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Coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is among the most disputed in the news, and debates about the press are constant. Yet these arguments seldom consider the people on the ground who make the reporting possible. Amahl Bishara spent time with journalists working in Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Ramallah, Nablus, and along the dangerous roads linking them. She shows how American stories about Palestinians rely on a network of partnerships that Western audiences rarely see.

Bishara concentrates on Palestinian journalists who work largely unseen: fixers, photographers, camera operators, reporters, and producers. Their labor is what lets American audiences read, watch, and hear the news each day. The book argues that Palestinians are central to producing U.S. reporting, and that American journalism in turn affects Palestinian politics. Questions of objectivity, it suggests, rest partly in the hands of these Palestinian journalists, and Palestinian self-determination cannot be understood without considering them.

The book examines a range of events, from the funeral of Yasser Arafat and the phenomenon of female suicide bombers to protests against the separation barrier and the little-noticed killing of a man with a mental disability. Through these cases, Bishara raises questions about objectivity, violence, the state, and how knowledge is produced in contemporary news. Her focus extends past the headlines into the everyday lives of Palestinians during the second intifada.

The work offers a view of both Palestinians and journalism that is rarely presented to readers. It will appeal to those interested in the Middle East, media studies, and the workings of foreign correspondence.