Amira Hass
An Israeli journalist who moved to Gaza and the West Bank to report on Palestinian life from the inside for three decades.
Born 1956 (age 70)·Israeli journalist and author·Birthday: June 28·Baby Boomers
Biography
Amira Hass did not just report on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; she immersed herself in it. The daughter of Holocaust survivors, she made a radical choice in the early 1990s, moving first to Gaza and then to Ramallah in the West Bank. For Haaretz newspaper, she became a vital, ground-level chronicler of Palestinian life under occupation, documenting the minutiae of checkpoints, closures, and military law with unflinching detail. Her reporting, collected in books like 'Drinking the Sea at Gaza', provided a crucial internal perspective often absent from mainstream coverage, making her a necessary and sometimes controversial voice in Israeli society. Living where she reports, Hass embodies a form of journalism that is both personal and political, insisting that understanding requires proximity and a relentless focus on human consequence.
Baby Boomers
1946–1964
The largest generation in history at the time. Shaped by postwar prosperity, the Vietnam War, the sexual revolution, and Watergate. They questioned every institution their parents built — then ran them.
Amira was born in 1956, placing them squarely in the Baby Boomers. The events that shaped this generation — postwar prosperity, civil rights, Vietnam, and the counterculture — shaped the world they entered and the choices available to them.
#1 When Amira Was Born
The biggest hits of 1956
#1 Movie
The Ten Commandments
Best Picture
Around the World in 80 Days
#1 TV Show
I Love Lucy
Amira's Life & Times
The world at every milestone
1956Born
Elvis Presley appears on The Ed Sullivan Show
Gas: $0.30/galHome: $10,050Min wage: $1.00/hrPresident: Dwight D. Eisenhower"Heartbreak Hotel" — Elvis PresleyBest Picture: Around the World in 80 Days
1961Started school
Yuri Gagarin becomes the first human in space
Gas: $0.31/galHome: $12,500Min wage: $1.15/hrPresident: John F. Kennedy"Tossin' and Turnin'" — Bobby LewisBest Picture: West Side Story
1969Became a teenager
Apollo 11: humans walk on the Moon; Woodstock festival
Gas: $0.35/galHome: $15,550Min wage: $1.60/hrPresident: Richard Nixon"Sugar, Sugar" — The ArchiesBest Picture: Midnight Cowboy
1972Could drive
Watergate break-in; last Apollo Moon mission
Gas: $0.36/galHome: $19,550Min wage: $1.60/hrPresident: Richard Nixon"The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" — Roberta FlackBest Picture: The Godfather
1974Could vote
Nixon resigns the presidency
Gas: $0.53/galHome: $22,600Min wage: $2.00/hrPresident: Gerald Ford"The Way We Were" — Barbra StreisandBest Picture: The Godfather Part II
1977Turned 21
Star Wars premieres; Elvis dies
Gas: $0.62/galHome: $31,800Min wage: $2.30/hrPresident: Jimmy Carter"Tonight's the Night" — Rod StewartBest Picture: Annie Hall
1986Turned 30
Challenger disaster; Chernobyl nuclear meltdown
Gas: $0.86/galHome: $66,600Min wage: $3.35/hrPresident: Ronald Reagan"That's What Friends Are For" — Dionne & FriendsBest Picture: Platoon
1996Turned 40
Dolly the sheep cloned
Gas: $1.23/galHome: $99,700Min wage: $4.75/hrPresident: Bill Clinton"Macarena" — Los del RioBest Picture: The English Patient
2006Turned 50
Twitter launches; Pluto reclassified as dwarf planet
Gas: $2.59/galHome: $174,700Min wage: $5.15/hrPresident: George W. Bush"Bad Day" — Daniel PowterBest Picture: The Departed
2016Turned 60
Donald Trump elected president; Brexit vote
Gas: $2.14/galHome: $181,700Min wage: $7.25/hrPresident: Barack Obama"Love Yourself" — Justin BieberBest Picture: Moonlight
2026Turned 70
Gas: $3.91/galPresident: Donald Trump
Key Achievements
- Lived and reported from within Gaza and the West Bank as a correspondent for Haaretz for nearly thirty years.
- Authored the seminal book 'Drinking the Sea at Gaza: Days and Nights in a Land Under Siege'.
- Won the UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize in 2003 for her courageous reporting.
- Her columns have provided a consistent, on-the-ground Israeli journalistic perspective on daily life under occupation.
Did You Know?
Her mother, Hannah Levy-Hass, was a Yugoslavian Jewish partisan and Holocaust survivor whose diary was published.
She was the first Israeli journalist to take up long-term residence in Gaza in the early 1990s.
She holds a degree in European History from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
She has been arrested by both Israeli and Palestinian Authority security forces during her work.
““The choice to live in Gaza was and remains a professional one. To report from there, you have to live there.””
