- The revered anchor of Israel's Channel One news programme
for more than three decades has caused controversy by making a personalised
documentary in which he concludes that Jewish settlements are endangering
the country and that the occupation of Palestinian land is a crime.
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- "Since 1967, we have been brutal conquerors, occupiers,
suppressing another people," Haim Yavin, who was a founder of Channel
One and once its chief editor, says in the programme.
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- Even before the five-part series opened last night, settler
leaders were calling for the 72-year-old, known as "Mr Television",
to be sacked, because they said he was no longer objective.
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- The documentary would be sensitive in Israel at any time,
but particularly now in the weeks before the government plans to remove
thousands of Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip and a small part of the
West Bank.
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- Channel One turned down the documentary and it is being
shown on a rival channel that recently lost its licence and is about to
go off air.
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- The series is a the result of Yavin's visits during more
than two years to the West Bank and Gaza Strip, carrying a small camera
to film ordinary people - some of the 400,000 Jewish settlers, Palestinian
residents and Israeli soldiers - in the territories.
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- "My intention was to get the personal feelings of
the settlers, of the Palestinians," Yavin told the Guardian yesterday.
"It has strengthened my former opinion that we have to come to terms
with the Palestinians; they are not all terrorists.
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- "Some of my friends on the left hate the settlers.
I don't hate them, I appreciate them. I even like them, but I say in the
documentary that I think they are wrong and they are endangering us."
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- The experience has left Yavin more pessimistic about
the prospects for peace. "I think the majority of Palestinians and
the majority of Israelis want peace and they're willing to divide the country,"
he said. "But there's such mistrust. Hamas terrorism did such damage
to both peoples that I don't think it can be repaired."
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- He not only questions the settlements and the occupation,
but the commitment of successive governments, including Ariel Sharon's,
to curbing Israel's hunger for land and the expansion of its colonies.
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- "This merrymaking will never be stopped," he
said. "I regard this as a Greek tragedy. I don't see any solution."
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- Settler leaders have reacted furiously to the series,
saying it will "divide Israeli society". The head of the settler
council, Benzi Lieberman, has called for Yavin to be removed as Channel
One's news anchor.
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- "Even if his opinions and the manner in which he
presents them may be considered legitimate, his continued serving in the
objective newscaster's position constitutes a blow to media ethics and
professional integrity," he said.
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- Among those filmed by Mr Yavin is an Israeli soldier
in Hebron who wonders how his compatriots can remain silent in the face
of the "horrors" the army commits, and the settlers who ask him
why he's not shooting Palestinian children.
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- Some settlers tell Yavin that the Palestinians must be
given a deadline to leave the occupied territories or be forced out. "Otherwise
we should just bomb and kill them," says one woman.
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- * Jerusalem city council has issued orders to demolish
the homes of hundreds of Palestinians in an area that Israeli settlers
want to be turned into a Jewish neighbourhood.
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- The council, which has initially ordered 88 buildings
to be razed, says it intends to make the Silwan area, just outside the
Old City walls, a national park. Palestinian officials say that the real
intent is to clear the area for settlers.
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- Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited
2005
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- http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,1496298,00.html
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