Sunday 18 May 2003

---

Despite the piguim (attacks) last night and this morning (one at a border checkpoint and one near French Hill), things seemed pretty normal today. There was some impact on our program, as the Arab journalist we were to meet with in the morning was delayed in arriving because he had to go through the checkpoint that had been attacked. We were able to reschedule him for the afternoon.

Our first speaker was Dr. Guy Bachor of the Interdisciplinary College in Hertziliya. He gave us an overview of American/Western involvement in the Middle East situation, with an understanding of how Arab and Middle Eastern culture has responded to this involvement. After lunch at the JCC office, we had to relocate to the HUC campus down the street because we couldn't get the video to work (a not uncommon theme for our presentations). The second speaker was Dr. Gadi Wolfsfeld from Hebrew University, who provided his insight into media coverage of the matsav. His analysis included some discussion of how politics shapes news coverage and vice versa.

The final speaker for the whole group was Khaled Abu Hacker, a Palestinian Arab journalist. While it was difficult for some members of the group to listen to his views, I think it was valuable to hear about the matsav from such a different perspective. It was particularly interesting to listen to him speak after having heard about Arab culture and how language is significant in media coverage (e.g. whether one refers to suicide bombers as activists or terrorists).

After Mr. Hacker's presentation, the group working on youth programs (Robin, Rachel, Jaime, Michael, and me) went to the Bet Ross Community Center in Givat Shaul, a lower-class religious area of Jerusalem. The facility reminded me of the Boys and Girls Clubs in which I've been in America. I was also struck by how similar the teen programming is to the TeenJCC program in Boston that I interned at this past year. We also had a chance to observe (and participate) in a theater group that pairs sighted and visually-impaired teens.

After the programs were over, we split up for dinner, with a group of us eating at Norman's, a steakhouse in Emek Refaim (an area of shops and restaurants away from downtown Jerusalem).

---