," "I must first apologize for not speaking your language... thus requiring a translation." "I bring you greetings from the city of Andernach, its population and municipal council." "It has been a great honour for me to be introduced, thanks to the city of Dimona, to your Prime minister" "Mrs. Golda Meir." "She impressed me deeply." "She really is a mother for your people." "I speak for my people, here... for the city of Andernach... which I represent here and also for my generation." "I want to state that we acknowledge the wrongs we have done and assume our guilt... because this must be so." "I am particularly happy that Dimona has held out a hand to us," "and that our two cities have decided together to try and put a bridge over the abyss of this tragic past." "We must not forget that Israel was a very small country..." "There was always a feeling of narrowness that one couldn't escape, of being stifled..." "The experience of this wide space..." "Now you have to go across great distances to reach the Empire's limits." "For the Jews, for whom even Israel seemed transformed into a ghetto, where one felt stifled, that is a profound experience." "Of course, many of us believe... we should find inner resources" "to rediscover, regain the dimension of great distances in oneself, not to project it geographically, on a political level." "GAZA" "Conquest gives you a satisfaction, inflates your ego a bit... and you reach the point where you see yourself as Superman..." "That depends which ones." "All the territories?" "It depends." "Because they say it's also theirs here." "Give this back too?" "You give them Sinai or not?" "What do you mean by Sinai?" "They say they're ready for peace in return for territories?" "Give them Sinai, they'll want Jerusalem, and the Golan!" "You won't give back Jerusalem?" "Would you give Paris to the British or the Germans?" "We're sick of it!" "And you?" "Me?" "What of the Israelis who want to give the territories to the Arabs." "You know, if we achieve peace, why not?" "You'd give it all back?" "If it's for real peace, like they say..." "I'm no great expert, but I think that'd be fine." "Sharm-el-Sheikh, Workers' Bank" "HEBRON" "Baruch Narshon" "All Lanzmanns..." "Cut!" "Let's go towards the light, Brothers" "Slavery is forever ended" "Let our last battle be the holiest" "Brothers, let's march towards the Sun and Freedom" "Subtitling TITRA FILM Paris"