Amira Hass#Life
{{pp-extended|small=yes}}
{{short description|Israeli journalist and author (born 1956)}}
{{Distinguish|Amira Hess}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2020}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Amira Hass
| native_name = עמירה הס
| native_name_lang = he
| image = Amira Hass (17394493922).jpg
| caption = Amira Hass
| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1956|06|28|df=yes}}
| birth_place = Jerusalem
| nationality = Israeli
| known_for = Coverage of daily life in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories
| education =
| alma_mater = Hebrew University of Jerusalem
| employer = Haaretz
| occupation = Journalist
| years_active = 1989–present
| website =
| footnotes =
}}
Amira Hass ({{langx|he|עמירה הס}}; born 28 June 1956) is an Israeli journalist and author, mostly known for her columns in the daily newspaper Haaretz covering Palestinian affairs in Gaza and the West Bank, where she has lived for almost thirty years.
Biography
The daughter of two Holocaust survivors,{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ircZQvW6OK4C&pg=PA101|title=Political awakenings: conversations with history |last=Kreisler |first=Harry |author-link=Harry Kreisler |publisher=The New Press |year=2010 |isbn=978-1-59558-340-6 |page=101}} Hass is the only child of a Bosnian-born Sephardic Jewish mother, who survived nine months in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, and a Romanian-born Ashkenazi Jewish father.Chris Kutschera. [https://www.chris-kutschera.com/A/MurMure.htm/ From inside an Israeli prison] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190118085806/http://chris-kutschera.com/A/MurMure.htm |date=18 January 2019 }} The Middle East. 15 January 2008 In her own words, her parents "were never Zionists, but they found themselves in Israel as refugees after the Holocaust"."Israel Gaza War: a conversation with Amira Haas". ACMCU discussion, October 2023. On Youtube, t 5:48. Accessed 28 Nov 2023 (URL starting with youtu
Journalism career
Frustrated by the events of the First Intifada and by what she considered their inadequate coverage in the Israeli media, she started to report from the Palestinian territories in 1991. As of 2003 she is the only Jewish Israeli journalist who has lived full-time among the Palestinians, in Gaza from 1993 to 1997 and in Ramallah since.{{cite web|title=Israeli Journalist Amira Hass Awarded World Press Freedom Prize 2003|url=http://portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php-URL_ID=10185&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html|website=UNESCO}}
= Defamation case =
In June 2001, Judge Rachel Shalev-Gartel of the Jerusalem Magistrate's Court ruled that Hass had defamed the Jewish settler community of Beit Hadassah in Hebron and ordered her to pay 250,000 shekels (about $60,000) in damages. Hass had published accounts by Palestinians that claimed Israeli settlers defiled the body of a Palestinian militant killed by Israeli police; the settlers said that the event did not take place and that Hass had falsely reported the story with malicious intent.{{cite news |date=8 June 2001 |title='Ha'aretz' journalist ordered to pay Hebron residents NIS 250,000 |url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-45190101.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140610213007/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-45190101.html |archive-date=10 June 2014 |access-date=12 August 2012 |newspaper=The Jerusalem Post |via=HighBeam Research}}{{Cite book |last=Auerbach |first=Jerold |title=Hebron Jews: Memory and Conflict in the Land of Israel |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield Publishers |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-7425-6615-6 |location=Lanham, Maryland |pages=168–169 |chapter=Chapter 9 |quote=When Haaretz refused to provide a written apology, The Hebron Jewish community sued. The Jerusalem District Court ruling that Hass's false report had damaged its reputation, ordered Haaretz and Hass to pay 250,000 shekels (nearly $80,000) to the community for slander. |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ooUqc8snyZUC&q=amira+hass+sued+hevron&pg=PA168}} The presiding judge found in favour of the settlers, saying that television accounts contradicted Hass's account and ruling that Hass's report damaged that community's reputation. Haaretz indicated that it did not have time to arrange a defense in the case and indicated that it would appeal the decision. Hass said that she had brought forward sourced information from the Palestinian community and said that it was the responsibility of newspaper editors to cross-reference it with other information from the IDF and the settler community.{{cite news |author=Eli Pollak |author-link=Eli Pollak |author2=Yisrael Medad |author2-link=Yisrael Medad |date=16 March 2003 |title=The accomplice |newspaper=The Jerusalem Post |page=3}}
= Legal issues =
On 1 December 2008, Hass, who had traveled to Gaza aboard a protest vessel, had to flee the strip due to threats to her life after she criticized Hamas.
