This is a liveblog of a talk by Ramzi Jaber entitled Visualizing Impact: Data Driven Journalism in Palestine at MIT on February 27, 2015. It was blogged by Erhardt Graeff and Dalia Othman.
Ramzi Jaber is the co-founder and co-director of Visualizing Palestine, an initiative to amplify civil society actors working in Palestine through powerful and shareable design work. It is the first project of a larger effort called Visualizing Impact, an interdisciplinary nonprofit.
Ramzi begins by showing a data visualization of politician’s salaries across the Arab world and Africa. It was inspired by Lebanese politicians salary, where politicians still earn their salary after their deaths. In the case of Norway and Hungary the politician earns more than the citizen, but still stares the citizen in the face. Lebanon and Jordan at about 15 times and Palestine at 24 times and Kenya at 97 times are far from the average citizen.
Visualizing Impact is about “visual stories for social justice.” Ramzi mentions the issue of administrative detention—an archaic law, a vestige of British colonialism—that is still being used and exploited to put thousands in jail. It has been used by Lebanon, Israel, and Jordan. One detainee, Khader Adnan, had enough and started a hunger strike. A campaign started on Twitter to support Adnan with the hashtag #dying2live. It wasn’t until day 50 that the first media outlet (Al Jazeera) reported on Khader Adnan’s hunger strike, then other outlets followed around the world. Eventually at day 66 Khader Adnan ended his hunger strike and was soon released.
To aid the effort, the Visualizing Palestine team looked through 21 medical reports to visualize what happens to the body when you go on hunger strike. Journalists, activists, and authors used the visuals and shared them on social media.
VP has created a series of visualizations since then. Looking at topics like:
- A Policy of Displacement, using data from organizations like the House Demolition Committee
- West Bank Water, he talks about the amount of rainfall in Ramallah as opposed to London.
- Across the Wall represents Israel’s settlement bus routes, by scraping data from multiple sites and visualising that by using GIS
- Checkpoint Births presents maps about the checkpoints and the restrictions to movement and the number of women that have given birth at checkpoints
- Typologies of Segregation is a map about the roads that are restricted for Palestinians with data from B’tselem.
- Uprooted visualizes the deforestation of olive trees by Israel that would otherwise be the agricultural and economic heritage of Palestinians.
- Where Law Stands on the Wall looks at the legality of the wall being built on Palestinian land
At some point a lot of people were asking VP why they were visualizing issues strictly about Palestine. So Ramzi and the team decided to create infographics about how to make infographics to spread their model of data storytelling to make change. They are also partnering with Egyptian news company Mada Masr to create visuals on Egyptian issues.
One visual was created about Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, many refugees can’t work, banned by labor law in Palestine. Another visual provides information about refugees in Syria, Ramzi “The situation in Syria is really bad that some of the refugees had to go to Gaza”
The Visualizing Impact visuals have been displayed in art galleries as well as advertisements. Ramzi shows one on display in the DC Metro. The infographics have been translated into 10+ languages all by volunteers; Ramzi compliments the Koreans on being particularly generous and fast in their translations.
Another effort VP is working on in partnership is “The Palestinian Guide to Keeping Yourself Occupied.” Here Ramzi began quoting statistics around Palestinian governance and citizenry. 80% of the PA’s revenue is directly controlled by others such as Israel. Their security budget is about 36% which is higher than most countries and high for an interim government. 67% of West Bank Palestinians feel they are living in an undemocratic system. The PLO represents Palestinians with 37% of them residing in Palestine and the remainder 63% are either refugees or live in the diaspora.
Ramzi says part of VP’s current plan focuses on the ID system in the OPT. In South Africa, they had a number of different ethnicities in SA. There was a pencil test in South Africa where people placed pencils in their hair, if the pencil slipped then the person was considered white, if it did not then they were considered non-white. In 1950, SA introduced the ID system, and each ID number represented your ethnic race. There is similar situation in Israel, with specific numbers for different IDs. VP visualized where in Israel/Palestine the different IDs give you access: Blue (Israeli) or Green (Palestinian Authority). A green card ID holder is not permitted to enter Israel, drive the same car, etc.
Ramzi mentioned another project he’s now pursuing to look at online censorship. He’s inspired by the Anti-SOPA movement in the United States and the blackout day on the internet, which was an effective tactic in inspiring policy change and may represent where VP could go in the future in their campaigns.
VP is not without critics. Groups like CAMERA have challenged them on their factual basis and sources.
Question & Answer
Can you tell us a bit about you?
Ramzi was born in Jerusalem and had studied engineering in UAE. He wanted to return to Palestine and thought of starting TEDx there.
How big is the team and how are you funded?
The team is currently at nine people. Our funding depends on contracts with organizations such as UN, OXFAM, and ILO amongst others. VI also receive grants from a number of foundations.
How much exposure does your work get within Palestine?
Not as much as I’d like to, and that’s mainly because the infographics were set up to influence foreign policy and for the Palestinian Diaspora. We started in Ramallah and we had one team member who was crossing the borders to start working with us, but he was stopped at the borders and denied entry by Israel, so we were forced to move our offices abroad. We have an office in Lebanon and soon in Toronto.
Have there been active efforts to shut you down?
No, we have not.There was one instance where we created a video in reaction to a short posted by Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon. Our video went viral and Danny Ayalon actually published a video in response.
Do you have coverage in Israel?
Well, Israeli media keeps Israelis in the dark about Palestine.
What metrics do you used to measure your impact?
There are two kinds of measurements, qualitative and quantitative. We hear anecdotal evidence all the time, but it’s hard to always measure the number of downloads since our visuals are CC, but we also look at number of shares on social media.
How do you ensure the integrity of your data?
All our sources are from organizations and you can click on the data on the site next to each visual.
There is a difference between infographics and data visualizations and are you considering doing some data visualizations?
Yes, we’re working on that.
What about other countries?
Yes, we have focused on Lebanon and Syria. We are now creating Visualizing Egypt. But we have to partner with local organization to work in it.
Are there ways for us to donate?
Yes, go to the VP site.