Tour participants launch Arabic and Hebrew 'media storms' for Atir & Umm al-Hiran
On Friday 22 May 2015 and Saturday 23 May 2015, Adalah organized and hosted two tours to the twin Bedouin villages of Atir and Umm al-Hiran in the Naqab (Negev) for journalists, bloggers, photographers, and other media professionals.
The first tour on 22 May was joined by 14 Israeli Hebrew-speaking journalists from Ha’aretz, Galei Zahal, TV Channel 10 and others. In addition to visiting Atir and Umm al-Hiran, the group also toured several other unrecognized and newly recognized villages, as well as government-planned towns in the Naqab. Adalah Hebrew Media Spokesperson Tom Mehager and Adalah Naqab Researcher, Khalil El-Amour, accompanied the group.
The second tour on 23 May was convened in partnership with Hamleh – The Arab Center for Social Media Advancement. 48 Palestinian Arab journalists, photographers and bloggers joined the tour to Atir and Umm al-Hiran, accompanied by members of the Baladna Association for Arab Youth, and Bedouin community leaders including from the Regional Council for Unrecognized Villages in the Naqab. Adalah Arabic Media Spokesperson Majd Kayyal and the Director of Baladna, Nadim Nashif, accompanied the group. Major Arabic media outlets such as Al-Jazeera and Araby al-Jadeed joined the tour.
During the tour, the journalists, bloggers and photographers engaged in a “social media storm”, across social networking sites, providing intensive coverage of the issue with photographs and videos, including visuals of young residents of the village. These visual media products will be used for the #Save_UmAlHiran campaign in the coming weeks.
Below are examples of links to written articles, videos and photographs taken by the participants in the tours:
Live broadcast via Al-Jazeera of social media posts written by activists and participants in the tour: click here.
“Arab al-Jadeed” report, including a written feature, video, and images: click here.
Al-Jazeera report: click here.
The Arabic Facebook page for the campaign: click here.
Adalah is continuing to seek creative ideas and proposals to further develop and benefit the campaign. After more than a decade of litigation, Adalah Attorney Suhad Bishara, who has been representing the villagers over all of the years, emphasized that the legal struggle is still at the beginning, and that the families will succeed in their goal to defend their right to remain in their village.