{{cite news |author=Nadav Zeevi |title=עמירה הס נמלטה מעזה |trans-title=Amira Hass fled from Gaza |url=http://www.nrg.co.il/online/1/ART1/820/495.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081207045944/http://www.nrg.co.il/online/1/ART1/820/495.html |archive-date=7 December 2008 |access-date=4 December 2008 |publisher=nrg Maariv}}
She was arrested by Israeli police on her return to Israel for being in Gaza without a permit.
{{cite web |author=Tomer Zarchin |title=Haaretz journalist Amira Hass arrested for illegal stay in Gaza |url=http://www.haaretz.com/news/haaretz-journalist-amira-hass-arrested-for-illegal-stay-in-gaza-1.258613 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101117003348/http://www.haaretz.com/news/haaretz-journalist-amira-hass-arrested-for-illegal-stay-in-gaza-1.258613 |archive-date=17 November 2010 |access-date=4 October 2014 |newspaper=Haaretz}}
After residing in the Gaza Strip for several months, Hass was again arrested by Israeli police upon her return to Israel on 12 May 2009 "for violating a law which forbids residence in an enemy state".{{cite news |date=12 May 2009 |title=Haaretz reporter Amira Hass arrested upon leaving Gaza |url=http://www.haaretz.com/news/haaretz-reporter-amira-hass-arrested-upon-leaving-gaza-1.275889 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100831155234/http://www.haaretz.com/news/haaretz-reporter-amira-hass-arrested-upon-leaving-gaza-1.275889 |archive-date=31 August 2010 |access-date=13 May 2009}}
Views and opinions
Hass identifies as a leftist.{{cite news |last=Hass |first=Amira |title=When a Haaretz journalist was asked to leave a Palestinian university |url=http://www.haaretz.com/news/features/.premium-1.618007 |access-date=28 September 2014 |newspaper=Haaretz}} In 2011 she joined the Freedom Flotilla II to Gaza.{{Cite web|title=Israel warns foreign journalists: Joining Gaza flotilla is illegal|url=https://www.haaretz.com/1.5023787|access-date=2021-03-06|website=Haaretz.com|language=en}} In a speech in Vancouver, when asked whether there is any hope for the region, Hass answered, "Only if we continue to build a bi-national movement against Israeli apartheid."{{cite news|title=Amira Hass, Israeli journalist, tells heart-wrenching stories from life in Palestine at UBC event|url=http://www.vancouverobserver.com/politics/news/2011/09/29/amira-hass-israeli-journalist-tells-heart-wrenching-stories-life-palestine|publisher=Vancouver Observer|date=29 September 2011|access-date=6 September 2015|archive-date=6 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160306221005/http://www.vancouverobserver.com/politics/news/2011/09/29/amira-hass-israeli-journalist-tells-heart-wrenching-stories-life-palestine|url-status=dead}}
In 2006 she compared Israeli policies toward the Palestinian population to those of South Africa during apartheid, saying, "The Palestinians, as a people, are divided into subgroups, something which is reminiscent also of South Africa under apartheid rule."{{cite news|title=Criticism of Israel Is not 'anti-Semitism' |date=5 September 2006 |publisher=Arab News |url=http://www.arabnews.com/?page=7§ion=0&article=75857&d=5&m=9&y=2006 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091203034952/http://www.arabnews.com/?page=7 |archive-date=3 December 2009 }}
In April 2013 Hass wrote an article in Haaretz defending Palestinian stone-throwing, calling it "the birthright and duty of anyone subject to foreign rule".
