On March 6, King’s Academy welcomed Plestia Alaqad as a guest speaker on the occasion of International Women’s Day, which falls on March 8.

Alaqad is a 22-year-old Palestinian journalist who became one of the most recognized faces on social media and in the news as she courageously reported from the ground in Gaza for 46 days before she was forced to leave for her own and her family’s safety. Currently based in Australia, Alaqad was invited to share her experience virtually with students during school meeting and to answer questions about her efforts to expose the truth about the ongoing genocide.

Speaking about how she was able to report daily in such a high-risk environment, Alaqad admitted it was difficult but said: “What kept me going was I wanted to show people the truth. I wanted to show people Gaza through my eyes. I don’t want a foreign journalist reporting on what is happening and telling the Palestinian narrative the way they want. I want the world to know what is happening in Palestine from a Palestinian person.”

Alaqad had recently completed her degree in new media and journalism abroad and had returned home to Gaza where she was determined to report on the beauty of Gaza and its people to counteract international media’s negative portrayal of Palestinians in the news.

“I hate how the media portrays Palestine, and Gaza specifically,” said Alaqad. “The way the media portrays Gaza gives people the impression that Palestinians are born to die. As if we don’t love life, as if there are always bombs and wars and aggressions, which is true to a point. But, despite how challenging it is we try to live, so that’s why I want to report in a high-risk environment, because I want to show people what it’s like to be a Palestinian.”

Answering a student’s question about what reporting from a war zone has taught her, Alaqad said that in addition to becoming more adaptable, empathetic and compassionate, “the main lesson being in a war zone taught me as a journalist is not to use people as content. I don’t like to just think about the story and take my phone out to record then leave. I like to build a connection with the people and show them that I’m also Palestinian, not a foreign journalist who is just there for the news. I care about them. I always build connections with people first then report on their stories if they feel comfortable doing that.”

Alaqad shared with the audience personal stories about her family, people she got to know and challenging situations she had to navigate during her work reporting the genocide, which she said highlights Palestinians’ common humanity, evident by how the community comes together to help and support each other through the difficult times, as well as their eternal strength and optimism despite everything.

She also shared some of the specific challenges of being a female reporter during a war, such as trying to meet basic hygiene needs, and spoke about how she coped with the mental and emotional toll.

“It might be hard for you to believe but my mental health was doing way better when I was on the ground for 46 days reporting rather than now, safe but disconnected in Australia,” said Alaqad. “When you’re with your people, in your homeland, it is always easier because you feel like you are all in this together, we’re one big family, no matter what happens it will happen to me and you, so it wasn’t that difficult. You don’t have time to cry or process your emotions.”

“It’s harder now I am on the outside watching what is happening to my extended family, friends and people I know because I’m not doing anything, just waiting for things to be over,” she added.   

Responding to a question about how she deals with hate messages online, she said: “You know how when you think positively you only see the positive stuff? But if you think negatively, you only see the negative stuff? I feel that because I’m a positive person I notice the positive comments.”

In answer to another student’s question about how to make sure the genocide is not forgotten by current and future generations, Alaqad said that it was important to use every opportunity to humanize Palestinians. “You can talk about specific stories of Palestinians who left an impact on you, you can talk about journalists, medical professionals. Whenever you have an assignment or you can write an essay about whatever you want, you can choose to talk about Palestine.”

Speaking about one of the most difficult aspects of the war, which was being displaced from her home, Alaqad also expressed how she was hopeful about returning to Gaza one day although “the question is will there even be a Gaza left to go back to? Almost everything I know has been demolished and half the people I know were killed or I don’t know what happened to them, so it will be hard to go back to a place where you spent your whole life, all your memories are there, and now everything is gone.”

Alaqad, who has 4.7 million followers on Instagram, also addressed the extreme censorship and shadow banning of her account by Meta [formerly Facebook] for speaking out about Israel’s genocide of Gaza. Despite such negative experiences, she still has hope in humanity saying: “Regular people are trying their best to share, boycott, do what is in their power, whatever they can, they still have humanity. It has just changed the way I view governments in certain countries.”

Seeing millions of people around the world support Palestine makes them feel less alone, Alaqad said. “It makes us feel like Gaza is not suffering alone. To see how the people are doing their best to protest and boycott, and you can see for yourself how much impact the boycotts are having on certain businesses, that support means a lot to us as Palestinians.”