Al Jazeera wins Peabody Award for documentary One Day In Hebron

Direct From with Dena Takruri wins a Peabody Award in the news category for reporting in occupied West Bank.

The Al Jazeera series Direct From with Dena Takruri has won a Peabody Award in the news category for its video One Day In Hebron.

The video, which has more than 1.7 million views on YouTube, shows host Dena Takruri return to Hebron, the once-vibrant Palestinian city where her father was born and raised.

She retraced his steps to see what Israel’s military occupation has done to his hometown, finding segregated streets, traumatised residents, closed businesses and nets erected by the remaining Palestinians to catch rubbish thrown at them by Israeli settlers.

“We are all tremendously honoured to be recognised with a Peabody Award for our documentary One Day In Hebron,” Takruri said for her and her team.

“This win is particularly meaningful for me as this was a personal film,” she said. “In the course of our day filming there, we witnessed and experienced Israeli military aggression, settler harassment and an impossible set of repressive conditions that the Palestinians who remain are routinely subject to.

“We filmed this just weeks after we lost Shireen Abu Akleh, who was both a friend and a role model to me. We hope to honour her legacy through this documentary and the recognition it’s receiving and through our unwavering commitment to continue to tell Palestinian stories.”

The 83rd annual Peabody Award winners were announced on Tuesday. The awards ceremony will be held in Los Angeles on June 11.

For more than 80 years, the Peabody Awards have been honouring the most intelligent, powerful and moving stories told in broadcast and digital media.