{{cite news
|url=http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/the-inner-syntax-of-palestinian-stone-throwing.premium-1.513131
|title=The inner syntax of Palestinian stone-throwing
|newspaper=Haaretz
|access-date=3 April 2013
|last=Hass
|first=Amira}}
She was criticized by politician Yossi Beilin{{cite news
|url=http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=3909
|title=Violence is never legitimate
|newspaper=Israel HaYom
|last=Beilin
|first=Yossi
|author-link=Yossi Beilin
|date=4 April 2013
|access-date=4 October 2014
|archive-date=28 August 2014
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140828170709/http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=3909
|url-status=dead
{{cite news
|url=http://www.nrg.co.il/online/1/ART2/457/572.html?hp=1&cat=402&loc=3
|script-title=he:עמירה, תראי את אדל שלי נלחמת על חייה
|language=he
|trans-title=Amira, see my Adele fighting for her life
|publisher=nrg Maariv
|date=4 April 2013
|access-date=4 October 2014
|last=Beiton
|first=Adva}}
{{cite web |url=http://www.algemeiner.com/2013/04/04/mother-of-girl-injured-by-stone-throwing-responds-to-haaretz-come-to-the-intensive-care-unit-and-see-my-adele/ |title=Mother of Girl Injured by Stone Throwing Responds to Ha'aretz: "Come to the Intensive Care Unit, and See My Adele" |work=Algemeiner Journal |date=4 April 2013 |access-date=4 October 2014}} whose three-year-old daughter was critically injured during a Palestinian rock attack.{{cite web |first=Yaron |last=Kelner |url=http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4356927,00.html |title=Mother of girl hurt in Samaria recounts attack |publisher=Ynetnews |date=15 March 2013 |access-date=28 April 2013}} The Yesha Council filed a complaint with Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein and the police, accusing Hass of incitement to violence because stone throwing "has caused death and serious injuries" to Israelis.{{cite web |first=Aaron |last=Kalman |url=http://www.timesofisrael.com/settlers-accuse-haaretz-writer-of-inciting-violence/ |title=Settlers accuse Haaretz writer of inciting violence |work=The Times of Israel |date=4 April 2013 |access-date=28 April 2013}}
In 2018, Hass suggested that the EU introduce visas for Israeli citizens, asking every applicant whether they had collaborated in war crimes or lived in occupied territory. According to Hass, this would "make Israelis realize that this reality is not normal" and would not be antisemitic, but would benefit Jews in the future, "sav[ing] us from Israeli policies of today".{{cite web |title=Amira Hass on Israel, Palestine, the occupation & the peace process - Jung & Naiv: Part 392, 16th December 2018| website=YouTube | date=16 December 2018 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L503fbuSHjE&list=PLuQE_zb4awhUkyAyH__OxO61ElpFagsfN&index=9|access-date=24 January 2025}}
Awards and recognition
Hass was the recipient of the World Press Freedom Hero award from the International Press Institute in 2000.{{cite web|url=http://www.freemedia.at/awards/press-freedom-heroes/amira-hass.html |title=Amira Hass, Israel: World Press Freedom Hero (Honoured in 2000) |publisher=International Press Institute |access-date=4 October 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141006104144/http://www.freemedia.at/awards/press-freedom-heroes/amira-hass.html |archive-date=6 October 2014 }}
On 27 June 2001, Hass received the Golden Dove of Peace Prize awarded by the Rome-based organization Archivo Disarmo.{{cite news |title=Israeli journalist among those awarded Italian peace prize |publisher=Associated Press Newswires |date=28 June 2001}}
In 2002 she was honoured with a Prince Claus Award from the Dutch culture and development organisation Prince Claus Fund.{{cite web | author = Prince Claus Fund | title = Amira Hass | url = http://www.princeclausfund.org/en/network/amira.html | access-date = 18 January 2016 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160408103351/http://princeclausfund.org/en/network/amira.html | archive-date = 8 April 2016 | url-status = dead | df = dmy-all }}
She won 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.{{cite news |title=Hrant Dink Ödülü Görmüş ve Hass'a |language=tr |trans-title=Read Hrant Dink Award and Hass |date=16 September 2009 |publisher=Milliyet |url=http://www.milliyet.com.tr/Guncel/HaberDetay.aspx?aType=HaberDetay&ArticleID=1139761&Date=16.09.2009&Kategori=guncel&KategoriID=24&b=Hrant%20Dink%20odulu%20Gormus%20ve%20Hassa&PAGE=1 |access-date=4 October 2014}}
In September 2009, Hass received the Hrant Dink International Award, with Alper Görmüş.Today's Zaman, 17 September 2009, [https://web.archive.org/web/20160304074734/http://www.todayszaman.com/newsDetail_getNewsById.action?load=detay&link=187353 Journalists Görmüş and Haas receive International Dink Award]
On 20 October 2009, Hass received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Women's Media Foundation.
