Love of the Land: B’Tselem’s One-Way Looking Glass

B’Tselem’s One-Way Looking Glass

NGO Monitor
07 January '10

Following last year’s Gaza war, B’Tselem gave out video cameras to “young volunteers,” many of whom are studying communications or journalism, and asked them to document their everyday lives in Gaza. The results were publicized in the New York Times and on the home page of YNet, a leading online news source in Israel. NGO Monitor has the following observations on this project and the publicity it has received.

B’Tselem’s video project is a constructive step in opening up lines of communication between the two sides of the conflict, but by not distributing cameras to Israeli citizens, B’Tselem presents a totally one-sided picture. The absence of any images of the effects of Hamas rocket attacks on Israeli victims emphasizes the politicization of human rights in the Arab-Israeli conflict, and B’Tselem’s role in this.

The videos:

One video, “Into the light,” exploits Palestinian children to deliver a message that demonizes Israel – “we are the pioneers of Palestine, alive but not alive” – while omitting any reference to the children of southern Israel who have been injured and killed by Hamas rockets.

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Love of the Land: B’Tselem’s One-Way Looking Glass