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I would like to start

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with the story of Mary,

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a woman from an African village.

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Her first memories

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are of her family fleeing violent riots

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orchestrated

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by the ruling political party.

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Her brother was murdered

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by the state-sponsored militia,

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and she was raped more than once

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just because she belonged
to the wrong party.

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One morning, a month before the election,

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Mary's village was called to
another intimidation meeting.

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In this meeting, these men
standing in front of them

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telling them, "We know who you are,

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we know who you will vote for,

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and if you're not going
to drop the right paper,

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we're going to take revenge."

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But for Mary, this meeting is different.

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She feels different.

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This time, she's waiting for this meeting,

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because this time, she's carrying

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a small hidden camera in her dress,

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a camera that nobody else can see.

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Nobody is allowed to film
in these meetings.

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You risk your life if you do.

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Mary knows that, but she also knows

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that the only way to stop them

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and to protect herself

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and her community

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is to expose their intimidation,

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to make sure they understand

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somebody is following them,

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to break the impunity they feel.

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Mary and her friends were filming

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for months undercover

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the intimidation of
the ruling political party.

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(Video) [Filmed With Hidden Cameras]

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Man: We are going to speak
about the upcoming elections.

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Nothing can stup us from doing what we want.

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If we hear you are with [the opposition]

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we will not forgive you.

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[Militia Intimidation Rally]

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[The Party] can torture you at any time.

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The youth can beat you.

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[Disruption of Political Meeting]

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For those who lie, saying they are back with [the Party],

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your time is running out.

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[Party Youth Militia]

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Some have died because they rebelled.

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Some have lost their homes.

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If you don't work together with [the Party],

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you will lead a very bad life.

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Oren Yakobovich: These images
were broadcast all over the world,

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but more importantly,

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they have been broadcast

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back to the community.

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The perpetrators saw them too.

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They understood somebody
is following them.

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They got scared. Impunity was broken.

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Mary and her friends forced

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the ruling political party

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not to use violence during the election,

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and saved hundreds of lives.

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Mary is just one of hundreds of people

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that my organization had helped

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to document human rights violations

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using cameras.

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My background should have
led me to a different direction.

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I was born in Israel

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to a right-wing family,

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and as long as I remember myself,

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I wanted to join the Israeli army

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to serve my country and prove that I was

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what I believed was our right

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for the whole land.

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I joined the Israeli army just after

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the first intifada,
the first Palestinian uprising,

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and I served in one of the hard-minded,

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toughest, aggressive infantry units,

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and I got the biggest gun in my platoon.

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Quite fast, I became an officer

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and got soldiers under my command,

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and as time passed, I started
serving in the West Bank,

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and I saw these images.

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I didn't like what I saw.

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It took me a while,

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but eventually I refused
to serve in the West Bank

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and had to spend time in jail.

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It was a bit

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— (Applause) —

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It was not that bad, I have to say.

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It was a bit like being in a hotel,

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but with very shitty food.

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In jail, I kept thinking that

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I need people to know,

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I need people to understand

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what's the reality
in the West Bank looks like.

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I need them to hear what I heard,

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I need them to see what I saw,

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but I also understood, we needed

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Palestinians themselves,

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the people that are suffering,

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to be able to tell their own stories,

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not journalists or filmmakers

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that are coming outside of the situation.

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I joined a human rights organization,

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Israeli human rights
organization called B'Tselem.

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Together, we analyzed the West Bank

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and picked a hundred families that
are living in the most risky places:

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close to checkpoints, near army bases,

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side by side with settlers.

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We gave them cameras and training.

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Quite fast, we started getting

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very disturbing images

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about how the settlers

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and the soldiers are abusing them.

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I would like to share with you

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two clips from this project.

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Both of them were broadcast in Israel,

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and it created a massive debate,

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and I have to warn you,

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some of you might find them

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quite explicit.

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The masked men you will see in the first clips

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are Jewish settlers.

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Minutes before the camera was turned on,

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they approached a Palestinian family

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that was working their land

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and told them that they
have to leave the land,

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because this land belongs
to the Jewish settlers.

