'We Have to at Least Be Witnesses'

A photojournalist captures life in Israel in all its conflicting aspects.

*Note: In keeping with our mission, the Hot Zone is putting a human face on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. We're profiling doctors, victims of the violence, journalists and artists -- one from each side. In focusing more on the human picture than the political one, we aim to present a clearer portrayal of the scope of the conflict. 

TEL AVIV -- It was April 1984 and Alex Levac, along with other Israeli photojournalists, was staking out a bus that had been hijacked by four Palestinians and driven into Gaza. The Israeli army had the bus surrounded and negotiated with the Palestinians through the night in an attempt to end the hijacking and win the release of the hostages.

But just before dawn, in total darkness, Israeli special forces stormed the bus and forcefully ended the standoff. Alex was about 10 feet away when he saw soldiers taking, what he thought, was one of the passengers off the bus.

He pointed his camera in the direction of the figures and tripped the shutter. What he captured would end up being one of the most controversial and important photos in his career.

Right after he took the picture Israeli soldiers demanded he give up his film.

"Two guys immediately jumped on me and said 'give us your film,' but I had two cameras," says Levac. "So I took the roll from the second camera, which I had not been shooting with at that moment and gave them that roll."

When Levac went back to his office at the newspaper Haddashot he heard a news report in which an Israeli military spokesperson said all four hijackers were killed in the assault to take back the bus.

But Levac learned that the picture he had taken at the site of the hijacking was of one of the hijackers -- who at the time was very much alive. Another photojournalist from another newspaper had also photographed one of the other hijackers also being removed from the bus alive. The two hijackers, Levac says, had been executed after the assault on the bus.

"We had evidence these guys were alive when they came off the bus," says Levac, "but there was censorship by the Israeli government at the time, so we couldn't run the photo. They even closed the newspaper down for 10 days."

But rumors of the photographs created such a stir that Israeli intelligence, Shin Beit, started an inquiry.

"For the first time," Levac says, "Israeli intelligence was under the looking glass."

Haddashot published the photograph nine weeks after the incident and the Shin Beit inquiry led to the resignation of a top intelligence official.

"No one went to prison," says Levac, "but I think things have become more open now in Israeli society. Things still happen in secret, but I believe there's more transparency."

Levac has become one of the best known photojournalists, not just in

He says he has moved away from conflict coverage in the past few years and is concentrating on capturing everyday life in Israel.

Levac shared the following six photographs from his collection with the Hot Zone, along with his thoughts about the works and Israeli society:

Jewish Orthodox Children
In the last 10 years I've been doing less hard core stuff and more features. This is photography dealing with normal daily life. I've had a weekly photograph in Haaretz in the supplement since 1984.

This particular picture was in Meaah Shearim, which means "one hundred gates," in the Orthodox section of Jerusalem.

When I moved here I was struck by this religious culture. I started taking pictures of religious people and I've been having a lot of fun with it.

They all dress the same, so there are patterns you can see. Here the Rabbi is trying to arrange the children in an order. But they're not playing a game: They're just trying to go from one place to another. It's kind of rigid.

Through the Wall
This picture was taken in east Jerusalem. It's part of the wall when it wasn't completed. Kids tried to get through the cracks.

I'm against the wall, but I'm in a very small minority. Annexing a lot of territory, it's more political than security. It's a temporary solution. I think Israel should get out of the occupied territories, but no one talks about this anymore. OK, we got out of Gaza but we still control everything they do.

Israelis don't want to see the Palestinians; it's like they exist, but we don't want to know anything about them.

Umbrella
Symbolically, I think this is like a lot of Israelis: They sit in front of something but they don't want to look at it. Here's the beautiful sea, representing endless opportunities, but they don't want to see it.

 Olive Branches
This is during Easter in east Jerusalem during the time of the Oslo Agreement [a peace agreement between Israel and the

Over the Wall
Again, like the picture of the boy in the cracks, before the wall was completed, many Palestinians would cross over. But the border police would wait for them, like in this picture. They didn't really do anything to them; they just made them turn around and go back.

Proud Dog
This is on Israel's independence day in one of the neighborhoods of Jerusalem. I just thought this dog looked so proud in his position in the window. Six months ago I published a  book about dogs in Israel. I thought I had enough for a book, but the publisher said, "You need more pictures." So I got serious and went to dog shows and everywhere I could. I took a few thousand photos of dogs, like this one, all over Israel.

Alex Levac on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict:
Sometimes I'm full of hope; other times I get really depressed about it. Its not just the killing -- it's the little things, like when you got to a roadblock and you see a Palestinian family waiting for hours. Both sides are to blame, but we can't forget we are the occupiers. If the roles were reversed, we'd probably do the same thing as the Palestinians -- maybe not blow ourselves up, but we'd fight.

On the Role of Journalists in Israeli Society:
The big question is, how much impact do we really have, can we really change things? But one thing is for sure: We have to show what's happening out there. That's our duty. Once in a while we manage to shake people up for about five minutes, then they go back to sleep.

People are fed up with the conflict here. I'm lucky because I work for Haaretz, which is a little bit left of center. People want to live their lives, be with their families, go abroad and deal with the conflict as little as possible. But they can't do it because we live in the middle of it. Still, very few people see it clearly.

I think as photographers we have to make sure we show it, whether people understand it or not. We have to at least be witnesses.

Previously: Palestinian Artist

Next: Palestinian Journalist 

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