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- I will lead you from Egypt to a land flowing with milk and honey, Moses teared Hebrew from the pharaoh, freed them from slavery and swear they would return to the Promised land.

- Thus began the exodus that led the people of Israel from the banks of the Nile to the banks of Jordan.

- Facing the Red Sea Moses raised his hand, it is then written that God pushed back the sea, that waters split, thus giving a way to Sinai desert.

- On that day God saved Israel from Egyptian hands. During 6 days, the mountain was covered with clouds and God's glory settled on Mount Sinai.

- On the 7th day He called Moses, God gave him the 10 Commandements that sealed the Alliance between Him and Israel people.

- Then God obliged Moses and his people to wander during 40 years. At the end, Moses climbed Mount Nebo from the Jordan slope of the Jordan river.

- God showed him the land under his eyes on the other side of the river, to the Mediterranean, Negev desert, Jericho valley.

- And God said, here is the land I promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, it is now yours. Israel people had reached its Promised land.

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- On May the 14th 1948, Ben Gourion announces the State of Israel on Palestinian land, fulfiling the will of Theodor Herzl's Zionist organisation,

- defending since the end of the 19th century a return of the Jewish people to its land.

- In Marseille, gate of the East, it is worry again that push 400 Jews to go for the Godsend, for the Promised land.

- Those men, women and children come from the British area of occupancy in Germany. Luckier than many of them, they are officially authorised to immigrate in Palestine.

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- Thousands of Jewish survivors will land on coasts of the new State, with the same hope than those who 50 years ago, fleeing Russian pogroms, had found refuge in Palestine.

- But a war breaks out, the sharing of Palestine proposed by UN is refused by Arabs,

- Jews from Maghreb and Middle East leave their countries to reach the State of Israel as Isaac left Egypt.

- It was too good for us, the people, Hebrews, French speaking, Europeans, it was heaven.

- We had a comfortable life, ample, carefree.

- We felt Egyptian but we had Jerusalem in our heart.

- When the Arabic-Hebrew conflict broke out in 1948 it changed everything, Egypt did an about-turn, we lost our Egyptian nationality,

- and it is France that welcome us in a transit camp in Marseille, in the famous Great Arena we called the camp,

- we've been there 2 or 3 weeks, until I had the opportunity to go on the first boat, but I was still alone.

- I arrived here in Israel on June 1950, at the age of 19. First I lived 6 months in a tent, there were no houses.

- Then I cried like a kid, I cried my eyes out. I wanted a good omelette.

- And I remember the servant who was in our apartment asking me "omelette? How many eggs? 3, 4?"

- Here it was not the same, and I missed it. After 6 months I started crying, I asked myself "why did I come here?" And I stayed for 6 years.

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- 1950, the young Jewish State launches a large programme, based on community structures, to add value to its soil divided among new immigrants.

- Kibbutzim, community farms were considered as essential apparatus of the new Israeli economy.

- Kibbutz of Sde Boker created in 1952 in the heart of Negev is a model, bringing life in the driest desert of Israel.

- Ben-Gurion wants to make Sde Boker a symbol, as Degania was, first kibbutz established in Galilee in 1910, palestinian land then.

- In 1953 he moves in, shares his time between desert and Bible, drawing on it basis of the Israeli dream.

- "I’ll transform her dead ground into Eden, her moonscape into the garden of God/A place filled with exuberance and laughter, thankful voices and melodic songs." Isaiah 51:3

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- A national identity had to be created, it didn't exist.

- It's not like a French who lives in the same house than previous generations, and where everything is.

- A common identity had to be created with people from all over the world. And the only thing for was the Bible.

- As Ben-Gurion was not religious he didn't want to use religion as the common thing, but Jewish History, and Jewish History as it is in the Bible.

- And his dream was Negev, there was only this.

- There is also this man arrived in Sde Boker 30 years ago, after a stay in France.

- this was Ben-Gurion, always determined to do something.

- There is also this man arrived in Sde Boker 30 years ago, after a stay in France.

- My parents came from Ukraine after WWII, why to Israel?

- Maybe because of Zionism, they were Jewish, maybe just because they had nowhere to go.

- There is in Sde Boker a lot of what we call the Israeli spirit. We do not do things where it is easy to do them, we do them despite of natural conditions.

