The movie “5 Broken Cameras” is named in honor of the five cameras belonging to Palestinian journalist and filmmaker Emad Burnat that were destroyed over a five year period of filming the protests against the separation barrier at Bil’in, in the West Bank. (Photo: Ynet)
By Rabbi Barry Leff
The question of the social injustice is examined by Rabbi Barry Leff in theologically, politically and technological ways. Many crimes are prevented when the hidden is revealed. Dvar Torah to parashat ”Nitzavim”
Deut. 29:28 “The hiddenthings are forthe Lordour God, but the revealed things are for us and our children forever, to carry out all the words of this Torah.”
If you sin in secret, God will know. If you have yirat shamayim, if you are a “God-fearing” person, that should be enough to keep you on the straight and narrow.
The revealed things however, are for us to deal with. If we do not mete out justice when we become aware of sins, we are not fulfilling our responsibility to build a just society.
We also cannot allow our confidence that God will deal with the hidden things to be an excuse to ignore injustice around us.
We learn in the Mishnah (Pirkei Avot 2:1): “Consider three things and you will avoid sin: Know what is above you: an eye that sees, an ear that hears, and all your deeds written in a book.”
We can update that teaching in light of today’s technology: “Consider three things and you will avoid sin: Know what surrounds you: security cameras above you, cellphones that record video around you, and Twitter.”
Watch: The “5 Broken Cameras” trailer
The movie “5 Broken Cameras” is named in honor of the five cameras belonging to Palestinian journalist and filmmaker Emad Burnat that were destroyed over a five year period of filming the protests against the separation barrier at Bil’in, in the West Bank. Two were hit by bullets during filming; one was hit by a tear gas canister. That’s one courageous filmmaker.
The film brings the violence and injustice of the occupation into our living rooms. The demonstrations started because the routing of the separation barrier cut farmers off from their fields – in essence grabbing land for settlements at the expense of Palestinians. The Israeli Supreme Court eventually ruled in favor of the Palestinians, and the fence was moved.
In the film we see IDF troops dispersing crowds of unarmed demonstrators, using tear gas grenades – sometimes great fusillades of them – and in some cases live ammunition. The film shows numerous activists – not just Palestinian, but Israeli and foreign as well – injured by the IDF, and in one shocking scene a protester is killed.
Watch: Hebron – Border Police officer kicks Palestinian child, 2012
The Power of the Camera in the Protests
Recognizing the power of video, the B’tselem camera project is an explicit attempt to use cameras to move sins from the “hidden” to the “revealed.” Since 2007 B’tselem has distributed hundreds of video cameras to Palestinians in the West Bank to make it possible to have a record of IDF misbehavior.
The videos are admittedly somewhat flawed as a vehicle for determining exactly what happened. Did the cameraman film whatever it was that provoked the IDF response? Was the film edited?
Watch: Israeli soldiers brutally attack Palestinians and ISM activists on bike ride
Despite those problems, video footage has been used in disciplinary action against IDF troops. In April, 2012, Lt. Col. Shalom Eisner was sanctioned for hitting a Danish protester, even though he himself was apparently injured in the altercation.
However, some of the footage shows events that cannot be justified because of provocation. One of the B’tselem videos shows a soldier kicking a ten-year-old child who is lying on the ground. Many sins that previously were hidden are now revealed. And it is up to us to deal with them.
If we turn a blind eye to such abuses we become parties to the crime. If we do not speak out against these wrongs, we are complicit by our silence.
We cannot put our heads in the sand and say “God will take care of it.” This week’s parsha commands us “the revealed things are for us,” they are our responsibility to address. And with the proliferation of cameras on phones, there is much more that is revealed to us.
Shabbat Shalom
Join our Human Rights Tour For Jewish Leadership October 2nd- 9th
If you are organizing a group tour to Israel/Palestine or traveling on your own, Rabbis for Human Rights would be happy to meet with you!
The videos all make a point about things not being hidden anymore.
5 Broken Cameras is a movie — you should watch the whole movie.
Some of the other videos, for example, kicking a child, there is no excuse for, I don’t care what the provocation was.
The video of the demonstrators was upheld as showing something problematic since the IDF disciplined the officer in question.
Thanks a lot for providing individuals with a very splendid opportunity to check tips from this blog. It really is so good and jam-packed with a lot of fun for me and my office friends to visit your web site the equivalent of 3 times a week to learn the fresh tips you will have. Of course, I am also certainly contented concerning the wonderful suggestions you give. Certain 1 ideas on this page are rather the most efficient we’ve ever had.
My husband and i were so thankful when Albert managed to conclude his investigation from your ideas he came across through your web site. It is now and again perplexing to simply possibly be giving away information some others could have been selling. Therefore we consider we now have the blog owner to appreciate for that. Those explanations you made, the straightforward website navigation, the relationships you give support to engender – it’s got mostly overwhelming, and it’s letting our son and our family believe that the article is brilliant, which is exceedingly mandatory. Thank you for everything!
Thank you for another fantastic post. Where else could anybody get that type of information in such a perfect way of writing? I have a presentation next week, and I am on the look for such information.