Just Vision

Activities

• Just Vision states that it is “non-partisan” and not “affiliated with any political or religious movement.”
• Just Vision has offices in New York, Washington D.C., and East Jerusalem.

Politicized Activities

• Just Vision partnered with +972 Magazine and Active Stills to create Local Call, the Hebrew version of +972 Magazine, a ‘blog-based magazine’ that “disrupts the Israeli mainstream conversation” and promotes a marginal agenda from the fringes of Israeli discourse, thus presenting a distorted sense of the debate in Israel.
• Just Vision has produced numerous films with a clear politicized slant and agenda.
  • Boycott (2021) “traces the impact of state legislation designed to penalize individuals and companies that choose to boycott Israel due to its human rights record.” According to Just Vision, “Boycott lays bare what is at stake for everyday American citizens. It also shows the power of courageous individuals who are taking on great risk to stand up for the rights of all.”
  • Budrus is a documentary about a Palestinian who “unites Palestinian political factions and invites Israeli supporters to join an unarmed movement to save his village of Budrus from destruction by Israel’s Separation Barrier.”
  • My Neighborhood is about a family who are “forced to give up part of their home to Israeli settlers, who are leading a campaign of court-sanctioned evictions to guarantee Jewish control of the area.”
  • Home Front: Portraits from Sheikh Jarrah is a “short film series” that captures “voices rarely heard, of those struggling to stop settlement expansion in East Jerusalem and build a future of pluralism and equality in the city.”
• In August 2021, Just Vision Executive Director Suhad Babaa participated in a webinar held by Americans for Peace Now discussing “why it was important for Ben & Jerry’s” to end its licensing agreement with its Israeli franchisee.
• In May 2021, Just Vision Outreach Associate Fadi Abu Shammala wrote an article calling to “implore parents in the U.S. to call on their elected leaders to stop unconditionally funding the country who is dropping…missiles.”
• In April 2021, Just Vision welcomed the decision of the International Criminal Court to launch a formal investigation into alleged war crimes committed by Israel in the “State of Palestine.” According to Just Vision, “This is a long-awaited and a critically important step towards ensuring the rule of law and ending impunity, while ensuring accountability for Israel’s crimes within the jurisdiction of the Court.”
• In November 2016, Just Vision released a “Statement for the United Nations International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People,” accusing Israel of “egregious, unchecked violations of international law … including extrajudicial killings of Palestinians, ongoing home demolitions and forcible displacement, collective punishment campaigns, discriminatory housing policies,[and] illegal settlement expansion.”
• Just Vision adopts a Palestinian narrative of the conflict, “We assert that the continuing occupation and Israeli settlement growth are illegal, immoral, and pose a major obstacle to any lasting solution, and recognize the rights of refugees in accordance with international law.”
• On its website, Just Vision provides “Tools for Change,” which includes a list of many highly biased and politicized NGOs active in the Arab-Israel conflict, including Adalah, Al-Mezan, Al-Haq, B’Tselem, Gisha, Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD), Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR), Who Profits, and Zochrot.
• Just Vision displays on its website “over 75 interviews with Palestinian and Israeli grassroots leaders working toward ending the occupation and building a future of freedom, dignity, equality and human security.” Many of these interviews are with members of highly biased and politicized NGOs active in the Arab-Israeli conflict, such as Rabbi Arik Ascherman (formerly of Rabbis for Human Rights), Sari Bashi (Human Rights Watch), Yehuda Shaul (Breaking the Silence), Sami Awad (Holy Land Trust), Itamar Shapira (Combatants for Peace), and Adi Dagan (Coalition of Women for Peace and Machsom Watch).

Employees

• Suhad Babaa
  • Babaa is Executive Director at Just Vision.
  • Before joining Just Vision, Babaa worked for Applied Research Institute of Jerusalem (ARIJ).
  • In November 2016, Babaa stated, “Next year will mark the shameful anniversary of 50 years of Israel’s military occupation and over 70 years of dispossession and subjugation of the Palestinian people. It also marks 30 years since the First Intifada, the most disciplined and sustained civil resistance effort in Palestinian history, a people powered movement that put such severe pressure on the machinery of the Israeli occupation that it demanded that the international community reckon with Palestinians’ right to self-determination for the first time.” (emphasis added)
  • In May 2013, Babaa spoke at Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP) conference on the topic of “ways in which ongoing settlement expansion and continued evictions in East Jerusalem are destroying the opportunity for an equitable and sustainable future in the city… the role Americans can play in supporting the efforts of Palestinian and Israeli nonviolent activists who are trying to stop or reverse these alarming trends.”
• Yael Marom
  • Marom is the Public Engagement Manager for Just Vision and the co-editor of Local Call (the Hebrew version of +972)
  • Before joining Just Vision, Marom was the spokesperson for Physicians for Human Rights- Israel (PHR-I).
  • In February 2017, following the termination of the CEO of +972 Sawsan Khalife, Khalife claimed Marom’s statement that a “Palestinian editor should not be the organization’s top priority” constituted racism, as well as alleging that Marom directed a derogatory slur towards her. (+972 and Khalife settled, and both sides withdrew their claims.)
• Sam Bahour
  • Sam Bahour, Just Vision Board Member, is a policy advisor at Al-Shabaka.
  • In a March 2015 article promoted on Al-Shabaka’s website, Bahour called on Palestinians to work to dismantle Israel as a Jewish state and implement a “one-state” framework: “If Palestinians redefine their self-determination away from statehood and toward civil rights, the game is over – even if the struggle for full civil rights lasts another 50 years. One day, Jewish Israelis and Jews around the world could find themselves gazing at the erstwhile ‘Jewish State’ and admiring (in spite of themselves) Israel’s new, grand, pluralistic incarnation….”
• Ronit Avni
  • Avni is the founder and former Executive Director (2003-2014) of Just Vision.
  • Avni was the producer and director of many of Just Vision’s films, including Budrus, Home Front, and My Neighborhood.
  • Before joining Just Vision, Avni worked for WITNESS, “train[ing] human rights defenders worldwide to incorporate film and digital media into their advocacy campaigns.”
  • In September 2013, Avni participated in a J Street conference where she screened the film My Neighborhood, as well as speaking on the topic of “Can films change the conversation about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?”
  • In February 2013, Avni spoke at an event about “the threat that Israeli settlements in East Jerusalem are posing to the two-state solution.” The event was sponsored by Americans for Peace Now, the Foundation for Middle East Peace, and the Telos Group,
  • In a June 2009 article in the Washington Post, Avni called on America to stop “funding and fueling” the Israeli settlements.