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- The Kibbutz is in charge of social life of the community and of children education, early made sensitive to independence.

- Land and installations belong to kibbutzim. Everyone works in and receive the same salary. Decisions are collective.

- Sde Boker is still governed by egalitarian principles, but it is one of the last to follow this community ideal. Barely 3% of Israeli live today in a kibbutz.

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- Chantale is in charge of clothes for the kibbutz. Chantale came from Algeria when she was a child with her family, when the State of Israel was created.

- It's a special place because the kibbutz remained as it was before, it didn't change.

- It's the only kibbutz where we distribute clothes today, all kibbutzim changed, they give people their salary and everyone does what he wants with the money.

- Sometimes some people say "let us do, we take the money and we buy what we want", but most of the people are satisfied and prefer it remains as it is.

- It is very important to me that children have nice clothes, so I work a lot more, it's like all these children were mine.

- I'm very careful with children, and I think that in the kibbutz everyone feels that the place where she works is her place and does everything she can.

- And it is not because of the salary, it's due to a deep attachement.

- It should be kept in mind that we are owners. We are not employees.

- Sometimes my mother tells me "where do you live? You work for nothing, you have nothing, no home, and your children are alone, they do nothing".

- But now when she sees my children who are a lot more independent than my nieces and my nephews she understands that life in kibbutz is not so... Hello.

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- It's my daughter in the army, she began a week and a half ago, they sleep in tents, she says that it's cold, thay can't sleep at night. They have to get used to, army is not...

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- Sde Boker won the bet of the soil, but at the price of water.

- Fresh water come from Golan or Galilee, crossing the whole country, or drawn on the Dead Sea for brackish farming, undisputable know-how of kibbutz's agronomists.

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- "I brought water in the desert and rivers in the steppe to feed my people, my chosen" quoted Ben-Gurion. Water, vital issue for Israel land.

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- Jericho, Cisjordan, Palestine. Israel decreed Cisjordan water strategic resources under military supervision.

- Water is mainly consumed by Jewish colonies still established here, or directly transported to Israel.

- Stranglehold of the Hebrew State that prohibits Palestians to dig or deepen wells. Water, vital issue for Palestine land today at the heart of the peace process.

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- We are on this land since God created us. A fertile land that produces butter and honey.

- On this land, without water, we can't build a civilisation. Water develops agriculture and civilisation is linked with agriculture.

- Quran says "Everything was created out of water".

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- Banana culture was the main one in Jericho. It didn't necessitate Jordan River waters, we used water from a source that supllied 10% of Cisjordan water.

- It is true there is a drought, but deep wells dug by Israelis around the source absorbed the greatest quantity of water.

- They stole our waters and as you know banana tree requires a lot of water.

- When water level drops the production drops, we became new born and we try to survive.

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- The most ancient city in the world, 10,000 years old, Jericho, today an Arabic city.

- This territory of Jericho, occupied by Israel since the war of 1967, is now under Palestinian authority supervision since May 1994.

- Life got its rhythm back, between daily diffuculties and the hope to see Palestine coming alive again.

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- Akabat Jabr refugge camp at the exit of Jericho.

- After the creation of the State of Israel in 1948, 700,000 Palestinians flee their villages, 60,000 of them find refuge here, welcomed by UN.

- Short break. 1967 war push them again into exile, to Jordan or other Arabic countries.

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- Today 4,000 refugees are still in the camp. The land is owned by UN, as school or social services of the camp.

- Refugees just have the right to build their house. They work in Jericho or live with the assitance of the UN.

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- I came when I was 7 years old. At the beginning we were placed in tents near an infirmary and we have been told we could finish our studies.

- But we couldn't go to school because we lived in a hostile area, far and uninhabited.

- After we went here in this camp, we had to wait a long time before constructing houses with clay and bricks.

- Since we have been driven out from our lands we stayed here.

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- If God wishes it, I hope future will be better than what we lived, we suffered a lot and my daughter suffers even more because she has responsibility for a 9 members family.

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- We feel this land is not ours. If we had a land we would have schools and not only camp's schools.

- We have to have a land to be a people. Why are we scattered in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria?

- I'm a daughter of the whole Palestine, I'm not a camp's daughter. Waiting in these conditions is very difficult.

- In the camp there is a major failure rates, here not much is done for health and education. It's money that counts but money brings nothing.