WARNING: KEEP BARF BAG HANDY FOR THIS BIO
Amira Hass has spent much of the last decade living in Palestinian communities of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, from where she has fearlessly and sensitively reported on the Palestinians’ progress from intifada toward independence. Her great personal courage, unwavering professionalism and commitment to defending the public’s right to know has won her recognition in Israel and beyond.
Assigned by Israel’s most respected daily, Ha’aretz, to cover the Gaza Strip in 1991, Hass soon decided to live in Gaza for part of each month. She stayed at private homes all through the Strip. “Hass dropped into a war zone armed with nothing but her compassion,” said Tom Segev, a prominent Israeli journalist and historian. (Freemedia.at)
AMIRA'S UNFORGETABLE SEPTEMBER 11 EDITORIAL: "You're taking away my independence." This is what Leila Atshan sometimes says to the soldier at the roadblock. There are those who reply: "Look, someone will help you," and this is what she does not want to happen.
Atshan, 41, is a psychologist by profession and has been blind from birth. For her, to get out of the cab that is stuck in a long line of taxis and cars delayed at a roadblock is not just to walk like everyone else between the piles of garbage at the side of the road, the sand and the broken pavements until she comes to the next taxi. It is also asking a stranger, or accepting the offer of a stranger, to take her arm and lead her carefully through the crowded cars and the bad-tempered drivers.
Soldiers do not like it when pedestrians get close to the them, she says, speaking from experience. They are afraid that someone will blow himself up near them. Therefore they order everyone, including Atshan, to keep a distance, to go around, to move to the other side. (Amira Hass piece reprinted by the Palestine Ministry of Information)
You can even order an Amira Hass T-Shirt!
