Zoabi has become a living symbol of the gap between Israeli and Arab perceptions of that fateful May day. To many Israelis, including her fellow parliamentarians, Zoabi is a traitor. But for Arabs, as well as for others who wish to see the Gaza blockade lifted, she's a testament to the need for change.

This March, during a reporting field trip to Israel, my journalism class met with Zoabi. We spent an hour in a cramped Knesset office listening to her litany of concerns: her constituency lacks not just material resources but also political equality. Zoabi, a former schoolteacher, is a member of Balad, an Arab nationalist party that opposes Israel's status as a Jewish nation. She has, nevertheless, excelled in its system. At 41, Zoabi is the first Arab Israeli to receive a master's degree in communications from Hebrew University; the first educator to establish media courses in Arab schools; and the first Arab woman elected to the Israeli parliament.

The class met with Zoabi to discuss the confluence of religion, politics and gender in the Arab-Israeli conflict. We spent nine days interviewing activists, politicians, religious leaders and citizens in Israel and the West Bank to better understand—as well as to report and write about—issues that, in the American press, often seem unmoored from historical and sociological contexts.

During and after our visit, students wrote short, impressionistic pieces (which we labeled blogs) as well as news features and long-form narratives. The work has been available in different outlets but today, in trans-missions, we can share all of it on the Israel-Palestine Project, a site that students built expressly for this purpose.

In a time of industry cutbacks, this kind of intensive international reporting experience is more important than ever. Journalism students need to know there is a great need, as well as a deep hunger, for in-depth, incisive and informed coverage of global issues. Even as news outlets cut back on foreign bureaus and specialty beats such as religion, geopolitical realities call out for journalists who are attuned to the nuances of faith communities' perspectives, regional history and the complexities of fault-lines such as race, ethnicity, gender and class.

Also needed are journalists willing to tell the stories of everyday citizens, unheralded heroes, obscure politicians and abrasive activists. You can find stories like these in our Israel-Palestine project. Discover an Israeli professor who penned a new narrative of his country's contested history; a gay couple challenging the state's surrogacy laws; and the travails of Palestinian university students eager for an education.

But students in the USC Annenberg class did more than cover important, if under-reported, stories. They developed multimedia pieces that drew on photographic, online, radio and video skills—and they faced the entrepreneurial demands that increasingly define the profession. They posted their work on Neon Tommy, USC Annenberg's award-winning online news site, but they also sent their work to online publications that could provide wider dissemination.  For some, dealing with the possibility of rejection was as daunting as negotiating a foreign country.

Two students, John Adams and Tara Graham, created Checkpoint, an online site that features the stories of Israel's non-Jewish citizens. Among those profiled is Haneen Zoabi, whose passionate politics had impressed the students months before the Gaza action brought her to international attention. Today, we debut Checkpoint—a notable accomplishment of USC Annenberg's online program.

Since May, news about Israel and the Palestinians has, justifiably, focused on the issues raised by the flotilla. But as our reporting demonstrates, the region's infamous knot of religion and politics entangles all aspects of the region's culture and society. We offer our work as an example of how much more can be and should be done to illuminate the people, issues and ideas  often overlooked by mainstream news outlets that are already stretched to the limit.

Diane Winston