May 21, 2012

Looking for Peaceful Partners in the Middle East: an Interview with Nadav Greenberg of the Organization “Just Vision”

February 7, 2011

 

Nadav Greenberg works for an organization called “Just Vision,” which recently released a film entitled “Budrus,” which is focused on efforts by Palestinian villagers to peacefully (and ultimately successfully) protest the building of a section of Israel’s security fence, which was set to run through an important section of agricultural land. In this interview Mr. Greenberg talks about how this film has been received by audiences around the world, as well as the overall goals and work of “Just Vision.”

 

 

NVR: For our readers who may not have heard of Just Vision, can you give a brief description of the organization?

 

Just Vision is a nonprofit organization led by an Israeli, Palestinian, North and South American team of journalists, human rights advocates and filmmakers. Our central mission is to increase the power, legitimacy and exposure of Palestinians and Israelis pursuing nonviolent solutions to the conflict.

Just Vision emerged a little over seven years ago in response to the lack of media coverage of Palestinian and Israeli civilians working to end the conflict. While violent extremism receives front-page exposure, courageous nonviolence leaders and peace builders are often invisible within their own societies and beyond. Consequently, at Just Vision, we work to ensure that these Palestinian and Israeli civic leaders are not only taken seriously as key players on the ground, but are also more visible, valued and influential in their efforts.

 

 

NVR: What kind of criteria does Just Vision use to determine with whom it will work? Is there an emphasis on finding a particular kind of individual, leader or group?

 

Just Vision actively seeks out Israeli and Palestinian grassroots leaders, activists and organizers working without arms towards a resolution of the conflict and an end to the Occupation. Working within those fairly general guidelines, we have interviewed and profiled hundreds of Israeli and Palestinian visionaries involved in a variety of fields and issues. Those we have interviewed range from Israeli engineers installing wind and solar power in some of the poorest Palestinian villages in the Hebron Hills to Palestinian directors of neighborhood community centers to Israeli and Palestinian grassroots leaders of direct action nonviolent resistance movements.

 

We do not take any particular political position on the solution to the conflict, except for recognizing that both Israelis and Palestinians are there to stay, and that they should both be able to live in security, dignity and peace in any future arrangement. We also believe that an end to Occupation is a crucial and necessary step towards achieving this goal.

 

Accordingly, those we profile represent a broad range of political and religious worldviews, and come from a variety of national and ethnic backgrounds. They are united by their commitment to nonviolent work on the ground as the primary means of bringing about a better future for Israelis and Palestinians.

 

 

NVR: How has “Budrus” been received by audiences in Israel and the Territories?

 

Budrus has been received incredibly well in both places. We had our Palestinian and Israeli premieres this past summer, and both were packed and very successful: The Palestinian premiere took place in the Ramallah Cultural Palace before an audience of over 700 Palestinians, Israelis and international visitors, and was attended by Her Majesty Queen Noor of Jordan who made her first-ever trip to Ramallah just to support the film and its message. That screening was covered extensively in the Palestinian and Israeli press (including a very positive 5-minute segment on Israel’s mainstream Channel 2 TV News), and brought the film to the attention of many across the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Since the premiere, requests have been coming in from dozens of Palestinian villages, many of them threatened themselves by the Barrier, who have requested screenings, and who have either used or plan to use the film as a basis for their discussions and their strategizing. We’ve also had requests to show the film at universities across the West Bank, and we held a screening in Gaza last year (and anticipate more in the coming year).

 

In Israel, the film premiered before sold-out audiences at the Jerusalem International Film Festival, and won a special jury prize. It has since screened in art-house cinemas around the country, including in the town of Sderot, which has been the target of rocket attacks from Gaza, and where reservist soldiers who had served in Budrus attended the screening and participated with us in a 90-minute discussion afterwards. We have also had several very successful screenings at Israeli universities and other educational institutions, at a pre-army training program (a “mechina”) and we have had interest from several high schools in showing the film. In nearly all of these cases, the screenings have been followed by meaningful discussions and audiences have clearly been moved by the events portrayed, and surprised by the fact that they had not heard of the nonviolent movement in Budrus beforehand.

