HE is no stranger to powerful programming and now Robert Rinder has created one of his most impactful television shows to date.
The Holy Land And Us: Our Untold Stories sees Robert, 44, and actress Sarah Agha explore how their families were affected by the conflict in Israel and Palestine.
Robert Rinder is the co-host of a new, hard-hitting BBC documentary
In the BBC Two documentary, out today, Robert learns about a relative who escaped Auschwitz to begin a new life in Israel, while Sarah discovers what happened to her Palestinian family who were forced to flee in 1948.
Powerfully their stories are explored alongside two others and the impact of the conflict is shown from each side.
In an exclusive chat, Robert said: “It is hard to hear for both communities with what they are experiencing.
“What you have are two sets of communities with opposing views of what this land is.
“For Palestinians a moment for catastrophe and for Jews perhaps a moment of wandering. It is complex.”
Robert said he hoped the documentary would increase awareness about both opposing sides.
He added: “Now, in a sense enabled in part by social media, the only stories people hear are from their own sides.
“It is that view of Israel and Palestine which is curated by you, so you are only listening to the things that you already know.
“So for the stories to be interwoven alongside each other, the idea is: ‘Here is your story and here is mine’.
“You need to hear both sides.
“It enables those who have restricted their hearing on one side, they have to understand or agree or change their mind, but they have the opportunity to hear the counter narrative.
“The producers and we as a community wanted these stories to run alongside each other.
“This is without question the most enduring toxic conflict on our planet.”
The documentary was released to mark the year of the 75th anniversary of the creation of the state of Israel.
In the two-parter, Robert follows in the footsteps of his grandfather’s brother Moishe.
Robert learns that after escaping from Auschwitz, Moishe travelled to Italy before relocating to Israel.
Emotional scenes play out as Robert visits the Kibbutz where Moishe lives and the spot where one of his sons was killed during the conflict with Egypt in the Seventies.
Robert said: “It is me authentically seeing it as it unfolds.
“Standing on that ground along with our beautiful historian and imagining him surviving Auschwitz, then he starts this new life in a Kibbutz, with new friends.
“He rebuilt a family, re-curated what it meant to be a person with a purpose, then that second family is destroyed again.
“If we stand in the shoes of Moishe, it helps us understand to an extent the relationship, emotionally and psychologically, with the land, and that is true of the Palestinian stories as well.”
Watch The Holy Land And Us: Our Untold Stories tonight on BBC Two at 9pm.
The Holy Land And Ours: Our Untold Stories is out today at 9pm
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