Photo press corps in Israel accused of over-aggressiveness

JERUSALEM -- After the accident that killed Britain's Princess Diana Sunday, celebrity-hunting photographers -- the paparazzi -- have come under fierce criticism the world over.

Although Israel does not have a large contingent of paparazzi who chase celebrities for candid, preferably compromising, pictures, it does have an extremely aggressive photo press corps that has unsettled more than one celebrity.

No less a paparazzi target than Arnold Schwarzenegger told Israeli photographers during a July 1995 visit that he had "never seen more aggressive journalists" anywhere in the world.

The same year, rock star Sinead O'Connor attacked two photographers taking her picture as she left the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. She broke their cameras, and tore one man's shirt. Madonna, during her concert tour here in 1993, cussed out photographers waiting for her as she left the Church of Nativity. Her bodyguards reportedly slashed the photographers' tires.

The most serious incident, however, came in the summer of 1993, when Elton John left the country a few hours after arriving, citing harassment by photographers.

In London, John's press agents released a statement saying that even as he was driving back to the airport, "he was followed and harassed by aggressive photographers on motorbikes on the highway itself, thus causing danger to other traffic. To ensure safety and good order, it was decided that Elton John should leave the country."

Brian Hendler, a press photographer here since 1984, did not mince words in criticizing the behavior of some Israeli photographers.

"Sometimes the way the Israel press behaves is pretty disgusting," he said. "They will do anything to get a picture, paparazzi or not. They have no problems sticking cameras in the faces of people at relatives' graves."

Hendler said the aggressiveness in Israel has gotten worse with the intensifying competition between Yediot Aharonot and Ma'ariv.

David Rubinger, winner of the 1997 Israel Prize for photography and a photojournalist here for some 50 years, said, "Celebrity hunting is sheer digging into the privacy of human beings who have nothing to do with me. I think it is wrong. Celebrities have every right to privacy. What it boils down to is good taste, nothing else.

"Thankfully in Israel we have not sunk to the level of the paparazzi. But I am not sure that the fierce competition between the papers here will not bring us to that situation," he said.

Rubinger sees no parallel between photographing people in the midst of their grief at a cemetery and stalking celebrities and photographing them in the privacy of summer homes or on yachts.

"It is not the same type of bad taste," Rubinger said. "This country mourns people every day, people who supposedly fell for the nation. The grief of that family is not private grief; nobody is sure they won't be in same situation tomorrow. This grief is a national disaster."