 

 

NVR: Why is it important to make films like this one? What does Just Vision hope to achieve by creating a film like “Budrus”?

 

Budrus, like Just Vision’s other materials, is intended to shine a spotlight on the people we should be hearing about most, but who, for whatever reasons, actually end up getting almost entirely ignored by the mainstream media. There are hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Israelis and Palestinians working tirelessly every day towards nonviolent solutions to the conflict, often putting themselves at considerable risk while doing so, yet too often their actions are brushed off as naïve or insignificant while the extremists get the lion’s share of attention and coverage. Budrus aims to show that not only do joint Palestinian-Israeli nonviolent movements exist, but that they are also able to have a major positive impact in terms of bringing about change and progress on the ground.

 

It is our hope that with Budrus and our other materials, we will be able to cut through the apathy, and change the conversation in this country, as well as in Israeli and Palestinian society regarding what is possible in the Middle East when people on the ground make a sincere and concerted effort to build coalitions and work without arms towards a better future.

 

 

NVR: One of the figures who appears in the film is identified as being affiliated with Hamas –while it is clear that the people of the village have embraced non-violence, it seems odd that a member of Hamas, a group which is unceasing in its call for the destruction of Israel, would also appear in this film – Have others noted this dissonance? Is it something that was discussed among the Just Vision leadership or the filmmakers themselves?

 

The issue of Hamas has certainly come up in our discussions around the film. I’ll say outright that I find Hamas’s ideology abhorrent and wouldn’t dream of acting as an apologist for their policies. Yet what you see in the film is how the extremist policies and militant slogans that are thrown around by the leadership in the public arena can be replaced on the local and personal level with constructive partnerships and pragmatic thinking.

 

Ultimately, I think that Ayed [one of the central Palestinian protagonists in Budrus and a member of Fatah] says it best in the film itself: he is an ardent critic of Hamas’s ideology, yet he recognizes that they have the power to make or break any social movement in Palestinian society. Instead of taking them on as an adversary and creating a zero sum game that would lead to ideological entrenchment, Ayed decided to work with them around a shared pragmatic goal of saving the village’s land. In so doing, he got their local leadership to embrace a nonviolent approach, and to welcome Israelis into their village – both not exactly steps one would expect from the average Hamas member.

 

In my view, this is an impressive triumph of common goals and pragmatism over blind ideology and militancy. At the end of the day, we don't gain much by convincing those who are already inclined to be moderate. The really impressive stuff happens when people who would normally choose a militant path concede that nonviolence works better instead.

 

All of this to say that I don't see the participation of Hamas as a factor undermining the value of the unarmed movement in Budrus, but rather the opposite: if even Hamas members could overcome their ideological differences with Fatah and Israel to join and endorse a combined Israeli-Palestinian nonviolent movement, then that speaks volumes in terms of the power and reach of that movement.

 

 

NVR: Can you tell us a little about the kinds of things we can expect to see from Just Vision in the coming year? Are there any projects that you are personally particularly excited about?

 

First off, we will continue our work to bring Budrus and our first film Encounter Point to as broad a range of audiences as possible, both here in the US and in Israeli and Palestinian societies. We’re now finishing up the theatrical stage of our US screenings of Budrus and are starting to bring it to universities, schools, religious congregations and other community groups. We’ll also be working to continue showing the film in a number of high profile settings, such as at the State Department’s Foreign Service Institute and US Congress. I’m personally very eager to show the film and engage in meaningful discussions with new audiences that we weren’t able to reach in the theaters.

