Journalist and former CBS Middle East Producer Deborah Camiel (Ariel ’24) spoke to the community about her journalistic experience covering Middle Eastern conflicts Nov. 15. During her time as a war-zone reporter in the Middle East, Camiel covered Israeli and Palestinian territories, Lebanon, Syria, Egypt and Jordan.
Camiel said it is crucial for everyone to be well-informed about the war in Israel and Palestine.
“It behooves all of us to understand what is happening,” Camiel said. “There’s also a lot of disinformation out there, and it’s important for everyone, especially young people, to understand who are the different players. People don’t understand the Middle East and who are the different players in this conflict.”
Camiel said she was selected as a speaker because of her experience as a journalist covering the Middle East and her position in the Jewish Family Alliance (JFA).
“My family is in the JFA,” Camiel said. “We’ve had meetings and events to support both families and kids in the Harvard-Westlake community. There are people who have been affected by this on both the Jewish side and potentially the Palestinian side. So, I wrote to [Head of the Upper School] Beth Slattery and said if you want someone to come in and present in order to introduce people to the topic and make sure that they understand it more.”
Juana Markman ’25 , said she decided to go to the event because she wanted to learn more about Middle Eastern conflicts.
“I thought it was really interesting and informative,” Markman said. “I don’t know much about the Middle East, so I liked learning about it, [and] I thought the speaker was really smart.”
Justine Gustman ’25 said the event was a timely opportunity to better understand the Israel-Palestine Conflict from an experienced speaker.
“I decided to go [to the event] mainly because I wanted to hear from someone who has experience reporting on the conflict and who has also lived in Israel,” Gustman said. “[I wanted to] see the story from both sides, which I do think is very important, especially with a conflict as nuanced as the Israeli-Palestinian one. I think that having these speakers who have experience and know a lot about this conflict is very important just so that people can understand more of the truth and less of what they’re seeing on social media and deciding to believe.”
