South Lebanon: Behind the News

Source: MERIP Reports, No. 108/109, The Lebanon War (Sep. - Oct., 1982), pp. 33-35
Published by: Middle East Research and Information Project, Inc. (MERIP)
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3012240
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 South
Lebanon:
Behind
The News
A Special Correspondent
Two Lebanese men in the south Lebanon town of Jiye listen to Voice of Pa
June 7, 1982. George Azar

On my second trip, I went mainly to the civilian popula?

the coastal front during the first week. The battle of tion centers. We got a briefing from the censor about what
I was working for an American network and I was on
'Ain al-Hilweh was still going and the Israelis were he would not like to see, besides obvious military targets.
"mopping up" the resistance forces still there. Then we He didn't want "horror pictures"?wounded people, muti?
moved near Khaldeh, which became the new front. By thelated bodies, absolutely no corpses of civilians. That's the
last day, I was already in east Beirut. The media teams justway the censor puts it to you. To be honest, the censor did
ran after the Israeli forces. The way the networks work is not really bother about scenes of destruction. There it's
this: the correspondent, if he is brave, does a "stand-up" in much more the problem with the escort officers.
the field. Otherwise, he does it in Tel Aviv. Usually the
crews are sent independently, without a correspondent, to
the field. Every major network has four or five crews cover? Censors and Escorts
ing the different fronts. So most of the work is done by the
crews. Ninety percent of the crews inside Israel are Israelis It's two different bureaucracies. The military escort
working for American networks. IDF spokesman's office. Censorship is strictly a prof
We did two interviews with the population, but I don'tsional wing that has to judge quickly on matters suc
think they even went into the story. The correspondent we whether you violated military secrets. The military esc
were working with was much more interested in the ad? some of them, assume a much more active role of defe
vance of the Israeli troops. There was much more effort to the Israeli image. The problem varies, depending on the
get "bang-bang" footage, and the correspondents' "stand- individual escort officer. Most of them are reserve soldiers.
ups." We did one "human story," at the hospital in Tyre. They are human beings who have their own political opin?
The doctor there spoke very good English. We also went to ions that they bring into it. The first day I had a really
Rashidiyeh, where refugees were camping in the orchard hardcore propagandist, to whom I had to explain why I
groves. But since we didn't know Arabic we just did visuals, took almost every shot. I had to interview all these Chris?
a "stand-up" of the correspondent in front of those refu? tians to impress upon him that I was trying to produce a
gees. Later, I saw in the network's office some of the stories pro-Israeli story. He has the power to limit what I can shoot
that had been compiled during the war. They were mainlyand not shoot. More important, he can report back and
interviews with Christians talking about PLO terrorism, or label me a "negative."
Israeli soldiers, or the "stand-ups" in front of the Israeli It's a great privilege to get an escort officer solely for
soldiers. yourself. If you're a print journalist, they put three or four
This narrow focus is a combination of the correspon? together in a car ?Philadelphia Inquirer, New York Times,
dent's personality and political biases, plus what the officeWashington Post?with an escort officer for a convoy of
in the US wants to show, plus censorship. At that earlythree or four cars. Usually some of the journalists "got
point, I think the censorship was much looser. Then, if you lost," and the escort would come back only with his own
were a correspondent really trying to assess the damage car. Then came the decision that every car had to have a
military escort. In the case of TV, it's usually only one crew,
and to talk to people, you could have done a lot. The restric?
tions seemed to be very specific. The second week that I was because of all the equipment. If they report that you are
there, it was somewhat more defined. "negative," you have a lot of difficulty getting back in in.

