Bisan Owda is a Palestinian journalist, activist, and filmmaker.
18 Facts About Bisan Owda
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Bisan Owda is best known for her social media videos documenting her experiences during the Gaza war in the Gaza Strip.
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Bisan Owda won a 2024 Peabody Award in the News category and an Edward R Murrow Award for News Series for her Al Jazeera Media Network show, It's Bisan from Gaza and I'm Still Alive.
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Bisan Owda has worked with several organizations on various issues.
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Bisan Owda has worked with the European Union on climate change and is an EU Goodwill Ambassador.
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Bisan Owda presented educational Palestinian Arabic videos for the YouTube channel Easy Languages.
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Bisan Owda became known for opening her videos with some variation of the phrase, "I'm still alive".
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Bisan Owda's videos are mostly in English, though some are in Arabic.
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Bisan Owda's work has been shared by BBC News, Al Jazeera, and ABC News.
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From Al-Shifa Hospital, Bisan Owda reported on the spread of illness among the 50,000 displaced people who lacked adequate shelter, water, and sanitation.
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Bisan Owda documented the "increasingly critical situation" on social media, reporting a lack of food and water, destruction of solar panels, and bombings.
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Bisan Owda posted videos of her journey walking south to Khan Yunis in which she described dead bodies on the side of the road and interviewed other refugees.
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Bisan Owda's statement was cited in several news articles which referenced the killing of journalists in the Gaza war.
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Later that month, Bisan Owda posted that she had to cut her hair because she did not have adequate water or supplies to care for it.
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Bisan Owda reported on the lack of bathrooms and menstrual pads in the Khan Yunis refugee camp.
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Bisan Owda stated that Palestinians in Gaza were experiencing "forced starvation" and that the IDF had killed them while they were running towards aid trucks.
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The award was presented by Mo Amer, and Bisan Owda attended the ceremony via video.
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Pro-Israel nonprofit Creative Community for Peace called for the nomination to be rescinded, alleging Bisan Owda was a member of Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which the United States designated as a terrorist organization, and publishing an open letter signed by 150 people involved in the entertainment industry, including Selma Blair, Sherry Lansing, and Debra Messing.