WEBVTT

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Eighty percent of residents here in Turmasaye, near Ramallah, are U.S. citizens.

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They're now taking extreme measures to protect against settler attacks, like
setting up barbed wire on their fences, welding their windows shut, and now some
of them are raising American flags, hoping that would offer them some form of
protection.

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But the flag didn't stop Israeli soldiers from taking over the home of Dr.

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Hassan Shukri.

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He's a neurologist from Syracuse in New York who was in Turmasaye for a short
visit.

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Soldiers gave him one hour to pack his belongings and leave.

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We took everything quickly, fast.

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We collect everything we have.

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We're under so much stress, anxiety, and wow, this is unbelievable, how this
could happen to somebody.

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The family contacted the U.S. embassy.

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Four hours later, the soldiers left.

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These break-ins are a regular occurrence.

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Two years ago, Israeli soldiers broke all the doors in Dr.

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Shukri's home and stayed for days, leaving it in shambles.

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The embassy did not intervene. Dr.

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Shukri's balcony overlooks all of Turmasaye and its now forbidden valleys.

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Israeli settlers have barred the owners from accessing two-thirds of their
lands.

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We don't, we cannot go beyond this house here, my cousin's house over there, and
this house over there.

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The first one you came here, we cannot.

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Everybody go there will be in there.

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Look, you see the flag over this building?

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They took that building already.

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Fear is palpable here.

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Settler attacks occur daily.

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During our visit, they were busy expanding yet another illegal settlement
outpost on people's land.

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My biggest fear is, you know, having a settler come into my house and asking me
to leave at gunpoint.

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Yassir practiced law in Anaheim in California for 36 years.

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He's now a council member in Turmasaye and tells us he experienced settler
attacks firsthand.

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I, for myself, own two acres just down from here, about 100 meters down from
here, and I cannot reach it because I tried many, many times.

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The usual response I get is a settler with a gun asking me to leave.

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You know, if somebody points a gun at you and asks you to leave, you're going to
leave. The U.S.

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flag should give residents here a cushion of protection, he said.

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But that people's lived experiences here have shown otherwise.

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Nur Audeh Al Jazeera, Turmasaye, Palestine.