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The Holy Land and Us - Our Untold Stories

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Religion & Ethics

Jewish and Palestinian families explore the impact of the founding of the state of Israel.

Personal, profound and deeply moving. Rob Rinder and Sarah Agha explore how their family's histories, and others, were changed forever by the 1948 founding of the state of Israel.

Series 1

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Until 03/01/2009 BBC Two Wales (analogue) was known simply as BBC Two Wales. BBC Two Wales (digital) was BBC 2W. From 03/01/2009 BBC Two Wales schedules on both analogue and digital became identical

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Robert Rinder

Sarah Agha

David Vincent

Colette Flight

The Holy Land and Us - Our Untold Stories: Series 1: Episode 1

Episode 1

BBC Two - The Holy Land and Us - Our Untold Stories, Series 1, Episode 1

Rob and Sarah meet descendants of those caught up in the creation of the state of Israel.

Rob and Sarah are joined by a father and son whose relative was caught up in Israel’s War of Independence, as well as a woman whose grandmother survived one of the Nakba's most notorious episodes.

This two-part series follows co-presenters Rob Rinder and Sarah Agha, along with four other families of Jewish and Palestinian heritage, as they explore how their families’ histories were impacted by the founding of the state of Israel in 1948. For Jews across the world, this represented a longed-for opportunity to find a place of safety. For Palestinians, the events of this period, which created over 700,000 refugees, are known as the Nakba, Arabic for 'catastrophe'. Through these profoundly moving and deeply personal stories, this series gets to the heart of what happened to people on both sides as the Middle East was reshaped.

As the presenters and participants investigate how this time of chaos and upheaval affected their relatives, they discover how their families’ destinies were changed forever. Sarah Agha finds out about the circumstances under which her family fled their village in Galilee in 1948, and Rob follows his relative’s journey to escape the horrors of the Holocaust and start a new life in the recently established state of Israel.

In this first episode, Rob and Sarah are joined by a father and son who follow in their father's and grandfather’s footsteps from Hackney to becoming caught up in Israel’s War of Independence, and meet a woman whose grandmother survived one of the most notorious episodes of the Nakba.

The Holy Land and Us - Our Untold Stories: Series 1

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The Holy Land and Us - Our Untold Stories

Series 1

Episode 1

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