B'Tselem cameras pay off for victims of settler attacks

B'Tselem cameras pay off for victims of settler attacks
By Yuval Azoulay
Haaretz Last update - 13:38 17/06/2008

Three months ago, the B'Tselem human rights organization gave Muna al-Nawaja a video camera. Nawaja, 24, lives near the Israeli settlement of Sussya, in the southern West Bank. Between caring for her young son and tending the family's sheep, she learned to use the camera, fell in love with it and now carries it with her everywhere. But its "baptism of fire" occurred last week, on Sunday afternoon. Most Israelis were busy preparing for the Shavuot holiday. But some had a different priority: savagely beating Nawaja's relatives. She managed to capture a few seconds of the beating - in which her 57-year-old aunt was severely injured, and two uncles, age 60 and 33 were hurt - on film. But she never dreamed that it would prove to be the main, and possibly only, evidence available to the police investigating the assault. "There have been previous incidents in this area in which Palestinians were beaten; that is why they gave me a camera," she explained two days ago.

A few seconds before the attack occurred, Nawaja saw four masked men, some carrying clubs, approaching her relatives, who were tending the family flock. They were clearly not dropping by for coffee, so she aimed her camera at them. "I saw them coming from the direction of a Jewish settlement," she said. The men began beating her relatives, but the victims' screams brought no succor. "So at that point, I stopped filming and ran to summon help," she recalled. But by the time the police arrived, the assailants had fled.

B'Tselem, which used to make do with collecting oral testimony from Palestinians about alleged crimes against them, concluded last year that more graphic documentation was needed, on the theory that a picture is worth 1,000 words. "From our past experience, in many cases a Palestinian's word is given less weight than that of a soldier, a policeman or a settler," explained Oren Yakobovich, who heads the organization's video distribution project.

He said a large American Jewish organization, whose members visited Hebron and were shocked, donated a substantial sum of money to purchase the cameras. As part of its "Shooting Back" project, B'Tselem has distributed about 100 cameras to Palestinians throughout the West Bank over the last year. Of these, several dozen were handed out in the Hebron area, where friction between Palestinians and Israelis is routine.

Even in its pilot stage, about 18 months ago, the project proved its worth, when Rajah Abu Aisha of Hebron videotaped his Jewish neighbor, Yifat Alkobi, verbally assaulting his wife, including calling her a slut. A soldier was nearby, but did nothing. Since the "Shooting Back" project was launched, Palestinians have filed 15 complaints of assault or other rights violations, backed by video documentation, with the police and army.

"The army and the police welcome this," said Yakobovich. "They have documentation of the incidents, and that makes the investigation much shorter and quicker." He said the free cameras have also proved popular among the Palestinians. "There are people who call me and request a camera, because they want to feel protected. And undoubtedly, when they carry a camera, they suffer less violence, because a camera is a deterrent. There are even some who go around with a broken camera, just so that people won't come near them."

Nasser al-Nawaja, who distributes the cameras to Hebron-area Palestinians on B'Tselem's behalf, concurred. "Now, they feel that they are safer and better protected," he said. "That is our response. It is better than stones or aggressive weapons. We simply will film what happens here and show it to all of Israel, which doesn't really know what goes on in the territories."