Merip Reports ? September/October 1982 33

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They can tell you, "You were already inside one day. Maybe wants to see everything that you want to get on the satel?
next week we'll have something." There are ways of har- lite. There are a lot of loopholes. All my footage that was
rassing you without openly refusing to cooperate with you. not sent by satellite I cleared through censorship. Later, in
When you go in, you can't start off saying, "Look, I the airport, I was never checked. You can sneak footage.
Would like to assess the real damages done to the civilian But there's a great risk that it will backfire, if you're trying
population." You have to tell the escort officer you want to to work there on a more or less permanent basis.
do a human interest story, you want to use Damur as a There's a whole process of negotiation with the censor.
microcosm, that sort of thing. You map it out with him? You have to prove your case. You have to say, "Look I
some of them don't even know the roads, others have been didn't only talk to that person, I talked to six people. I
there with the reserves and they know exactly. The prob? verified the story. I found cluster bombs in the general
lem I've found is not so much this escort officer but you location that they talked about," etc. The official lines are
have self-appointed Israeli officers?captains and the like, relatively strict. Once you get inside it, there's a lot of room
anyone with minimal rank?who assume the role of pro? to maneuver and to negotiate. The censor himself is a re?
tecting the Israeli image abroad. You constantly find your? serve soldier. But he might also sympathize with Peace
self trying to explain to 60 people on the road what you're Now. So it also depends on his personal integrity, his bi?
doing and why you're taking these shots. They don't haveases. Once I had this whole sequence from el-Baz, where
the legal power to do anything, but they will tell the mil? people talked about hospitals being bombed and he says,
itary escort officers, "Do you know that he's shooting de? "Fine, I don't have any problem with that." Another censor
struction? Why?" The military escort will have to make an would say, "There's no way we can mention bombing
apology for you: "Look, I know what he's doing, he's doing hospitals."
a good story for us. He's also been talking to Christians in If you work for NBC and you really want to get your
Damur, not just the destruction. Please let me handle it." I story on the air, it's very hard for censorship to mess
found I had to give explanations almost constantly to around with you, except for' Ain al-Hilweh or Rashidiyeh,
everybody. The minute you point the camera anywhere or the big "no-nos." I'm sure you could get a horrific story
besides at Lebanese Christians^ you've got to explain whatfrom el-Baz and pass it through censorship, even if it's very
you're doing. And you might be stopped or you might not. critical of Israel. It's a question of whether the reporter is
It's completely arbitary. Rashidiyeh and 'Ain al-Hilweh willing to take the initiative. So much of the day is con?
are off limits completely. As a matter of fact, the Israelissumed discussing where the "stand-up" is going to be.
threatened to court martial a military escort who let an I think the Europeans were trying to do more. One day
American take two or three photographs of' Ain al-Hilweh. we were in a convoy with some Italians. The convoy took us
The IDF spokesman inTyre told us that they're trying to tor see PLO ammunition dumps, how they were placed
help the Lebanese population on whatever level, but there's among civilian populations. But the Italians were much
a conscious attempt not to deal with the Palestinian popu? more interested in running to the population to hear the
lation. The Palestinians are left to fend for themselves. stories. Every time, the Israelis had to ask, "Where are the
When we talked to people in el-Baz, they told us that Italians? Oh no, they're already back there with that old
nothing had been done. You could see that nothing had lady." They'd grab them and bring them back to the con-
been done. One day UNRWA brought a big tank of water.
Until then people were drinking water contaminated by
sewage. In 'Ain al-Hilweh, refugees said the Israeli army
distributed some bread from time to time, that's all. Refu?
gees of 'Ain al-Hilweh are squatting all over Sidon, in an
area of abandoned garages. They told us they hadn't re?
ceived anything. There was a conscious policy not to help
the Palestinians, with the idea that somehow they will
disappear or assimilate.

Off Limits

Prison camps were also off limits. If you photograph an

interrogation center, they can claim it's a military installa?
tion. There's one near Sidon, a big citrus processing plant
which is now used as the initial interrogation center. The
first week I was there, in front of the governor's offices in
both Sidon and Tyre, there were huge lines of men waiting
for their ID cards to be stamped, and to be passed through
this first screening of whether they were PLO supporters or
not. You're not allowed to photograph anything relating to
the prisoners.
Any footage that you want to get out of the country has
to be viewed by the censors in Jerusalem or Tel Aviv. He
Palestinian fighters in south Lebanon, June 7,1982. George Azar

