As written by Sharon Jackson:
Breaking news! “It is harder to break prejudice than an atom,” goes the famous quote by Albert Einstein. And yet, though this may be true, it does not break the spirit of Yvette Dean, journalist and former editor of breaking news stories at the Jerusalem Post. For Yvette has come to understand that we cannot change our view of the “other” if we are denied the chance to hear their stories.
Upon returning to the US from her Ibrahim experience, Yvette focused her Macaulay Honors thesis on how we may “walk in the other side’s shoes” when exploring the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. She went on to win a Fulbright scholarship to Hebrew University, where she examined the ways in which the Palestinian narrative is included in (or excluded from) Hebrew University curriculum. Afterwards, she worked with the Office of the Quartet to study energy use, and started her position at the Jerusalem Post.
Currently, Yvette is in the process of completing her master’s in journalism at Columbia University. As part of her thesis, she plans to immerse her fellow students in “simulations” — a technique in which students “become” negotiators in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, whose views and identities are not their own. In this way, these future journalists will be able to better tell others’ stories. It is Yvette’s aim, with this project and those she turns her hand to in the future, to amplify those voices not commonly heard in the media, thus helping to break the silence.