Last Year’s Awardee with New Film
In 2010 one of the Common Ground Award's went to Just Vision. At the ceremony from left to right: Susan Collin Marks, Her Majesty Queen Noor of Jordan, Ronit Avni, Julia Bacha.
Just Vision received a CG Award last year (2010) for its work using thought-provoking, media that heralds the power of ordinary people to contribute to lasting peace in Israel and Palestine. Their film Budrus had gained much praise for its conciliatory approach, telling the story of local Fatah and Hamas members who together with Israeli supporters save the village of Budrus from destruction by Israel’s Separation Barrier.
The non-partisan, non-profit organization Just Vision, headed by award-winning filmmaker Julia Bacha and human rights advocate Ronit Avni, has produced a new film: Home Front. It features four stories all filmed in Jerusalem’s neighborhood Sheikh Jarrah, where Palestinians have been evicted from their houses by Israeli settlers.
The videos tell the story of the desperate resistance in Seikh Jarrah and the surprising support the residents receive. There is the Palestinian teenager who is forced to share his house with settlers and finds unexpected cooperation with Israeli’s in his backyard.
An American-born Israeli mother gets drawn into the demonstrations after her children’s arrest, a Palestinian community organizer brings local women to the forefront of the struggle. A veteran of the Israeli army finds himself taking on a leading role in the protests.
According to Just Vision, the new series chronicles the resolve of a neighborhood, and the support it receives from the most unexpected of places.
Find out more about Just Vision’s extensive work connecting grassroots peace activists to policymakers, media outlets, NGOs, and an international audience at their website.
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Just Vision is described as being “non-partisan”, but it is clearly partisan in that it is telling only one side of a story. If it were non-partisan, it would spend equal time and show equal sympathy for Jews who were evicted from the Jewish quarter of east Jerusalem in 1948 and spend equal time with the Jews trying to regain access to the homes from which they were evicted. The situation is complicated and there aren’t easy solutions. But it isn’t helpful to show only one side and describe that as non-partisan. and that certainly isn’t searching for common ground.