We’ve been back from the Middle East for a few weeks now, with an opportunity to reflect on all we experienced. My main takeaways: Israelis are on the brink of a civil war over the meaning of their democracy, while Palestinians shrug. For them, the occupation has deprived generations of hope and futures. The most shocking thing is to see how many illegal Israeli settlements there are in the Occupied West Bank – and how close they are to Palestinian communities. We received hundreds and hundreds of complaints about our stories – from both sides in this intractable crisis. The pro-Israeli side was angry that we “sanitized” Palestinian violence (we did not); the Palestinian complainants felt we didn’t do enough justice to the violence inflicted on them by Israeli settlers and the country’s military (we felt we treated both sides respectfully and fairly). It’s an extremely tough place to do journalism.
