Ronit Avni is the Founder and Executive Director of Just Vision, a non-profit that researches, documents and creates media about Palestinian and Israeli civilian-led efforts to resolve the conflict nonviolently. Ronit directed and produced the documentary film, Encounter Point, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and won the Audience Award for Best Documentary from the San Francisco International Film Festival as well as the Docupolis award for Best First Documentary. Encounter Point screened in 200 cities worldwide and in festivals from Vancouver to Dubai to Jerusalem. On account of her work, Ronit received the 2005 Auburn Seminary’s ‘Lives of Commitment’ Award and appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show in 2005 with her colleague, Joline Makhlouf.

Prior to launching Just Vision, Ronit worked for Peter Gabriel’s human rights organization, WITNESS, where she trained non-governmental organizations from Afghanistan to the Gambia to produce videos to deter further human rights abuses, to educate and mobilize communities, and to provide evidence before courts and tribunals. She co-edited the book, Video for Change: A Guide for Advocacy and Activism (Pluto Press, UK), with staff from WITNESS. Ronit’s essay, “Inverting the Shame-Based Human Rights Documentation Model in the Context of the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict,” was published in the spring 2006 edition of American Anthropologist.

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