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A drive through the occupied territories from JD Lasica on Vimeo.

I love Israel, and have loved it even before my visit there last April as a member of the Traveling Geeks. (Here were my dispatches, including a video of our visit to a Bedouin Arab family’s village of Khawalid in northern Israel.) So it’s always difficult as a journalist to report about something you have an emotional stake in.

During my trip I took a solo journey into the Israeli-occupied city of Hebron. My tour guide was Mikhael Manekin of Breaking the Silence, an extraordinary human rights organization founded by veterans of the Israeli military. Mikhael himself served as a lieutenant during the second intifada. The organization chiefly focuses on documenting testimonial accounts of the occupation by Israeli veterans themselves.

Manekin usually takes a busload of 30 Israelis through Hebron for the tour, but he gave me a personal tour alongside I owe a debt of thanks to Becky Buckwald, Associate Director, San Francisco Region, of New Israel Fund (NIF), which arranged the trip for me.

In this 19-minute video, the first of a two-part documentary, we began our trip in Jerusalem, drove through the West Bank on Route 60 past Bethlehem and the astonishing Separation Barrier being erected, into the settlement of Kiriath Arba/Qiriat Arba, and into Hebron, a city of 166,000 Palestinians and the only Palestinian city with a Jewish settlement in the city center. More than 500 Jewish settlers, protected by Israel Defense Forces, have established an outpost there. Hebron has important historical ties to both the Jewish and Muslim traditions, not the least of which is because it is the biblical resting place of  Abraham and Sarah and Isaac and Rebekah. Here is Wikipedia’s entry on Hebron.

Manekin explains the settlers' strategy this way: "It's all a battle for centimeters." He says of his small Breaking the Silence's mission: "As an organization, human rights is our top priority."

I just finished watching a series of BBC News reports, assembled by the New Israel Fund-financed organization B’Tselem, that Manekin handed me as we left (I couldn't find the videos online), which were riveting. The BBC reports that the army has severely restricted the movement of Palestinians. Israeli policies have radically changed the face of Hebron's city center. For the most part, due to security concerns, only Jewish settlers are allowed to use main streets in the city. Palestinians are not allowed to walk freely on the main streets of their own city and are typically not allowed to leave through the front doors of their houses. "What was once a lively a commercial and residential center is now a ghost town," the BBC report said. The army arrests and blindfolds Palestinians if they break curfew. In 2003-2004, curfews were imposed on 520 days.

In 2000, the army closed a-Shuhada Street, the main street in Hebron’s commercial area, to Palestianians and sealed the entrances to the houses on the street. As we walked down a-Shuhada Street, Manekin showed me how Palestinians residents are forced to climb up through the roofs of neighboring houses or to exit their houses through back doors and windows (coming in part 2).

I also got to meet Yehuda Shaeul, Breaking the Silence’s executive director and 24-year-old co-founder. (Do a search on Breaking the Silence to see accounts of his talk at Harvard Hillel; here’s the video of his talk at the Internet Archive.)

Certainly the situation today in Gaza gives this added resonance and timeliness. People get a little bit crazy when taking "sides" in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This video's intent is merely to shed light on the ongoing plight of Palestinians who are forced to abandon their homeland or who continue to live in Hebron under massively trying circumstances.

A quick note: I did not have the proper equipment — just a small handheld Samsung camcorder with no remote mike and no lighting — so you’ll notice some production lapses. But the 19-minute video still came out well.

Watch video in H.264 QuickTime on Ourmedia

Watch video in Flash on Vimeo

Photo essay of life in Hebron

Here is my 80-photo Flickr set of Hebron that captures a slice of life in the ancient city, which is increasingly becoming the story of fundamentalist settlers clashing with Palestinians who have lived there for centuries

Coming next week, the second and final part: Hebron: Occupation 101.