Join us as we explore the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by looking at some of the documentary media being produced around it. We will focus on Just Vision, a trailblazing organization creating provocative, award-winning features, shorts, and multimedia resources aimed at raising awareness about Palestinians and Israelis working nonviolently to resolve the conflict and end the occupation. Just Vision collaborators, Jessica Devaney, Neta Patrick, Aida Shibli, and Uri Ayalon will present in full their new short My Neighbourhood, fresh off of it’s Tribeca premiere. This short is a powerful look at court sanctioned evictions of Palestinians in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah through the eyes of an 11 year-old boy. Following this we will get an overview of their goals and how they use media to support the work of activists on the ground through partnerships with various media outlets, institutions, and NGOs.
We will then hear from Neta Patrick, an Israeli lawyer with extensive experience in human rights complaints in the region as well as collaborations with NGO’s. Following we will hear from Uri Ayalon and Aida Shibli from the Peace Research Village Project, who are developing plans for a sustainable closed community in the West Bank. To conclude we will have a panel discussion on the role of documentary and media in conflict specific to the region. We will focus on how these works are produced, shown, and utilized to spark dialogue and incite change.
My Neighbourhood by Rebekah Wingert-Jabi and Julia Bacha, 2012, 25 minutes.
My Neighbourhood follows Palestinian teenager Mohammed El Kurd as half of his home in East Jerusalem is taken over by Jewish settlers. When Israeli activists arrive to protest the takeover alongside Palestinian residents, Mohammed comes of age in the face of unrelenting tension and unexpected cooperation in his backyard.
Through their personal stories, My Neighbourhood goes beyond the sensational headlines that normally dominate discussions of Jerusalem and captures voices rarely heard, of those striving for a shared future in the city.
Just Vision is comprised of an award-winning team of Palestinian, Israeli, North and South American journalists, human rights advocates and filmmakers, Just Vision creates documentary films and other multimedia resources aimed at raising awareness about the underreported efforts of Israeli and Palestinian civilians working nonviolently to resolve the conflict and end the occupation. My Neighbourhood is Just Vision’s latest production, coming on the heels of acclaimed documentaries Budrus and Encounter Point. For more information about Just Vision, visit www.justvision.org.
Jessica Devaney is a digital communications strategist with a decade of experience in technology and social change advocacy. She is the Communications and Production Manager at Just Vision, an organization that generates awareness and support for Palestinians and Israelis who are pursuing freedom, dignity, security and peace using nonviolent means. Jessica is the Associate Producer of Budrus, an award-winning documentary about a Palestinian community organizer who unites local political factions along with Israeli supporters in an unarmed movement to save his village from destruction by Israel’s Separation Barrier. It was hailed as the year’s “must-see documentary” in the The New York Times.
Jessica is the producer of Just Vision’s short film series Home Front: Portraits from Sheikh Jarrah profiling nonviolent efforts in East Jerusalem and co-producer of the 25-minute documentary My Neighbourhood, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and was broadcast on Al Jazeera.
Neta Patrick is an Israeli lawyer specializing in Israeli constitutional and human rights law. Patrick is a fellow with the Columbia Law School Human Rights Institute where she works on a project that focuses on housing land and property rights in the occupied Palestinian Territory. Patrick graduated with Honors from Tel Aviv University School of law and the gender and women studies program. Awarded a full human rights fellowship from Columbia university, she completed her Master in Laws program (LL.M) in 2011 as a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar.
Aida Shibli is a global peace worker born in Palestine, she is committed to social and political change, through focusing on women empowerment and building new structures of life. Shibli is skilled in mediating, conflict resolution, non violence communication, group facilitating and project management. She is an active member of various NGOS in Israel-Palestine, concentrating in integrating Palestinian women in the “political show,” via knowing their civil rights and resisting the Israeli occupation by non violent means. She has worked as a nurse and medical researcher, she is also a mother of one child and invests in finding new ways of raising children.
For the last 5 years she has been a core group member of the Peace Research Village Association, she is committed to establishing another one. She brings with her, her skills, her commitment and the easy flow between the two Middle East nations because of her knowledge of both languages and cultural background. Shibli’s deepest wish is to integrate her woman wisdom with political activism and motherhood.
Uri Ayalon was working as a media reporter of “HAARETZ” daily newspaper in Israel, as a high school history teacher, and as a spokesman and public relations advisor for political and social NGOs.
He was serving as a soldier in the Israeli army as a broadcaster in the army radio station. These days he refuses to do any reserve service in the Israeli army out of conscientious objection. As part of the anti-globalization movement, Uri participated and organized many demonstrations and political events, and was one of the founders of “Anarchists Against the Wall” – an Israeli direct action group, which is fighting against the wall in Palestine.
