BUSTAN TV launched with a course training 17 Bedouin women in human rights, use of video for documentation, witnessing and remembrance, and editing techniques for documentary filmmaking.

 

The instructors of the course will be Oren Yakobovitch, Video Coordinator at B'Tselem, Yousef  Abu-Mdigem, documentary filmmaker, and Raed Al-Mickawi, Director of BUSTAN and journalist.

 

BUSTAN is deeply grateful for the support of the following: 

 

B'tselem, the leading source of information about human rights in the Occupied Territories for researchers, journalists, policymakers and the Israeli and international public, is pioneering the use of audio-visual materials based on its proven potential for achieving unprecedented impact in bringing about greater human rights protections.  B'Tselem developed the initiative Visual Impact: Documenting the Seldom Seen to document severe human rights abuses in the Occupied Territories on video, and use these visual images as a catalyst for change among decision makers and the Israeli public. The impact has been manifold: women and children we have trained in the use of video cameras have taken the most active role in documenting their own reality; community networks have developed to coordinate the filming of incidents; the presence of cameras has acted as a deterrent to violence in many cases where Jewish settlers realize they are being filmed; and the individuals filming have captured incidents that would otherwise have gone undetected. 

 

Witness is a human rights organization which uses video and online technology to open the eyes of the world to human rights violation. They are providing the training curriculum in Arabic. 

 

Yousef Abu-Mdigem,  who made the film “Al-Masoudinâ€? (The Lucky Ones), about a family in the unrecognized village of Wadi Na'am.  Yousef will teach documentary film and editing techniques. 

 

This projet received an award from the HDHRC within the context of 2008 WSF Global action day

 

The course began in June 2008.  For more information please contact Raed:  Raed@bustan.org

The human rights abuses faced by the Bedouin community are clearly articulated in several of the articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Articles 12, 13, 17,

21, 22, 25, 26 specifically).

 

There is a significant lack of adequate resources and infrastructure for education and health services; citizens are inhibited from their rights of movement, residence and property ownership; and equal social security providence is not provided to the population.

 

Bedouin communities are also exposed to extraordinary environmental hazards that threaten their health and livelihood. Bedouin community, this equates to 60 years of struggle for the right to exist on the lands that their ancestors have lived on for centuries while the Israeli government systematically criminalizes and inhibits the possibility for the Bedouin to continue to live on these lands. By labeling the villages as "illegal" through Development Legislation, the Israeli government legitimizes the demolition of homes and villages as well as the refusal to provide basic services such as water and electricity, despite the fact that the Bedouin are legal citizens of the state of Israel.