Rula Jebreal

Rula Jebreal is an Italo-Palestinian journalist, novelist and screenwriter with both Israeli and Italian citizenship. Her mother died when she was five, and her father put her and her sister in the Dar El-Tifel orphanage, where she was educated. She won a scholarship from the Italian government to study medicine at the University of Bologna and graduated with a degree in physiotherapy. While working as a physiotherapist, Jebreal went back to school at the University of Bologna, earning her masters in Journalism and Political Science. She became the first foreign anchorwoman in the history of Italian television, winning a Media Watch award for her coverage of the Iraq war, and by age 33 earned the highest European journalism award, the International Ischia Award, for Best Journalist of the Year. Jebreal worked as a journalist in Italy for 12 years, earning a reputation for being one of the toughest interviewers because of her interviews with such prominent figures as Prime Minister Massimo D'Alema, Silvio Berlusconi, Bill Gates, President Mahmoud Abbas, Bernard Kushner, Al Berdei and Ingrid Betancourt. In 2006 she became the co-presenter of AnnoZero (2006), the most important and controversial show in Italy, together with Michele Santoro. In 2008 Jebreal created her own television show in Cairo at Al-Qahira Wal-Nas, Egypt's main television station, where she filmed 30 episodes covering politics, economy and the collapse of society in Egypt under Hosni Mubarak's regime. Jebreal's first novel, "Miral", published in 2003, was translated into 15 languages, sold millions of copies worldwide and was eventually made into a film--Miral (2010)--that was directed by Julian Schnabel, from Jebreal's screenplay. The film premiered at the Venice Film Festival on September 2, 2010, to a 15-minute standing ovation, and won the UNICEF Protection of Children award. "Miral" had its U.S. premiere at the United Nations General Assembly Hall, the first film ever to premiere there. Jebreal's second novel, "The Bride of Aswan", was published in 2007 and was translated into five languages, winning the International Fince Europa Award. Her third book, "Rejected", is a non-fiction study about the history of immigration in Europe. It was published in Italy and France, and is used in universities in Italy. Jebreal wrote and produced the documentary "Permesso di Sogiorno", about the death penalty in China, the United States and Iran during the UN debate over the death penalty moratorium in 2008. The critically acclaimed documentary aired on Italian television in 2008.