​B’Tselem: Documenting Gaza through the eyes of of those who live there

Citizentube is at the third annual Alliance of Youth Movements Summit, a convening of youth activists from all over the world who are using new media and technology to achieve advance social justice missions, in London this week.

Yesterday, I met Yoav Gross, the Israeli Video Director of B’Tselem, a human rights organization documenting the plight of Gaza/West Bank civilians through video. The organization has distributed 150 cameras to Palestinian civilians with the hope of seeing the conflict through their eyes. It’s a view, Gross says, many global citizens never see.

In this video, for example, a handcuffed Palestinian man is shot with a rubber-coated bullet by a soldier:



The video was shot by a Palestinian youth through the window of her home, and given to B’Tselem, who turned it over to the Military Police Investigation Unit. An investigation was opened into the matter. This is another goal of distributing cameras - so that they can provide proof to police about the incidents taking place in these areas.

In this video, one of the most-viewed on the B’Tselem YouTube channel, a settler from a Jewish settlement in Hebron is seen harassing women from neighboring home. In the video you can see the metal cage that the family built around their home to prevent attack:



Western mainstream media has picked up on some of B’Tselem’s footage (see this NBC Nightly News piece about the organization) but much of it - like this video uploaded in January, which documents teens working under poor conditions in the Rafah Tunnels, a main passageway for food, medicine and weapons into Gaza due to border restrictions - have received less widespread attention.

For more footage from B’Tselem, please see www.youtube.com/btselem.