Pulling Jerusalem Back From the Brink

‘My Neighbourhood’, directed by Julia Bacha and Rebekah Wingert-Jabi, tells the story of Mohammed El Kurd, a Palestinian teenager growing up in the heart of East Jerusalem. When Mohammed's family is forced to give up a part of their home to Israeli settlers, local residents begin peaceful protests and in a surprising turn, are quickly joined by scores of Israeli supporters. Mohammed comes of age in the face of unrelenting tension with his neighbours and unexpected cooperation with Israeli allies in his backyard.

Julia Bacha is a media strategist and award-winning filmmaker whose work has been exhibited at Sundance, Tribeca, Berlin, Jerusalem, and Dubai International Film Festivals, and broadcast on the BBC, HBO, Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya television channels. She is the Creative Director at Just Vision. Most recently Julia directed and produced ‘Budrus’ (2009), which had a palpable impact on US and Arab media coverage of nonviolent resistance in the Middle East, and co-directed and produced ‘My Neighbourhood’ (2012), which had its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival and was subsequently screened at the European Parliament. Julia is a term member at the Council on Foreign Relations and her TEDTalk “Pay Attention to Nonviolence” has been viewed by hundreds of thousands of people worldwide.

Daniel Levy is the Director of the Middle East and North Africa Programme at ECFR. He is also a Senior Fellow at the New America Foundation, and a founding co-editor of foreignpolicy.com’s Middle East Channel. Levy is a Board member of the New Israel Fund and former Israeli official peace negotiator and adviser in the PM’s office.