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The Palestinians refused.

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Let's see what happened.

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The masked men that are approaching

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are Jewish settlers.

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They are approaching
the Palestinian family.

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This is a demonstration in the West Bank.

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The guy in green is Palestinian.

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He will be arrested in a second.

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Here you see him
blindfolded and handcuffed.

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In a few seconds, he regrets he came

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to this demonstration.

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He'd been shot in the foot

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with a rubber bullet.

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He is okay.

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Not all the settlers and the soldiers

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are acting this way.

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We're talking about a tiny minority,

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but they have to be brought to justice.

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This clips, and others like them,

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forced the army and the police
to start investigations.

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They've been shown in Israel, of course,

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and the Israeli public
was exposed to them also.

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This project redefined
the struggle for human rights

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in the Occupied Territories,

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and we managed to reduce

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the number of violent attacks

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in the West Bank.

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The success of this project
got me thinking

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how I can take the same methodology

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to other places in the world.

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Now, we tend to believe that today,

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with all of the technology,

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the smartphone and the Internet,

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we are able to see and understand

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most of what's happening in the world,

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and people are able to tell their story,

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but it's only partly true.

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Until today, with all
the technology we have,

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less than half of the world's population

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has access to the Internet,

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and more than three billion people

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— I'm repeating the number,

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three billion people — are consuming news

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that is censored by those in power.

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More or less around the same,

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I'm approached by a great guy
named Uri Fruchtmann.

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He's a filmmaker and an activist.

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We understood we are
thinking along the same line,

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and we decided to establish Videre,

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our organization, together.

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While building the organization in London,

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we've been traveling undercover to places

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where community was suffering from abuses,

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where mass atrocities were happening,

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and there was a lack of reporting.

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We tried to understand how we can help.

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There were four things that I learned.

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The first thing is that we have to engage

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with communities that are
living in the rural areas,

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where violations are happening
far from the public eyes.

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We need to partner with them,

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and we need to understand which images

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are not making it out there

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and help them to document them.

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The second thing I learned

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is that we have to enable them to film

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in a safe way.

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Security has to be the priority.

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Where I used to work before,
in the West Bank,

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one can take a camera out,

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most likely not going to get shot,

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but in places we wanted to work,

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just try to pull a phone out,
and you're dead, literally dead.

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This is why we decided

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to take the operation undercover

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when necessary,

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and use mostly hidden cameras.

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Unfortunately, I can't show you
the hidden cameras we're using today

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for obvious reasons,

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but this is cameras we used before.

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You can buy them off the shelf.

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Today, we're building a custom-made

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hidden camera,

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like the one that Mary was wearing

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in her dress to film
the intimidation meeting

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of the ruling political party.

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It's a camera that nobody can see

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that blends into the environment,

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into the surroundings.

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Now, filming securities go beyond

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using hidden cameras.

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Being secure starts way before

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the activist is turning the camera on.

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To keep our partners safe,

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we work to understand
the risk of every location

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and of every shot before it's happened,

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building a backup plan
if something goes wrong,

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and make sure we have everything in place

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before our operations start.

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The third thing I learned

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is the importance of verification.

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You can have an amazing shot of atrocity,

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but if you can't verify it,

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it's worth nothing.

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Recently, like in the ongoing war in Syria

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or the war in Gaza, we've seen images

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that are staged or brought
from a different conflict.

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This misinformation destroys

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the credibility of the source,

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and it's harmed the credibility of other

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reliable and trustworthy sources.

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We use a variety of ways to make sure

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we can verify the information

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and we can trust the materials.

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It's starting with vetting the partners,

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understanding who they are,

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and working with them very intensively.

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How do you film a location?

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You film road signs, you film ???,

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you film newspapers.

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We are checking maps, looking maps,

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double-checking the information,

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and looking also at the metadata

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of the material.

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Now, the fourth and the most
important thing I learned

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is how you use images to create

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a positive change.

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To have an effect,

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the key thing is how you use the material.

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Today, we're working
with hundreds of activists

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filming undercover.

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We work with them both

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to understand the situation on the ground

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and which images are missing

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to describe it.