“To me, Gaza embodies the entire saga of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; it represents the central contradiction of the state of Israel: democracy for some, dispossession for others; it is our exposed nerve.”

Amira Hass is an Israeli journalist and author of Drinking the Sea at Gaza: Days and Nights in a Land under Siege, renowned for her unflinching columns published in the daily newspaper Ha’aretz. Her on-the-ground pieces call attention to the conditions of life under occupation for Palestinians and challenge Israelis to face their complicity. She has lived in both Gaza and the West Bank. Hass is the daughter of two Holocaust survivors and studied at Hebrew University. She was the recipient of the Press Freedom Hero award from the International Press Institute in 2000, the Bruno Kreisky Human Rights Award in 2002, the UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize in 2003, and the inaugural award from the Anna Lindh Memorial Fund in 2004.

Presented by Jewish Voice for Peace-Chicago, and sponsored by American Friends Service Committee, Arab Jewish Partnership for Peace and Justice in the Middle East, Committee for a Just Peace in Israel and Palestine, Jane Addams Hull-House Museum, Neighbors for Peace, Palestine Solidarity Group, and Students for Justice in Palestine – UIC.

Recorded Sunday, June 22, 2008 at Jane Addams Hull-House Museum.