34 Merip Reports ? September/October 1982

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voy. But none of us in that convoy, which had a representa? pear, hoping the person you picked out will be willing to sit
tive from every major US network, were even attempting to and talk.
do anything with the people. If I had been in el-Baz camp for another three hours, I
It was surrealistic. You'd drive through these incredible could have gotten much more powerful material. I came to
scenes of destruction, with people sitting in rubble. It's a this man's house. The living room has no wall. It was
big hell surrounding you, and your main focus is some little blown open to the sea breeze. His wife brings coffee. He
ammunition dump in the downstairs of a school named speaks English. You start talking about what it was like.
"Deir Yassin." You go to the bunker and get your shots, andWithout discussing politics?this is forbidden?you try to
you drive to Sidon where you see the next ammunition show him that you are sympathetic. After a while, he un?
dump. I blame the reporters rather than the Israeli censors.derstands. These people are very sensitive. He under?
So maybe they will cut one sentence here, one sentence stands, and says , "Why don't we walk around in the camp
a little bit." We go around and come upon some women
there, but they will not destroy the spirit of the story if you
really want to get a story out. It's what the reporters wantsitting in tents. And after half a day you might have two or
to hear and how hard they work to get the other side of the three cassettes which are very, very powerful. I would have
story which counts. Is the reporter satisfied that this was aloved to stay there for the entire day. I thought this was
PLO munitions dump? Is he going to talk with the local much more important than anything else. I wanted to see
people? Did they know about it? If they knew, what did theythe hospital, I wanted to talk to the children. This man was
think it was? Many reporters I talked with were convinced opening the population up for me. He figured a little bit
that this was a militarily brilliant campaign, and that the where I was at, probably because I was so nervous about
PLO was a bunch of murderers. If you start from that the IDF. The big thing that you cannot talk about at all
premise, why bother to ask questions? with the Palestinians is politics. You cannot talk to them
about the PLO. They can be arrested for that.

Getting the People's Stories

Cluster Bombs
I also found it difficult talking with the people, because
they are so distrustful to begin with. It's hard to get Ia saw two cases of blowing up houses of PLO suspects
in the West Bank. I have enough evidence on film of cl
translator to drive with you. If you don't know Arabic, you
have to look for the local English-speaking people. They
bombs being used on the civilian population in the ca
are everywhere, but it's very hard for them to put their
but in Israel there's a peculiar definition of what's civil
emotions into English. Besides, what is someone goingand
to what isn't. There were cluster bombs all over the p
say to you when you have a representative of the IDF right so you had to be warned when you walked about. That w
beside you, in uniform? For two days, I had a liberal mil? Damur. In Tyre, in the middle of the city, there is an A
itary escort. When I went to el-Baz the first time, he offered poster put up by the Red Crescent with a picture wa
to stay outside. He didn't ever say, but I think he had some kids to avoid picking up cluster bombs. There is plen
criticism of the whole campaign. But for two days I had evidence that cluster bombs were used against the civili
total rightwingers with whom I could not even negotiate. population.
"Don't worry," I said, "I'll get the Christians, I'll get every? Another thing, which is not highly publicized, is t
thing. It's within the context of the PLO destruction of emerging structure of occupation. The war against the
Damur." "I hope you're going to mention that the PLO PLO is continuing. You see the lines of men, the border
destroyed Damur," he says. police. Soldiers told me that they are picking up about 50
It takes a lot of time. You can't j ust come with a camera, men in Tyre every night. By then it was clear that the
shoot some footage and vanish after two minutes. The best border police were replacing the combatant army. You need
thing would be to see them for a couple of hours, have a cup passes to go from one place to another?Tyre to Sidon.
of coffee. Talk to one woman and then another woman will There's this huge line of people in front of the office of the
burst into tears in front of the camera and start talking, military governor of Tyre waiting to get passes. They don't
and people will open up. After several hours you have the call themselves military governor, "because Israel is not an
beginning of some kind of rapport. The people begin to occupying force." He's just administering the area, pend?
trust that you're not coming to violate them, that you're ing the political resolution. He's the "consultant" of Tyre
really there to see what's happening. That takes time, espe? municipality, or the "consultant" of Sidon. The border po?
cially among a population which has been so devastated. Iflice are managing the population. It's the same structure as
you have to shoot wondering all the time who's coming the West Bank. These are ways of controlling population.
behind your back, it puts you under a degree of stress that is One time I was joking with Israeli soldiers. "It could be
also responsible for the quality of material that you get. boring here with the military government." "You should
The refugees from 'Ain al-Hilweh?that was very painful. have been here Friday night," one soldier said. "What do
These women were so distraught. There were 16 people you mean?" I asked, and another guy interrupts: "He's an
screaming at the same time, the kids were jumping upIsraeli in but he's working for a network. Don't talk to him."
front of the camera. In order to make some sense out of the I'm sure there's a lot of things going on that we don't know
chaos, you've got to stand there a long time, hoping the kids about. From time to time jeeps pass with blindfolded peo?
will get tired of jumping in front of the camera, hoping ple. The laissez-passez, the destruction of houses. This is
some of the women shouting into the camera will disap-south Lebanon after the invasion. ?

Merip Reports ? September/October 1982 35

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