About Us
When B'Tselem was founded in 1989, its focus was to inform the Israeli public about the realities of life in the Occupied Territories. (For a more detailed introduction to B'Tselem and the issues we focus on, please visit our website at www.btselem.org).
The organization developed a reputation for credible, accurate information and research. This was the key to our efforts in reaching some of the least receptive elements of the Israeli public. However, since the start of the second Intifada - or Palestinian uprising - in 2002, and the subsequent deterioration of the situation in the territories, it has been increasingly difficult to find a receptive audience among the Israeli public, as we find a “conspiracy of silence" surrounding issues of violations of Palestinians' basic human rights.
Over the years, B'Tselem has adopted various strategies in order to overcome this gap. With the onset of the Intifada and the ensuing war of images that testified to the power of television and the internet in shaping the public's attitudes, we integrated video into our fieldwork and the first cameras were given to our field researchers.
Video Archive
To date B'Tselem has collected over 1,000 hours of footage from our fieldworkers, from Palestinians to whom we have given cameras, from local and international photographers. This footage has been entered into adigitalized archive with extensive search capabilities. The archive is made available to filmmakers, television and internet news services.
We also produce our own short films on key human rights issues we seek to highlight. You will find some of these posted in this group.