In December 2009 Hass 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".{{cite web |title=Press Freedom Prize Awarded to Israeli Reporter and Chechen Magazine |url=http://en.rsf.org/middle-east-north-africa-press-freedom-prize-awarded-to-03-12-2009,35215.html |publisher=Reporters Without Borders |date=3 December 2009 |access-date=4 October 2014 |archive-date=6 October 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141006095755/http://en.rsf.org/middle-east-north-africa-press-freedom-prize-awarded-to-03-12-2009,35215.html |url-status=dead }}
Hass won the 2024 Columbia Journalism Award and was the commencement speaker for the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism on May 15, 2024, in New York City.{{Cite web |date=2024-04-22 |title=Here's Every Columbia 2024 Class Day Speaker We Know (So Far) |url=https://news.columbia.edu/news/heres-every-columbia-2024-class-day-speaker-we-know-so-far |access-date=2024-04-23 |website=Columbia News |language=en}}https://www.democracynow.org/2024/5/17/amira_hass_israel_palestine_gaza
Published works
- {{cite book |title=Drinking the Sea at Gaza: Days and Nights in a Land under Siege |publisher=Owl Books |year=2000 |isbn=0-8050-5740-4 |url=https://archive.org/details/drinkingseaatgaz00hass }}
- (With Rachel Leah Jones) Reporting from Ramallah: An Israeli Journalist in an Occupied Land (Semiotext(e), 2003) {{ISBN|1-58435-019-9}}.
- {{cite book |title=Diary of Bergen-Belsen: 1944–1945 |publisher=Haymarket Books |year=2009 |isbn=978-1-931859-87-5 |url=https://archive.org/details/diaryofbergenbel00levy }} A new English language translation of her Sephardi Yugoslav mother Hanna Levy-Hass' 1946 memoir, with addition of Hass' foreword and afterwords.
References
{{Reflist|2}}
External links
{{Commons category|Amira Hass}}
- {{cite web|url=http://www.freemedia.at/IPIReport2.00/IPIRep2.00_cont.htm |title=Press Freedom Hero award |access-date=15 October 2003 |url-status=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040803144724/http://www.freemedia.at/IPIReport2.00/IPIRep2.00_cont.htm |archive-date=3 August 2004 }}
- [http://www.kreisky.org/human.rights Bruno Kreisky Human Rights Award]
- [http://portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php@URL_ID=10185&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html World Press Freedom Prize]
- [http://www.annalindhsminnesfond.se/ Anna Lindh Award]
- {{IMDb name|id=2273948}}
{{Footer Anna Lindh Prize laureates}}
{{IWMF awards}}
{{UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hass, Amira}}
Category:Israeli Ashkenazi Jews
Category:Israeli Sephardi Jews
Category:Israeli people of Romanian-Jewish descent
Category:Israeli people of Bosnia and Herzegovina-Jewish descent
Category:Israeli women journalists