Teaching journalism in Gaza

HUSEIN MASHNI

One of my favorite jobs in Gaza is teaching English journalism

courses. That’s where I get a chance to impart some of the knowledge

and experience I have in journalism as well as to teach some basic

English skills.

Most people in Gaza are very serious about learning English. They

know it’s the international language of business and technology.

I’ve tried teaching simple English conversation classes, but they

were relatively ineffective since there aren’t many opportunities for

people to speak English here.

But when I merged English language and journalism, the result was

surprising.

In one class at one of the biggest universities in Gaza, I

videotaped a CNN-type newscast. The students brought real stories,

from their communities. We had a round-table discussion about Iraq.

We even had a car commercial and a laundry-detergent commercial.

Everything was game as long as it was in English.

It was a huge success. When the class, which lasted two months,

was over, there was a huge party that was attended by hundreds of

students. Many of the top faculty of the university attended as well.

My most recent class was much smaller. There were only 10

students. But we worked together to produce our class newspaper “The

Gaza Times,” which boasts “All the Gaza news that’s fit to print.”

I gave them a few basic instructions on journalism -- how to

conduct an interview, what questions to ask, the inverted pyramid and

the five Ws of journalism (for those who may not know them, they’re

who, what, where, when, why). I also taught them that the highest law

of journalism is truth.

It seems so obvious that truth is the highest law of journalism,

but in the Middle East that’s not necessarily so. So much so-called

journalism here is just propaganda. Incidents are interpreted in so

many ways that it’s difficult to find objective news.

What surprised me about this small class was the kinds of stories

my students produced. I remember having to come up with story ideas

in my journalism classes in Nevada. Usually, we’d end up with some

kid whose lemonade stand succeeded or a local official who performed

some charitable feat.

But these students came up with stories that, in all my years as a

reporter -- five in all -- I never dreamed of writing.

One girl interviewed her neighbors about a military incursion in

the southern Gaza Strip. There was so much shooting near the home

that a father of five grabbed his small children and threw them over

a fence into his neighbor’s yard.

“I was scared,” the father said. “The children’s eyes were all

fastened on me as if they were saying, ‘Farewell.’ I kept pretending

that we were going to survive while my heart was breaking inside.”

All of the children were wounded by being thrown over the fence

but, “it was the lesser of two evils,” the father said.

Then the daughter-in-law, who was several months pregnant also

jumped over the high fence to escape the gunfire. She lost her baby

in the jump.

Then there was one of my students from northern Gaza Strip who

interviewed several families following a cold spell that blew through

the Middle East a few weeks ago. Some of the families were living in

tents because their homes had been destroyed.

A father of eight said the cold spell was more than his children

could bear. One of his young sons died. Another had to be taken to

the hospital.

“My child was dead because his body couldn’t endure the cold,” the

father said. “I don’t have anything this year. The cold is very high.

What do I do?”

Another student wrote about a mother whose 5-year-old son had been

shot dead. Ever since the police brought her the son’s burned

backpack, she refuses any comfort from anyone. She just goes to the

cemetery and spends most of her time speaking to her dead son. Her

4-year-old daughter accompanies her and plays among the flowers at

the cemetery.

We only had five issues of the “Gaza Times,” and it was only

distri- buted to the students in the class.

I know that with everything that happens here, there are so many

political implications that can’t be ignored. But for a few minutes I

tried to look at things through the eyes of my students. That allowed

me to shed a few tears and pray few prayers.

* HUSEIN MASHNI is a former Daily Pilot education reporter who

became a Christian missionary in the Middle East. His articles appear

in Forum on occasion.