Undecided Host Ilana Levinson spent two months trying to reach one of her contacts in Gaza for an interview. She has been in contact with Isam Hammad, a manager at a medical equipment company in Gaza City, since covering him organizing the 2018 March of Return protests. After fleeing the city in November, the pair shared no further information.
When Levinson finally tracked down Hamad in January, he was in Rafah trying to get his family to Ireland on a family reunification visa. “I don’t have Internet,” he said. “I have to wake up every night since I did what I did [visa] app, then go to the rooftop, turn on Vodafone Egypt, surf the internet, check the list, then go back to sleep.
Levinson and her co-producers spent years building relationships with peace activists from Israel, Gaza and the West Bank. They now find they have access to people on the ground who can speak candidly about what is going on – access that has become increasingly difficult as the war drags on with no end in sight. This is especially true in Gaza, where foreign journalists are barred from entering under IDF escort, connectivity is spotty at best, and more than 1.7 million people have been displaced.
“It’s really needed at this moment.”
“I think after October 7th, people were really hungry for these personal stories and context,” Levinson said. “We feel a real obligation to those new and existing listeners – it’s really necessary at this moment.”
Maintaining access to Gaza has been a challenge for the media, both due to limited communications within the area and tight restrictions on access for outside entities.
NPR’s international correspondent in Israel, Daniel Estrin, has reported from Gaza several times during his tenure at NPR. But since the war began, his access has been reduced and he can only occasionally cross the border with the Israel Defense Forces. Gaza-based colleague Anas Baba, a journalist and photographer, shared reports and voices from inside the enclave, but Baba, like everyone else, had to contend with communications blackouts.
As a board member of the Foreign Correspondents Association of Israel, Estrin was involved in a petition to Israel’s Supreme Court seeking access to Gaza. “This war is unprecedented that Israel has prevented journalists from having independent access to a war zone for so long,” Estrin said. The petition was rejected.
Even within Israel, getting people to speak out is difficult. israel story, called an israelite this american life, usually produced as a seasonal narrative program in English and Hebrew, sticking to explicitly apolitical themes like buses and cows. But after October 7, the show kicked into high gear, with producers traveling to all corners of the country to gather people’s views. turn out wartime diary, a collection of more than four dozen episodes that tell the stories of Israeli citizens affected by the war. These include the account of an archaeologist searching the ruins of Kibbutz Nir Oz, a Druze journalist fighting for equal rights for people in Israel, and a resident who dreams of returning to the Gaza settlement .
Many Israeli-Arabs are afraid to speak out publicly due to state repression of speech
The series has resonated with American Jewish audiences, especially those who want to feel connected to Israel during this crisis. download: israel story That number has tripled since before the war, with host Mishy Harman and senior producer Yochai Maital starting hosting live shows in the U.S. earlier this month.
But the show has struggled to get Israeli-Arabs, who make up 20% of Israel’s population, to agree to participate. wartime diary series. Harman said many people are afraid to speak out publicly because of a state crackdown on speech that specifically targets Israeli Arabs.
“I think we’ve earned a reputation as an honest broker. However, I do think we’re not really living up to that reputation at the moment,” Harman said. “We are really telling a [Jewish] The story of Israel is here.
The challenge focuses on the region’s already established news media. Al Jazeera had a staff in the Gaza Strip before the war but has become a major source of viewers in the United States and Europe due to its established access rights – but that access is under threat due to the recent ban in Israel. There is also thrust takeAl Jazeera’s daily news podcast, takes center stage.
“At this point, people are really paying attention.”
“With the lack of access to Gaza, Al Jazeera becomes the eyes on Gaza. This puts a great responsibility on everyone. take Executive producer Alex Rock. “What are you going to do with that footage? How are you going to digest it into the podcast?
The program turned much of its coverage to the war, including reports from Al Jazeera journalists on the increasingly dire humanitarian and security situation in the enclave. While the majority of Al Jazeera’s viewers watch news on television or through its website, takeThe team focuses on what the message itself can deliver.
“When you’re listening on your daily commute or doing the dishes, and then you stop because you hear tears or hear the sound of air raids – that’s such a powerful force that no picture can really capture,” says take Host Malika Bilal.
Other podcasts have already addressed the lack of access rights. National Public Radio through lineThe series, which depicts current events in a historical context and thoughtfully explores topics such as the rise of the Israeli right and the origins of Hamas, has seen an increase in listeners. “You often need to see something from a 360-degree perspective, which may require you to step back and observe the same moment in time from different vantage points,” said co-host Rund Abdelfatah.
Audio war reporting is a centuries-old practice, but thanks to the global reach of podcasts, programs that gain access today can have an even greater impact. then Undecided When Hamad’s story aired in January, he was having trouble leaving Gaza with his wife and five children. Since his son is an Irish citizen, there are ways to get family reunification visas for some (but not all) of his family members.
Hamad shared on the podcast that his son in Ireland has cerebral palsy. This resonated with a listener in Ireland who also has a child with a non-verbal disorder. After hearing about the incident, she contacted Hamad, lobbied local politicians and worked with the Irish government to free him and his family in March. They are now together in Dublin, awaiting their safe return to Gaza.
“For a long time, people didn’t even notice what was happening in Israel and Palestine,” Levinson said. “At this moment, people are really paying attention, and I’m overwhelmed that journalism can have this kind of impact.”
