Visualizing Palestine: 2020 Year in Review
2020 Releases
This year, Visualizing Palestine released 5 short films, 2 interactives, and 13 infographics, and updated 2 ongoing interactive projects. VP Members and Member Matchers contributed the main source of funding to Visualizing Palestine’s core visual production in 2020, making this work an expression of a global, grassroots community committed to advancing a factual, rights-based narrative of the situation in Palestine and Israel (learn more about VP Membership).
SEP So Close Yet So Far (in English and in Arabic)A series of animations telling the true stories of 5 Palestinian families separated by Israeli policy,
AUG Watched Collaboration with the Arizona Palestine Solidarity Alliance combining knowledge from different communities: Tohono O’odham, migrant, and Palestinian
JUL Annexation Q&A Widely shared, rights-based commentary on Israel’s annexation plan, using visuals from our Visualizing Palestine 101 series, accompanied by an article
JUL Growth of a Movement Marking 15 years since the call for BDS by Palestinian civil society with new data on movement highlights
JUN The Use of Tear Gas on Protesters A visual on our right to protest colonialism and white supremacy, free of suppression. Accompanied by our article “Less Lethal is a Lie”
MAY Palestine, Today An interactive map and counter-mapping project that explores 1,196 towns, villages, and cities before and after the Nakba
APR Elbit Series A series about Israel’s largest weapons company and collective action to hold it to account, created in collaboration with the global Stop Elbit campaign
MAR Gaza Health Access (series) Series of visuals based on World Health Organization data about the right to health in Gaza, translated to 20 languages by volunteers
MAR Who’s Complicit? Interactive visualization of the United Nations list of companies operating in illegal Israeli settlements
MAR From Savings to Settlements Visual about the role of Israeli banks in the illegal settlement enterprise, to support activists encouraging foreign entities to divest
We also maintained ongoing projects like Palestine Open Maps (where you can now download 338 historic maps of Palestine) and Visualizing Palestine 101.
That’s a significant and unique body of work coming out of a small team, and it left a large imprint on our movement.
Equipping a Global Movement in 2020
In 2020, VP resources were downloaded daily by students, activists, and educators; shared widely by key people and groups communicating for human rights; and reached an estimated 904,000 people through VP’s direct channels.
Equipping Organizers
VP’s work directly serves principled, anti-racist collective action, communicating the rights-based narrative at the heart of our movement. In 2020, VP visuals supported campaigns to stop Elbit Systems; to oppose Israel’s official annexation plans; for university divestment to hold companies to account for profiting off of human rights abuses; and for recognition that Israel is committing the crime of apartheid.
“The Growth of a Movement timeline is a crucial resource documenting the global impact of the BDS movement for Palestinian rights. We greatly value VP’s role in visualizing and disseminating movement knowledge through appealing materials that we often rely on for education and campaigning.” Mahmoud Nawajaa, General Coordinator, BDS National Committee (BNC)
“Organizers tap into VP resources because they are highly effective in capturing key data and messages. This year, we collaborated with VP on a series of visuals and a campaign to hold Elbit Systems to account, which have been widely used and have helped explain Elbit Systems’ complicity with Israeli apartheid. We will continue to use their resources to galvanize people to action.” Alys Samson Estapé, BNC Europe Campaigns Coordinator
“Collaborating on the Watched visual, VP and the Arizona Palestine Solidarity Alliance created a tool that effectively brought together and summarized key messages from multiple critical sources of information at the intersection of Tohono O’odham, migrant, and Palestinian movements for justice. We will be using this visual often.” Gabe Schivone, Arizona Palestine Solidarity Alliance
“Your visuals are among the most persuasive, moving, and powerful messages about this tragedy.” Community organizer, Detroit, US, February 2020
“I have rarely seen such complex issues visualized in such an accessible way.” Community organizer, Copenhagen, Denmark, June 2020
Equipping Educators
Many formal curriculums do not center equality and justice, so social movements play an important role in education. In 2020, teachers and community educators tapped into VP tools to educate and re-educate people of all ages and backgrounds, inside and outside of formal classrooms.
“VP’s visuals are an indispensable tool for teaching unfamiliar — and often resistant — audiences about Palestine. Not only are they beautiful and engaging, they are also relentlessly on-message, always conveying factually bulletproof information in a thoughtful framing that advances their audience’s understanding of both the specific topic and the broader Palestinian struggle for rights, freedom, and dignity.” Fred, Harvard College, Palestine Trek leader, March 2020
“I find that students respond to infographics…These are some of the most striking and beautiful and passionate visual tools I’ve ever seen. I’ve yet to see anything top VP visuals.” Professor, Oklahoma, April 2020
“Your visuals offer an accessible and engaging means of learning. This is especially useful as a teacher, since many of my students are visual learners.” High school teacher, Istanbul, Turkey, June 2020
“We will be able to show (rather than just tell) South African university students attending our discussions the impact of Israeli Apartheid.” Community educator, South Africa, March 2020
Equipping Students
Student groups from 118 universities have used VP visuals for campus organizing since 2015. This year, students were forced off campus and into virtual classrooms by COVID-19, but they continued organizing for institutional change, and our work continued to be an accessible, relevant resource to them.
“We are huge fans of your visuals. We are a student led campaign group…our goal during the next few weeks of quarantine around the world is to keep people’s involvement with Palestinian Rights advocacy going.” Student in London, UK, March 2020
“We’re using these visuals because they show the occupation brilliantly and because we want to teach people…you don’t see a lot of infographics, graphs, etc. around the occupation of Palestine like this with descriptions and research.” Student union, Berkeley, CA, US, March 2020
“Excellent in helping to educate others with little or no knowledge of the topic. Clear, concise.” Apartheid Off Campus, Dundee, UK July 2020
“We are obsessed with how accessible your visuals are in terms of helping educate people on the occupation!” Student in London, UK, January 2020
622 VP Members in 43 Countries
In 2020, VP Members and Member Matchers contributed the primary source of funding to VP projects. Quite simply, we are here today because members answered our call at a critical time, becoming a resilient and engaged community that has slowly grown each year.
In 2017, we launched the VP Membership program with 90 Members. In 2018, we reached 340. In 2019, we passed 500.
Today, VP is possible because of a community of 622 members in 253 cities and 43 countries.
Thank you for being part of Visualizing Palestine.
Whether you followed along with our work, used it in your own efforts, volunteered with us, or contributed as a Member, you are a valuable part of our community and of the broader movement for Palestinian freedom, justice, and equality.
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Contact us: data@visualizingimpact.org
