Joey Ayoub at 2015 Global Voices Citizen Media Summit in Cebu, Philippines via Jeremy Clarke Global Voices contributor Joey Ayoub is sitting at a Cebu café, browsing wantonly through the morning news on his smartphone. I ask him if it would be a good time to exchange a few words about covering Palestine, the narratives in mainstream media and his hope for the region. He nods along and stands up slowly, trying to gather enough energy to discuss a topic that he has written at length about for the past few months. He is visibly tired; the 2015 Global Voices Citizen Media Summit in Cebu, Philippines, has been thrilling but intense. More so that the summit, it seems that the challenge of writing about topic and people he cares deeply about has taken a toll on him. Joey is from Lebanon but he also covers Palestine and other Middle Eastern and North African countries for Global Voices. He is also the co-creator of blog Hummus for Thought. The war in Gaza broke out on July 8, 2014, as Israel launched a military operation against the Strip called Operation Protective Edge. The continued shelling of the region resulted in over 2,200 deaths, most of them Gazans. Joey was one of the main authors driving Global Voices’ coverage of the conflict; his report on an Israeli army whistleblower was the most read post on Global Voices in 2014. Here are his thoughts on writing about the conflict in Gaza and its impact on Gazans and himself. Global Voices (GV): You wrote extensively on the violence between Israel and Gaza. What was the most challenging aspect of covering the situation for you personally? Joey Ayoub (JA): It was an emotionally draining task. I wrote an article every two days or so. I have many friends in Gaza and when you see images of deaths, buildings destroyed and someone you know possibly being among the victims, it becomes a daunting challenge to stick to the facts and not less personal feelings take over. I more or less managed to do that, I believe. But the psychological struggle of observing the conflict was demanding so I had to get some help to deal with it. GV: During the conflict, how did you manage to stay connected with people on the ground? JA: That was the other challenging aspect of covering this story: staying on top of the news when connection on the ground was disrupted. But there is a very active online community in Gaza and my friends on the ground were well connected as well so I was able to grow my network with all the media producers, local and foreign, in the region. It allowed me to recoup facts and get the story right. GV: The complexity of the conflict has been well documented. What would you say is the aspect of the conflict that outside observers have the hardest time understanding? JA: The conflict in Palestine is, in fact, not that difficult to understand but at the same time, it is a daunting challenge to fully comprehend. Let me explain: It is not difficult because the fact are usually straightforward, undisputed. The occupying forces are known and the occupied population is also identified. Contrary to common belief worldwide, what we witness here is a relatively new, post-WWII conflict (1948), not some ancient war between rival populations. People in the western world often believe that the animosity is born out of centuries-old clashes of civilization, Fukuyama-style and would look at the conflict through a specific geopolitical lens. People in the region do not have this luxury. They face the impact of the conflict and try to deal with it the best way they can. Gazans would try to get international awareness and solidarity about the struggle they face on a daily basis. They do not really care about the geopolitical framing with which the rest of the world tries to explain the causes of the conflict. So I think this is the hardest part to understand for the rest of the world: the notion of basic self-defense that the occupied population is entitled to (raising awareness and solidarity for the victims) is lost because we try to find a geopolitical cause to the conflict. GV: Could you explain a bit more that notion of self-defense? JA: The fact is, the international community considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank illegal under international law and the blockade of the Gaza strip by the Israeli military as an act of occupation. The right to express itself and protest (self-defense) is entrenched in international human rights law in any occupied territories because the occupied residents are subjugated to the control of the occupying power without any access to its political power. However, the concept that Palestinians are allowed to protest the occupation is not even discussed in western media.