At the same time, we are moving ahead on all cylinders with our other projects. We just released a new “Ten Unsung Visionaries of 2010” slideshow on our website, profiling some of the Israeli and Palestinian visionaries working on the ground who have inspired us most over the past year. These are part of a database of dozens of visionaries whose interviews we have on our website and which we are constantly adding to. Over the coming year, we’re going to be unveiling new ways to connect audiences around the world more directly to these visionaries, through “Twitter Tours” of their day to day lives, and through other interactive new media tools we’ll be introducing on our website.

 

Finally, we’re going to be releasing a new short film this summer that covers the development of a joint Israeli-Palestinian nonviolent movement in East Jerusalem, which we’re all very excited about. We’ll be sharing more news about this new project a little later on this year.

 

 

NVR: Can you tell us a little about your own background and how you came to work at Just Vision?

 

I grew up in Israel, and after completing my service in the Israeli Army, came to the US for undergraduate studies at Harvard University. While at Harvard, my academic focus was on the intersection between politics and popular culture, and specifically the ways in which contemporary Israeli cinema reflects trends in modern Israeli society. During this time, I also began to explore documentary filmmaking, producing a short film, Comfort Food, which explored the role of hummus in the context of the Israeli-Arab conflict.

 

Prior to joining Just Vision, I was involved extensively in conflict resolution efforts and human rights work. I am an active graduate of Seeds of Peace, an organization devoted to bringing together youth from areas of conflict, and I’ve organized and participated in multiple joint Israeli-Palestinian activities in Israel and in the West Bank. In the summer of 2008, I received a grant from Harvard University to intern as a researcher and fieldworker with Yesh Din, an Israeli human rights organization that assists Palestinians in ensuring that the rule of law is maintained by the Israeli authorities in the West Bank. I also spent some time writing and editing for the Let’s Go travel guide series, writing some of the historical and cultural introductions for the Let’s Go: Israel and the Palestinian Territories guide.

 

My decision to join Just Vision was driven by a desire to remain engaged and active on the Israeli-Palestinian issue while doing so from an optimistic, pragmatic and forward-looking perspective. I also wanted to find a way to continue combining my parallel interests in Middle Eastern affairs and film, while having the chance to remain firmly connected to work happening on the ground.

 

 

NVR: How can readers find out more about the work of Just Vision?

 

They can check out our regularly updated website at www.justvision.org, where they can sign up for our monthly mailing list, or they can write to us at info@justvision.org.

We also have a very active Facebook page (www.facebook.com/justvision - become a fan!), and Twitter feed which are both the best way to get the latest updates from us and find opportunities to connect to our work.

 

We’re also very interested in hearing from you at this point if you have ideas for screening venues for Budrus or Encounter Point, or if you’d like to bring Just Vision to your campus or community. Feel free to get in touch with us if you do.

 

 

NVR: Is there anything else you would like to add?

 

With an eye towards current events, given everything that is going on now in Egypt and Tunisia and elsewhere in Arab world, I think it is a particularly relevant time to be talking about the power of grassroots movements and the importance of having a local model to emulate. I don’t want to overstate the similarity between the case of Israelis and Palestinians and other nations in the region, because the contexts are very different, but there is no question that the developments in the Arab world (together with Al Jazeera’s leaked “Palestine Papers”) have underscored the extent to which a top-down approach to governing and peacemaking can only go so far if it doesn’t have the backing of ordinary civilians living and working on the ground. All of us who hope for a more peaceful future for Israelis and Palestinians should remember that without joint grassroots efforts and genuine connections between people on the local level, any agreement between leaders is going to be shaky at best.

 

One of the most inspiring things about the story of Budrus is that it was a victory that was achieved by Palestinians and Israelis civilians working together, not in spite of each other, and who will now have lasting positive perspectives on one another. We should be looking to those who best embody this spirit of joint nonviolent action towards a better future, and providing them with a platform from which to serve as examples for all of us. That is what we strive to do at Just Vision.

 

 

 

Copyright The New Vilna Review 2011.