As part of our coverage of the 25 November 2024 International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, Medya News is publishing an in-depth interview with 27-year-old Palestinian journalist Diana Khwaelid. Diana has spent the past eight years working as a freelance photo-journalist in the West Bank, with a focus on the Tulkarem and Jenin refugee camps. She speaks to UK based writers’ cooperative Shoal Collective about the violence she faces from the Israeli military during her work as a journalist, about the challenges of working in a war zone, and about what it is like to be a woman journalist in Palestine. Her interview will be included in the second edition of Shoal Collective’s book, ‘Interviews with Radical Palestinian Women‘. The interview was carried out in mid-October 2024.
Read the full interview here:
Amy Hall, Shoal Collective: What is the situation in Tulkarem like right now?
Diana Khwaelid: Just now the Palestinian Ministry of Health said that there were two Palestinians killed last night, and – not only that – the Israeli soldiers [mutilated] the bodies. [The martyrs] were in their car, and the drone targeted them.
Tom Anderson, Shoal Collective: I’m sorry to hear that.
Diana: This is normal. We consider it normal, considering what is happening in Tulkarem right now.
Tom: Were you there in the camp? Did you go to report it?
Diana: Yeah, I was there this morning, because the Israeli soldiers got into one of the areas in Nur-al-Shams refugee camp, especially in al-Nasser area, and they damaged a lot of buildings.
Amy: Did you grow up in Tulkarem? What was life like for you growing up?
Diana: Well, to be honest, the situation in Tulkarem before a year ago wasn’t so bad, and also it wasn’t so good. But after 7 October, the situation in Tulkarem become more worse, more and more. For example, if I want to give you a number of the Palestinians who have been killed since October in Tulkarem, it’s 175. Also the Israeli government since October, and actually since a year before that, started to focus [its attacks] more on the West Bank, and Tulkarem city has been one of the cities most targeted.
Amy: And you’ve been reporting on some of this, right? How is that? What is your experience as a reporter?
Diana: I have worked as a photo journalist in the field since eight years now, so I have seen a lot. And to be honest it has really hard for me to document what’s going on in my city. My city used to be calm, kind of, but the political situation got much worse in the last one to two years. In my work, I lost a lot of people that I know. This is one of the most difficult parts of my work, because I wasn’t ready to lose people like this.
Amy: And now you are reporting on your own local community?
Diana: Yes
Tom: You mentioned that you lost people. Were they fellow journalists or people that you knew from the community, from the camp?
Diana: They were fellow journalists that I knew from my work. I lost different people from different places. People I used to meet every single time I’d go there to the camps. They saw me and say ‘hi’. They helped me. You know? I saw them from time to time, but I knew these people, they helped me a lot. And they were so kind to me. I wasn’t really ready for the moment when I lost them.
Amy: What are some of the challenges in working under that environment? I know things were difficult before, but in more recent times what have been some of the kind of difficulties that you face in just trying to do your work?
Diana: The biggest challenge I have is facing the Israeli soldiers. This is the biggest problem the Palestinian communities face too. Because for the Israeli army, for example, there is no difference who you are, as long you are a Palestinian.
So the Palestinian journalists – I’m talking about myself and also my colleagues – face a lot in the field. For example, one time I got injured by a rubber bullet while I was at work. I was documenting one of the weekly demonstrations. Also I have faced tear gas at these demonstrations. My health is not really good. I can’t breathe like normal people. So the gas is really bad for me.
The Israeli army, when they saw a group of Palestinian journalists, they stop us. They ask for our IDs, say ‘why are you here’, and ask lots of questions.
I remember one time in one of the villages close to Tulkarem, the soldiers took over a school, and I decided to document the situation. Five or six soldiers stopped me, and they asked for my ID. One of them tried to take my cameras. And then I told them, You have no right to do that, I didn’t do anything wrong. They kept me for three, four hours. So trauma like that is happening regularly.
Amy: When did you first start working as a journalist? What inspired you to start?
Diana: I was always watching the news. Because I’m Palestinian, I grew up in a political community, you know? I always saw the pictures when I was watching the news. But I didn’t really imagine that one day I will become a journalist and be taking them myself. But then I decided to study digital media at Bir Zeit university [near Ramallah]. I was working and studying at the same time. Since that time I have worked as a journalist. I’m really good at what I’m doing, and I believe in it.
