News From The Front

No Access For Journalists In Israel

Journalists who covered the deepening Mideast crisis faced a barrage of restrictions in recent weeks: Some were shot at by Israeli soldiers, and others were thrown out of West Bank towns when the Israeli government declared Jenin and Ramallah "closed military zones" and banned media presence.

Freelance photographer Scott Nelson, on assignment for Getty, along with The New York Times photographer Ruth Fremson, managed to slip into a hospital in Jenin on April 12, about a half mile away from the refugee camp, where fierce fighting resulted in hundreds dead, by some accounts. "It's just very frustrating," Nelson says. "[The army] is trying to shut us out. They intimidate us, shoot at us, make it difficult for us to work."

He says a two photographers ? James Nachtwey and Jerome Delay ? managed to get inside the refugee camp in Jenin, but were arrested several times. Nelson adds: "We know there are pictures to be made. More than ever, we need to get in."

Nelson describes the assignment like "playing a game." Groups of journalists drive around the West Bank, trying to find back roads or unguarded roads to enter so-called "restricted areas." "It's very arbitrary," he says. "There's no hard and fast rule. Some [Israeli] soldiers are completely friendly, some won't even come close and shoot warning shots."

In Bethlehem, The Washington Post's Michael Robinson-Chavez says photographers travel in packs, walking towards major squares to see how close they can get to the action. "The closer you get, the more likely it is you come across an operation in progress," he says. "Unless you're very lucky, it's mostly pictures of Israeli troops positioned against walls, taking cover. Or if you're lucky, the arrest of a Palestinian."

In Ramallah, where Israeli troops threw out a CBS TV crew, Getty photographer Chris Hondros says that the city is under a strictly enforced 24-hour curfew, so journalists stay cooped up in the press hotel.

"Yasser Arafat's compound is only a mile or so away, and no one wants to get kicked out of here before that situation comes to a head, so people are being careful," Hondros says. On April 5, several journalists ventured out during curfew and were attacked by Israeli army with concussion grenades and rubber bullets (see top photograph). Another time, Nasser Nasser of the Associated Press had a sniper bullet shatter the glass a foot from his head when he leaned out of the hotel window to shoot a passing tank convoy.

Almost every journalist in Ramallah is in body armor and helmets, compared to the situation in Afghanistan where, Hondros says, few wore body armor and fewer wore a helmet. Robinson-Chavez says: "The real danger is that you'll become the message that the Israelis want to send to the press. Anthony Shadid [Boston Globe reporter] was shot by an Israeli sniper and they knew damn well he was the press," he says. "It was a message, `You guys are in a free fire zone, take your own risks,' because they really want to clamp down on media coverage."

For Corbis Sygma's Shaul Schwarz, an Israeli who has photographed for the Israeli airforce, covering the story is "a little bit different for me." "I can't physically walk into Palestinian [territory]. I will be killed," he says. "With the violence now, I'm going in with the soldiers. We can't go in on our own. It's changed a lot."

Schwarz says another, more journalistic, challenge is depicting the conflict without influencing it. "We've been to places that the press is too involved in the situation," he says. "[The press] must be there, but when they come to a demonstration, there is a lot of tension. When there are 20 photographers, there is more chance that the demonstration will end up with clashes...If there is no press there, it'll probably finish a lot quieter than if the press were there, which is very frustrating."

Here's a quick look at who else is in Israel covering the situation. Ricki Rosen is in Israel for Corbis Saba. Getty's Graham Morrison is photographing in Bethleham. Lazlo Balogh from Reuters is in Ramallah. The New York Times says that Ruth Fremson and Tyler Hicks are in the region.

--Dorothy Ho and David Walker

www.gettyimagesnews.com

newsroom.corbis.com

www.nytimes.com