I Visited the World’s Most Controversial Country 🇮🇱

Part one of a series across Israel and the Palestinian territories. Harry states the method in the first minute: speak to Israelis, Palestinians, settlers and religious communities, listen, present the range with no bias, and accept that both sides will be angry with him for it.

The spine is interviews in Tel Aviv — a right-wing Israeli woman who turns the interview around and grills him, an American emigrating, younger Israelis who want two states, and an Israeli Arab who drives him to Jerusalem because it is Shabbat and nothing is running. The day in Jerusalem’s old city turns tense while he is standing in it.

Before any of that, five hours in an airport office.

Obs: the video carries a long eSIM sponsor read and a group-trip plug, and its description links Palestinian-owned businesses Harry asks viewers to support. Only the travel and interview content is recorded on these pages.

Key moments

• [00:00] The premise, and the sentence the channel keeps returning to: there is a difference between a government and its people, which he says is especially true here.
• [01:06] A news clip reporting the UN investigation team’s finding that Israel committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, played in the opening montage.
• [01:36] His framing for a hard intro: the phrase common to the Quran, the Bible and the Torah is do not fear.
• [02:07] He is reported on the flight by the passenger next to him, for deleting Palestinian contacts from his phone. He calls doing it there very stupid.
• [02:39] Pulled out of the queue before immigration; four to five hours of waiting and interviews.
• [02:39] The officer reads his bracelet, which has his name in Arabic on it.
• [03:14] The questions: earnings, employer, four trips to Lebanon, Yemen, Somalia, Afghanistan. His answer — watch the videos.
• [03:44] They find a clip of him saying he loves Palestine. He is told his colleagues don’t want to let him in, and is let in anyway.
• [04:20] Tel Aviv beach, completely normal, and Gaza an hour away — about 60 km.
• [04:51] Hostage posters, pavement bunkers, army uniforms and civilians with guns. The LGBTQ capital, and serious intelligence services.
• [05:25] The plan: meet someone from the right, then Palestinians in Jerusalem, then the West Bank.
• [06:01] The interview turns into a debate almost immediately.
• [07:38] The casualty figure exchange — Harry cites roughly 70,000 from a quick search and is told the number and the source are both wrong.
• [08:11] Her position: Jewish people have the right to exist, this is their country, and she points to the flag and the currency.
• [09:16] Asked whether she grew up on one-sided material: no — and Israeli opinion was much more left-wing before 7 October.
• [10:25] One state, not two. She won’t hand a state to people she regards as enemies.
• [12:33] On West Bank settlements, put to her as illegal under international law: she backs whatever her government decides, and says Judea and Samaria belong to the Jewish people.
• [14:13] Harry, honestly: he expected a nice conversation, is out of his depth, and is doing the best he can.
• [14:45] His statement of intent — all opinions, no bias, and he knows he can’t win.
• [16:19] An American moving to Israel: the country as one big family, and a taxi driver who invited him to dinner within ten minutes.
• [17:27] The same man on violent settler groups who need to be punished and on police who should act — alongside attacks in the other direction. His word for the West Bank is lawless.
• [18:02] Harry’s own observation: this is the first country he has filmed in where he can speak freely, and he lists Russia, Afghanistan, Yemen and Syria as the contrast.
• [19:08] Younger Israelis: they want peace and think about Gaza and the West Bank daily. Two states, in their view.
• [20:16] Tel Aviv as a refuge for LGBT Palestinians.
• [21:20] Another: nobody wants innocent people killed. His solution is to disarm Hamas entirely and find a governing body not committed to attacking Israel.
• [22:23] On settlers: militarily complicated, radicals on both sides, and the two peoples have to find a way to live together.
• [22:54] The Iron Dome — 2,500 rockets intercepted at around a 90% success rate, which is why the beach is full.
• [23:24] Ninety seconds to a shelter when the sirens go.
• [23:24] The line the page is built on: the first city he has been to where ordinary life and war infrastructure occupy the same space.
• [23:59] 7 October is in every conversation and dates everything.
• [24:31] Optimism as a duty rather than a feeling: 80 years of fighting for existence, and no other option.
• [25:04] Why he travels — speak to both sides, put yourself in their shoes, and accept that the world is grey rather than black and white.
• [25:39] Independence Hall: Ben-Gurion declares the state in 1948, the British mandate ends, five Arab armies invade the next morning, and 750,000 Palestinians are displaced. The same date is Independence Day and the Nakba.
• [26:42] A subscriber drives him to Jerusalem, because it’s Shabbat and nothing is running.
• [27:12] The driver is an Israeli Arab — around two million in Israel, roughly 85% Muslim.
• [27:43] An individual can reach the top of a profession; Arab villages are visibly less developed as communities.
• [28:17] Israeli Arabs cross into the West Bank to shop because it’s far cheaper — fruit and vegetables yes, meat and eggs can’t come back.
• [29:32] In Israel I’m an Arab; in Arab countries I’m an Israeli.
• [30:07] Asked about being born on the other side of the line: he thinks about it all the time, and can’t imagine it.
• [30:44] The old city of Jerusalem — no skyscrapers, rustic, quiet.
• [30:44] The IDF preventing a group from entering Al-Aqsa; the explanation given on the spot concerns a third temple.
• [31:26] Arab shops closed for two days running because owners expect trouble, and what that costs them. One stays open regardless.
• [32:31] It goes off fifty metres away: a smoke device thrown into a Muslim-owned shop, a woman hit, the shop wrecked. Police and army respond quickly.
• [33:02] A shopkeeper of seven days and a friend Harry last met in North Korea both say they have never seen anything like it.
• [34:06] The account he is given: a young Jewish man threw it.
• [34:37] A large group of young men walk towards the spot. His read is crowd behaviour — in a big enough group people think they can get away with anything — and the kids are treating it as entertainment.
• [35:10] He leaves, saying he isn’t trying to be part of the problem.
• [35:20] A five-year-old shouts an insult into the Arab shop he’s buying sweets in. Harry’s framing: the child is five, and this is one hour of one day.
• [35:43] Black cherry sweets, very sour, last eaten in Syria.
• [36:14] Filipino workers in the old city.
• [37:27] The driver refuses to let him pay for anything.
• [37:58] What’s coming: the three holiest sites, then cycling the West Bank.
• [38:29] He asks viewers to follow and buy from the Palestinian businesses linked in the description.

Extracted pages

• Places: Tel Aviv, Jerusalem
• Countries: Israel, Palestine
• Tips: Separate a government from its people