Amy: And how has your experience been as a female journalist?
Diana: To be honest with you, it’s not easy, because I’m living in Palestinian community. So the Palestinian here, especially the men they are used to seeing and meeting male journalists, not female. Even when the Palestinians saw me, they think I’m living outside of Palestine or from Turkey. But for me, there’s no difference, like there’s no difference between male and female. One of my reasons to become a photo-journalist is that I want to prove to my community that a woman can do the job, and she can work in the field just like a a man can. Because they [the men] think the female, she’s weak person, and she cannot do this, those kind of things. But I believe she can do it. Maybe she can do it better than a man.
Amy: Diana, when you said that people from Tulkarem thought you were from outside, and they were surprised when they found out you were from Tulkarem. What kind of surprised were they? Impressed?
Diana: Well a lot of people have got to know me now. But, in general, people do not expect to see a female journalist in Tulkarem. I know some guys from the camps, their daughters studied journalism in university, and they say: ‘no way will I let my daughter go out in the field as a journalist, she is my only daughter, and I’m afraid for her because she’s a female’. I tell them ‘no, you have to let her, because she has a dream’. But you can find that sort of people here in this community.
Amy: So it sounds like there’s been a lot of challenges in your work, especially recently. How do you manage to keep going? What drives you to keep doing your work?
Diana: What keep me going is that I believe the truth should be told, and also I believe the land, one day, will return to its owners.
Also I like what I’m doing, I feel like I am giving a service to my community. I’m a voice like theirs, a voice for the people who have no voice.
Amy: How do you feel about the media coverage that you see of Palestine, the way that the media talks about Palestine?
Diana: Well, you can find some, some international news agencies talking quite clearly about what’s going on here. But also you can find some news agency or channels that stand to the Israeli side more than the Palestinians. Like CNN for example. I have seen a lot of reports by a reporter from CNN. She used to report from Gaza, and then she’s moved to the Israeli side. I can see the difference from the way she speaks. When she wasn’t on the Israeli side, she was talking in a powerful and human way. But I can see, because I’m a journalist, that now she stands on the Israeli side more than the Palestinian. I’m not saying that just because I’m Palestinian, I think that as a journalist, you have to be clear, like you don’t have to just take one side. You have to take two, three sides. This is your job as a journalist, to focus on the truth. It’s not your job to work for just one side… That’s what I believe.
Amy: You trained as a volunteer medic, so that you could respond to emergencies. Could you tell us more about why you did this?
Diana: There is a group in Tulkarem that met and did the trainings for being medics in the camp. I took this training because I need it in my work. I mean in the field, nobody knows what you can face, right? And also to use it in my personal life, in my home, in the streets, if I saw some Palestinians who need care.
Amy: And when it comes to women as journalists, or women as activists, as organisers. I guess one of the things we found with this book project is that we thought it was important to talk about women, to hear from women who are active and who have political opinions and want to change things. And I wondered if you had any thoughts on that in terms of the wider international solidarity movement and the role of Palestinian women within that?
Diana: Actually, you can find a lot of Palestinian women activists, but the level has become lower than before. For example in the Second Intifada [from 2002-2005], women were in the first line before the men. But now, from my experience, if I find a woman activist in the field, that will be a great thing. Because usually I don’t see women. It depends on the situation. Inside the city there are no soldiers, and you can find a lot of women in activities there. But, for example, if we are documenting a difficult situation then it’s hard to find an active Palestinian woman.
Tom: What’s changed since the Second Intifada. How has Palestinian society changed, to mean that women are not in these roles?
Diana: The old people here, particularly in the camps, the ones who have lived through the first and second intifadas. Recently, I was documenting the situation in Tulkarem refugee camp, and one man said to me that the recent attack was the worst since the 1970s, and another said it was the worst since the Second Intifada. These old people, they really know the difference. So I think that the situation in Palestine has become much worse.
Amy: How do you think that the increasing violence has changed the situation for women?
Diana: I often don’t find women activists at demonstrations these days, or other places like that… I think the Palestinians, both the men and women, are becoming more afraid. Even the men themselves, they have to think twice before going into the field. So its even harder for women.
Amy: How would you describe your politics, your beliefs, the things you would like to change about the world?
