Amos Barshad is the staff writer and senior Delacorte fellow at CJR. He was previously on the staff of New York magazine, Grantland, and The Fader, and is the author of No One Man Should Have All That Power: How Rasputins Manipulate The World.
Even after the ceasefire, Israel has blocked members of the press from entering. The country has said “there will come a time soon” when journalists flood in—but preemptively cast doubt on the story they might cover.
“The rest of the world is tuning in,” he said, of moderating a mayoral debate. “But in the end, it’s not that different from when I used to do city council debates in a church basement.”
For more than a decade, Bassil Mikdadi has tracked the fortunes of the Palestinian national soccer team, which endures despite ruined stadiums, starvation, and war.
International media outlets have been banned from Gaza, save for tightly controlled embeds. Local reporters have been threatened and killed. But as the world awaits peace, the Israeli government has invited some content creators to come in and spread its message.