By reporting in Hebrew on Israeli TV, a Palestinian reporter dismantles boundaries.

Suleiman Maswadeh is one of the few Palestinian reporters on Israeli TV who report in Hebrew. He is not the first or the only Palestinian reporter on Israeli TV, but he recently promoted to political correspondent and anchor, leaving his hometown of Jerusalem for the skyscrapers of Tel Aviv. Maswadeh is born in East Jerusalem to a Palestinian family and culture, but he also lives in Israel and feels Israeli in some ways. He is one of the many Palestinians, mostly from East Jerusalem, who hold Israeli identity cards and residency, but a Jordanian passport. He grew up in and around some of the most prominent and newsworthy places in the world, attending a strict, all-boys Islamic school in the Old City, and playing as a child in the Al-Aqsa mosque compound, known to Jews as the Temple Mount.

Israel captured East Jerusalem from Jordan in a 1967 war and now considers it part of its “undivided capital.” Most of the international community however considers it to be occupied territory and the Palestinians want it as the capital of their future state. Maswadeh's first interest in journalism came during the Second Intifada, or Palestinian uprising, in the early 2000s, when there were frequent suicide bombings and other attacks in Jerusalem. He worked at a high-end hotel in Jerusalem, where he quickly realized the mostly-Jewish waiters who spoke Hebrew made better money. He then transferred to an Israeli college, where he studied journalism and landed an internship at Kan’s Arabic channel. He then moved to the main Hebrew channel and worked as a field producer.

His first on-air role was as Arab affairs reporter, which he hated because he saw that all the Arab reporters in Israel report about the Arab society or something and he didn’t like that. Maswadeh is a Jerusalem correspondent who has been a mainstay of recent coverage of the massive protests against the Israeli government’s planned judicial overhaul. He has also sat down with the extreme right-wing figures of Israel’s new government, such as National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who was once convicted of racist incitement against Arabs and supporting terrorism. Maswadeh feels his background has opened the city up for him, as he can understand both the Arab and Jewish societies, which gives him access to police officers. He has also been able to meet the extreme right-wing figures of Israel’s new government, such as National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who was once convicted of racist incitement against Arabs and supporting terrorism.