As tensions escalate in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, South Africans will be able to gain greater insight into the on-going Israel-Palestinian conflict through the eyes of award-winning Israeli journalist, Amira Hass. The outspoken journalist will be in South Africa later this month on a speaking tour hosted by the Afro-Middle East Centre (AMEC) and various other pro-Palestine organisations in different parts of the country. The tour will be from 11 to 28 October 2015, and will see Hass visiting Cape Town, Johannesburg, Grahamstown, Durban and Pietermaritzburg.

Amira Hass is well known for her columns in the Israeli daily newspaper Ha’aretz. She has received acclaim particularly for her reporting on Palestinian affairs in the West Bank and Gaza, where she lived for a number of years.

Hass is a recipient of numerous awards, including the World Press Freedom Hero award from the International Press Institute in 2000, the Golden Dove of Peace Prize Human Rights Award in 2002, the UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize in 2003. In 2009 she was awarded the Reporters Without Borders Prize for Press Freedom ‘for her independent and outspoken reporting from the Gaza Strip for the Israeli daily Ha’aretz during Operation Cast Lead, the offensive which Israel waged against the territory from 27 December 2008 to 18 January 2009.’

Apart from her regular though-provoking articles, Hass also authored three award-winning books, including: Drinking the Sea at Gaza: Days and Nights in a Land under Siege (2000), Reporting from Ramallah: An Israeli Journalist in an Occupied Land (2003) with Rachel Leah Jones, and Diary of Bergen-Belsen: 1944–1945 (2009).

Cape Town schedule:

Friday 16 October
09:00 – 11:30 Breakfast with the Press Club (Must book through Press Club)
12:30 – 14:00 Claremont Main Road Mosque – The Holocaust and the Naqba
18:00 – 20:00 UCT – Can settlers become natives? On theories and reality of Israeli colonialism

Monday 19 October
13:00 – 14:00 Public lecture at UWC – The Israeli law system and the Palestinian struggle

Friday 23 October
09:00 – 12:00 Public talk at Rhodes – Politically Committed Journalism in the (neo-) colony, a conversation with Amira Hass, Steven Friedman and Niren Tolsi animated by Irene Calis

More details on the other talks in Johannesburg, Durban and Pietermaritzburg on https://www.facebook.com/OpenShuhadaStreetSouthAfrica?ref=aymt_homepage_panel

VOC listeners can diarise Monday 19th October 17.10pm for a live interview with Amira Hass on Drivetime. VOC