Yarden Michaeli

Yarden Michaeli was selected for the 2025 Shortlist with Road to Redemption: How Israel’s War Against Hamas Turned Into a Springboard for Jewish Settlement in Gaza.

Yarden Michaeli is a senior journalist at the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, who has been working at the newsroom for the past ten years. In his most recent role, Yarden served as the newsroom’s Gaza editor, and personally reported on the war using technological tools. In prior roles, Yarden covered the war in Ukraine on the ground, founded the newspaper’s climate desk and was head of the science desk during the Covid-19 pandemic. Yarden has a Bachelor’s degree in American Studies and Economy from the Humboldt University in Berlin. Yarden is also a Knight fellow at MIT, where he develops a research project focusing on the integration of technology and scientific knowledge into the newsroom.

Jessica Bateman

Jessica Bateman was selected for the 2025 Shortlist with Did Something Happen to Mom When She Was Young.

Jessica Bateman is an independent journalist specialising in longform storytelling on gender, faith and extremism. She has worked for organisations including The Washington Post, The Guardian and the BBC and also currently covers Germany for Hyphen, a new publication focused on issues important to Muslims around Europe.