Diana: I prefer to present myself as a Palestinian, that’s it. The Palestinians have different parties and groups, resistance groups for example. But I believe that, for the Israel government, there’s no difference as long as you are a Palestinian. So it doesn’t matter which side you are from. And also as long there’s occupation, there will be resistance. I remember I met a guy from the camp, he told me these words. I asked him a question. I asked why do you continue? And on that day the Israeli soldiers had killed most of the Palestinian fighters inside the camp. But still, you can see the Palestinians fighters continue carrying weapons. So I was just curious, like, what makes you continue? He said to me, ‘as long as there is occupation there is going to be resistance’.
And that’s right, that’s why the resistance exists. The reason is because the occupation exists, right? If there’s no occupation, there’s no fighters. The Palestinians dream of living a normal life. And like any people in this world, they have a right. The Palestinians in this community have been living under occupation for more than 74 years. So it’s time to let these people live in freedom. If you get down to the streets, the people talk about politics all the time. Even myself, when I go bed at night. I always check the news. So all my life, even my personal life, focuses on politics.
So if you want to talk about Palestinians in this community, we’re not talking about people who have no relationship with politics. Most of them, they have no personal life. They just focus on the political side. And this is crazy. Even myself, I become crazy. I have no personal life. I can’t live as a normal person.
The occupation, they took our dreams, they take our freedom. They took everything, even our soul. Okay, we are still alive. I’m alive. I’m talking right now because I’m alive. But also I’m not really alive. Nobody knows what’s inside me… Journalism has changed me a lot. I have seen a lot of Palestinians killed in front of me.
At night, I cannot sleep very well. My food regime has changed, I cannot eat like normal people. I lost weight. Everything which is going on here in the West Bank affects our lives a lot.
In the street, I find that you cannot laugh.
Tom: I was in the West Bank this year and one day there was a wedding in one of the villages I was staying in. And I remember people telling me that they wouldn’t dance at the wedding because of the situation. Is that a common thing, that people don’t want to express joy because of everything that’s happening right now?
Diana: When we see what has happened in Gaza since 7 October, for us in the West Bank these are our people. Same blood, right? Even if they live in a different area of Palestine, they are still our people. So the Palestinians, they have changed, Even myself, because of what we have seen in the news about all that’s going on in Gaza. It has been so many children, and I would like to say that it’s genocide, not a war.
Myself. If I want to have fun in my personal life, I have to think twice. I smoke shisha, but if I want to go out and smoke I have to think ‘should I do that’?
Amy: What are your hopes for what might happen now, in terms of the situation in Palestine?
Diana: As I told you before, the situation has become much worse. Nobody knows what’s going to happen tomorrow. Probably the Israeli government have huge plans for the future. And even the Palestinians living here in the West Bank, they started to say that we cannot live in this situation anymore. We are not feeling safe. We are suffering a lot, so it’s time to start a new life. Can you imagine, in the next two years, how many Palestinians will stay in Palestine? The Israeli government plan to push the Palestinians out of Palestine, and they are pushing us beyond our limits. Even in the [refugee] camps, thousands of Palestinians have left because they lost their homes.
Amy: Where do they go?
Diana: To their neighbours. Or, if possible they find another apartment outside of the camp, just for a while, because they have children, they have a family.
However much I try, I cannot really describe all that’s going on here. I feel a lot of pressure inside me for these words to get out. But still I can’t fully describe the situation.
Tom: I wanted to ask about the escalation of violence in Tulkarem. There was an F-16 attack on a cafe in the camp, and it seems like over the last year the Israeli forces have been using heavier and heavier weaponry.
Diana: That’s right.
Tom: And Israeli politicians have been saying that they should treat the West Bank like Gaza, and it seems like the cities in the North – Jenin, Tulkarem, Tubas – are bearing the brunt of the violence. Can you talk about how it has been in the last month or so in Tulkarem?
Diana: The last act of genocide you mentioned [at the cafe] that was last Thursday evening. Eighteen Palestinian people were killed that night [the number later rose to 20]. Two children and two women amongst them, and 13 of them are civilians. That never happened before [in Tulkarem]. Even the Palestinians from the camps, they said, this is the first time since the Second Intifada that the Israeli government used that kind of plane.
