“Rooted in the West Bank”: The Atta Jaber Family Story – Part of Al-Jazeera’s ‘Witness’ series

Rooted in the West Bank is a film that follows the struggle of Palestinian farmers for survival under Israeli government policies of drying out and burying their fertile Baka'a Valley under the expanding settlement-city of Kiryat Arba, IDF demolitions of their farms, wells, reservoirs, irrigation systems and homes, and extreme government-sanctioned settler violence. These are families ICAHD has been working with for the past 26 years, their shared human and political story covered throughout by filmmakers Bruno Sorrentino and Uri Fruchtman.

“The sound of the bulldozer is the music of the occupation,” says Atta Jaber, yet he preaches love and peace. This film is a moving testimony to the depth of one man’s humanity in the face of intensifying settler violence and intimidation. The film also features ICAHD activists rebuilding the Jaber’s home and Jeff Halper confronting the Israeli army. Thus, it captures our relationship with the Jaber family that began in 1997 and with our commitment to them that has spanned all these years.