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Critical Journalism

On the last day of September, a crowd of Winnipeggers gathered to hear one of Israel’s most courageous and incisive journalists — Ha’aretz reporter/columnist Amira Hass. Listen to Amira here:

In this supposed “information age” of ours, where bits of “fact” or shreds of news of any sort can be be procured in a flash, but where events six decades past — what actually happened; who did what to whom — are subject to acrimonious debate, sitting down and listening to people like Amira Hass can be an invigorating experience.

“Fear of the Future” was the title of Hass’ talk on this pleasant fall evening. Not easy listening.

The daughter of death camp survivors, Jerusalem-born Amira Hass spent her university years studying Nazism and its relationship with the European left. She’s worked with the leftish newspaper Ha’aretz, as a staff editor and columnist, since 1989. In 1991 she began reporting on Palestinian issues, taking up residence in occupied Gaza in 1993. Since 1997, she has lived and worked in Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank. Hass is the only Israeli Jewish journalist who’s actually lived among Palestinians.

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Western Wall, Jerusalem