They think they have a right to target the Palestinians. And for them, there is no difference between Palestinian civilians or fighters. And this is the problem, because they are different. They were watching six Palestinian fighters inside the camp, and they targeted them. But they didn’t give a f**k about the Palestinian who are in the area. There’s a building beside a cafe, which was targeted that day. There are two or three families living in this building, and the Israeli government definitely knew that. But they don’t care. They really don’t care. A whole family has been killed, the father, the mother and two children.
So the Palestinians in the West Bank, they know that its getting really serious.
Recently, I have been documenting an incident where four Palestinians were been targeted in their car. They are from two different camps in Nablus. They were targeted by special Israeli forces in daylight in the middle of city.
My colleagues started to say to me recently that I should stay away from fighters groups. The news agencies are saying it too. Because nobody knows what’s going to happen. For the Israeli military, there’s no difference. Even if there’s a one, or two, or three, Palestinian journalists killed in an operation. There’s no issue for them if there’s five or ten Palestinian civilians killed for one fighter.
Two of my Palestinian journalist colleagues from the West Bank are under arrest right now and are in jail. One of them is from Tulkarem and the other from Nablus. They got arrested by Israeli forces. Why? Because they’re doing their job, covering the news.
Tom: Is there anything that you would want from journalists outside who support Palestine. From left-wing radical journalists, or media organisations or trade unions? Is there a way for them to stand in solidarity with journalists in Palestine?
Diana: I think all the journalists, or even journalism around the world, has a message. Our message is focused on the truth. We believe as journalists, both in Palestine and globally, that the truth should be told whatever happens.
So my message as a Palestinian journalist to the international journalists, is please don’t just take one side. If you want to write a story, you need to hear accounts from both sides. And if you hear from both sides you can decide.
There are more than 150 Palestinian journalists that have been killed in Gaza. What is the position of international journalists about that? What is their personal opinion about that? This is genocide. So what is your position? What is your opinion about that? Because if they want to stand with me, I don’t want them to stand with me just because I’m Palestinian. I am speaking as a journalist. Even if we have different languages, different nationalities, we still have same message, the same goal, right?
I would love to see the international journalists organise a demonstration or a protest for Palestinian journalists outside of Palestine, I would love to see it.
Journalists around the world have a right to move freely, to do their job without problems.
I know I have been working as photojournalist in the field for eight years now. But I’m not going to lie to you. I’m afraid. A lot of the Palestinian civilians I know often ask me [about fear], when they see me carry my cameras and my press jacket, they ask me this question. They are surprised because I am a woman. I tell them I am a journalist but I am still a human being, of course I’m afraid. We’re talking about a conflict zone. So the area where we are working as Palestinian journalists is more dangerous than any place in this world, because, as I told you before, for Israeli soldiers or the Israeli government: there’s no difference, as long as you are a Palestinian.
We want to move freely. Why should we feel afraid when we go to the field? But every single time I go to work, I don’t know if I’m going to come back safe to my home.
Every single time I say ‘hi’ to my family, they check if I’m okay, because they know that maybe I will get shot. Something like what happened to the Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu-Akleh. She was reporting what was happening in Jenin, she was wearing a press jacket. And every single person in the area, including the soldiers and the sniper who shot her knew that she was press. A lot of Palestinian journalists have a family, They have children. And every time they go out, they don’t know if they will get back safe.
I have some problems, I lost my attention, and this is one of my big problems as a journalist. Yesterday, when I was sitting with some of my friends who are journalists too, we were talking, and I found out that I’m not the only one with this problem. For example, we forget people’s names when we meet them in the street. People say ‘hey, how are you?’ They know our names, but for a few seconds, we can’t remember their names.
Tom: And do you think these memory problems are because of the things that you’ve experienced and seen?
Diana: Yeah, absolutely, because I wasn’t like this before. If you asked me about my memory six or seven years ago, it wasn’t like that. I had a strong memory. But not any more. So we’re talking about losing ourselves. We are starting to lose ourselves. We look normal. We speak normally, but we are not normal.
And, because we are journalists, we feel ashamed to share this information with other people. I’m a journalist, so I have to show the people around me that I am active, I am strong and I’m smart. But if the people around you see that you are not active anymore, or if they see that you are suffering, it’s going to be a problem. People have a particular picture of us, and we need to keep up [this illusion]. That’s another of our problems.
To read Diana Khwaelid’s writing, and check out her photos click here. If you’d like to read more of Shoal Collective’s interviews with radical Palestinian Women, click here.
