2024 Peter Stursberg Lecture
Dying to Tell the Story

The 2024 instalment of the annual Peter Stursberg Foreign Correspondent’s Lecture took the form of a two-part lecture series examining the gravity of the role of journalism during the Israel-Gaza war.

“Dying to Tell the Story” featured separate lectures by Palestinian journalist Shrouq Al Aila and Israeli journalist Gideon Levy. Al Aila’s talk focused on her brutal experience covering the Israeli military campaign in Gaza which took the life of her husband. Levy’s lecture reflected on the role of Israeli media in shaping the narrative of their nation at war.

Both lectures were moderated by former foreign correspondent Nahlah Ayed, host of the daily CBC Radio program Ideas.

Shrouq Al Aila (journalist and producer, Ain Media, Palestine)

Tuesday, November 12, 2024
1:00pm-3:00pm EST

Shrouq Al Aila is a Palestinian journalist, producer, and researcher reporting from the Gaza Strip. She has recently been recognized by the Committee to Protect Journalists with one of its International Press Freedom Awards for 2024. Al Aila took charge of Ain Media, an independent production company specializing in professional media services, after her husband Roshdi Sarraj – a co-founder of the company – was killed in the ongoing Israel-Gaza war. She continues to cover the war and its devastating impact on Gaza’s residents despite having been displaced several times in an effort to evade Israeli attacks.

On the morning of October 22, 2023, as the family was about to have breakfast at home, shrapnel from an Israeli missile attack on a nearby house mortally wounded Sarraj and injured Al Aila and their infant daughter.

“We are still here, still alive, and committed to continuing our work to document the situation in Gaza and support local journalists, which is more important than ever,” Al Aila has said.

Gideon Levy (journalist, Haaretz, Israel)

Wednesday, November 13, 2024
1:00pm-3:00pm EST

Gideon Levy is an Israeli journalist and author. Levy writes opinion pieces and a weekly column for the newspaper Haaretz that focus on the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories. Levy has won prizes for his articles on human rights in the Israeli-occupied territories and has been harshly critical of how Israeli media have for the most part adopted the government and military narrative for the Gaza war. 

“We are in a genocidal reality; the blood of tens of thousands of people has flowed,” Levy wrote recently in one column. “The media tries to sell us that this is a necessity. Through campaigns that demonize and dehumanize the Palestinians, a unified and monstrous chorus of commentators is successfully selling us the idea that we can live for eternity on blood.”