Foreign Tours Mid East Trip 2001

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NCEW members from 14 newspapers recently completed an eight-day trip to Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The trip was organized by NCEW members in cooperation with the Israeli Foreign Ministry; the Palestine Media Center, a branch of the Palestinian National Authority; the U.S. Department of State; and Tel Aviv University.

The itinerary included interviews with Israeli President Moshe Katsav, Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, representatives of the Israeli Defense Forces and the Israeli Foreign Ministry; Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat and Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo as well as staff of the PA's Special Negotiations Unit; U.S. Ambassador Daniel Kurtzer; and visits to the Golan Heights, the Jordan Valley, the Gilo neighborhood of Jerusalem and the Arab communities of East Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Beit Jalla, Hebron and Ramallah. The group also conducted interviews with Israeli journalists such as David Horovitz of the Jerusalem Report and scholars such as Mark Heller and Shlomo Brom of Tel Aviv University. Newspapers represented on the trip were: The Detroit Free Press; the Minneapolis Star Tribune; the Longmont, Colorado, Daily Times-Call; the Arizona Republic; the Anchorage Daily News; the Wilmington News Journal; the Asheville Citizen-Times; the Miami Herald; the Dallas Morning News; the Anchorage Daily News; the San Antonio Express-News; the Rocky Mountain News; the Dayton Beach News-Journal, and the Lincoln, Nebraska, Journal Star.

The trip was part of NCEW's regular travel program, which has taken NCEW members to Mexico, China, Nigeria, South Africa, India, Pakistan, Russia and other countries during the last 20 years. Trips are paid for by member newspapers and grants from the NCEW Foundation.

11/20/01