I recently attended a fundraiser for the non-profit organization Seeking Common Ground and I had the chance to listen to the Founder of Just Vision talk about her organization and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Just Vision focuses on highlighting the stories of Israeli and Palestinian citizens who are working to end the conflict nonviolently. The organization began because the founder, Ronit Avni, felt that there was so much news coverage showing all of the violence surrounding this conflict, but the peace activists from both sides were ignored. The media tends to tell the stories that reflect sensationalism and conflict, but there needs to be more of a focus on ordinary, everyday people who are searching for nonviolent solutions to end this conflict.
Just Vision has just released a documentary called Budrus. This film tells the story of a town that is brought together by one man and his daughter to protest the Separation Barrier that is being built through their town. This man rallies together members from Fatah and Hamas as well as local Israelis to peacefully protest the building of this wall.
Here's the trailer for the movie:
Just Vision has just released a documentary called Budrus. This film tells the story of a town that is brought together by one man and his daughter to protest the Separation Barrier that is being built through their town. This man rallies together members from Fatah and Hamas as well as local Israelis to peacefully protest the building of this wall.
Here's the trailer for the movie:
This trailer has interesting similarities to the trailer for the documentary about the peace efforts of women in Liberia that was posted by Danielle C. as a response to Julie's post on the all female peace keeping units. Both trailers depict strong peace keeping forces active in conflicts about which we only ever hear about official talks or terrorist attacks. Opening up the dialogue to include these kinds of voices gives us a much needed perspective on these conflicts, about which we are typically so media dependent that we get a very distorted view of reality. Grass roots peace movements generally "take place below the radar of many reporters, biased in favor of official sources and accustomed to seeing the public as either victims or vox pops -- people to whom things are done, not people doing things for themselves" (Lynch, 272).
ReplyDeleteHIghlighted in both trailers is the unity between people of different races and religions in the name of peace. Unlike traditional media, that tend to draw clear lines between religious and racial groups to define the essential geography of any given conflict, these documentaries give some insight into a different state of affairs: one in which there are large military interests with motives for warfare on one side and there are many civilians on the other who want an end to the violence that hinders their livelihood and ability to enjoy their daily lives.