By Laurie Babinski
Editor in Chief
“Photography is a profoundly personal medium,” said photojournalist George Azar. “A photographer lends others his eyes.”
Azar has lent his eyes to millions since 1981 when he began documenting the untold Arab-Israeli conflict.
He lent his eyes to Pepperdine last year when he provided the background photos to “Two Rooms,” a production directed by Cathy Thomas-Grant which documented the 1982 Beirut hostage crisis.
And when he took the podium in Smothers Theatre Monday night as the second speaker in the annual Dean’s Lecture Series, he lent his eyes to Pepperdine students once again, adding a stark new perspective to the continuing conflict through his documentation of the untold stories in the Middle East.
“He was there first hand,” said Thomas-Grant, who was responsible for bringing Azar to Pepperdine. “He was there. It’s not out of a book.”
Azar, an American of Lebanese descent, spent nearly two hours sharing his stories, and as a result sharing the plight of the Arabs and Israelis who have been locked in a no-holds-barred war since 1948.
His passion, however, came not from years of studying the technique of photography, but his personal desire to document the story long-buried beneath the rubble created by guns and bombs.
Azar grew up in Philadelphia in an area where the children of Lebanese, Palestinian, and Aremenian immigrants all worked and played together.
“I really only understood the Arab world through the rose-colored glasses of what I got from my grandparents growing up,” he said.
But despite cultural integration, he was never far from his roots. An avid reader of TIME magazine, Azar often looked for photos of the brewing storm in Israel and Lebanon, but saw few.
“One never saw the Arab world, especially the modern world, depicted in photographs, newspapers or magazine,” the photojournalist recalled.
The world’s attention began to shift to the region in the 1960s, when the Palestine Liberation Organization was created and after the 1972 massacre of 11 Israelis during the Munich Olympics.
The PLO was partially blamed for the incident. The attention, however, upset Azar.
“What I realized was that I was a descendant of the people considered the enemies of Amer-ica,” Azar said. “There was a lack of balance.”
But while the images angered a young Azar, he had no intention of doing anything about it. His career as a photojournalist didn’t begin until 19 years ago in a lecture room at the University of California, Berkeley.
A 20-year-old political science major specializing in Middle East policy, Azar intended to go to graduate school and eventually enter the Foreign Service, but cited two life-changing events that led him to abandon his path.
As tension rose to a boiling point in the Mideast, Azar found himself in a bookstore near UC Berkeley looking at photojournalist Susan Miesalas’ book “Nicaragua,” which that documented the lives of the Sandinista rebels and those they affected.
He then began to wonder why there wasn’t any comparable book documenting the struggle in the Middle East.
The second incident was the lack of news coverage of the bombing of an apartment complex in Israel.
The attack was planned to create mass casualties, and in the end, 400 civilians were killed. “It hardly raised a mention in the mass media,” Azar recalled.
After staring all summer at the picture of the bombing he had posted on his fridge, Azar decided to set out that fall with a friend, no photography skills and even less money.
After layovers in Iceland and hitchhiking their way to the Middle East, Azar and his friend Mike Nelson entered Beirut on Thanksgiving Day 1981.
“We knew nothing about navigating in times of war,” Azar said. They began by walking the city, following the sounds of gunfire and making friends with the combatants.
The Associated Press and United Press International picked up their first photos for $60 a piece.
Azar and Nelson learned the hierarchy of war photography from the AP bureau chief in Beirut. First, get guns in the picture.
Even better, get people firing guns. Even better, get women firing guns. The best of all? Children firing guns.
With new-found knowledge and money, Azar set out to cover the civil war in Lebanon, the Israeli invasion in 1982 and the Palestinian uprising in 1988.
The warfare often shocked Azar, but most surprising was the age of the combatants.
“These young men were really just neighborhood boys,” he recalled. “They had no politics, no ideology, it was purely territorial. In the summer of 1982, between 17,000 and 20,000 were killed in the fighting.
“In our country of 250 million, the loss of 2,000 has affected us this profoundly,” he said, comparing Sept. 11 to the summer in Lebanon. “Imagine the loss of 17,000 to 20,000 in one summer. The psychological trauma and devastation can’t be believed. But again, their stories don’t get told.”
According to Azar, his photos are a result of fifty percent skill, fifty percent the access one creates for oneself.
“You have to be up close and personal,” he said. “You can’t be five minutes late.”
Azar’s talent at gaining access rewarded him with sought-after shots of Arafat, on the move through a banana field to prevent assassination, hand bandaged from a shrapnel wound from a previous attempt.
The attempt had not been reported in the media.
Throughout the war, Azar stuck by his principles, which included not carrying a gun. “Photojournalists are there as bystanders and witnesses,” he said. However, he does admit: “One is supposed to be neutral, but one is not less than human.”
“People often comment on the courage of a journalist,” Azar said.
“The difference is, as a foreigner, when times get tough one can always leave,” he continued.
But Azar didn’t. His focus, however, began to shift away from the gunfire. Going against the advice of the Beirut AP Bureau chief, Azar made a conscious decision to stop taking “bang-bang” pictures to sell to the wire services, photos that were only “throwing gasoline onto the disinformation fire.”
Instead, he began to seek out a body of work that told the story of the people affected by the war. “The stories of these people go untold in the U.S.” Azar said. “We hear about the numbers, but they remain nameless and faceless.”
Azar’s photographs have appeared in The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Christian Science Monitor, US News & World Report and Newsweek. He was the subject of the 1987 Emmy award-winning CBS short feature, “Beirut Photographer,” and is the author of 1991’s “Palestine, A Photographic Journey.”
“When one looks at the news,” Azar continued, “ … we think of those things only as the news of the day. We forget to think about the context.”
Azar’s intentions proved worthwhile when he stumbled across 30 orphans living in the bombed out National Stadium in Beirut. The kids had turned the field into a giant playground, using the bomb craters as a gymnastics pit and the fallen-in stadium walls as slides.
To survive, Azar said, they would pool their money each morning and go by Chiclets, which they sold on the street and used the profit to pay a woman who lived nearby to cook them food.
“Their lives were just as real as the lives of children in the U.S.,” Azar said.
The American government and media became involved just as the Israeli invasion of Palestine failed. The U.S. subsequently brokered a deal, but tragically a suicide bomber killed 257 sleeping American soldiers, an event that Azar called a precursor to Sept. 11.
However, Azar said that Americans are still ignorant and need to broaden their worldview if any changes are to be made, especially after Sept. 11.
Azar stressed the knowledge necessary to gain a full picture of the conflict.
“We tend to know very little about the lives of people in the rest of the world,” Azar said.
“But that’s our duty. If we’re to have a functioning democracy, we need to know that’s being done in our name.”
Junior Spanish major Ann Desmond agreed with Azar’s message.
“I was impressed. He not only showed the importance of the historical roots of the conflict,” Desmond said. “It’s not as simple as just Sept. 11 came and we look at some pictures and try to make sense of it all.
“As Americans, we’re biased. He gave a human side to the Palestinians,” she continued.
Seaver College has hosted the Seaver Dean’s Lecture Series through the support of the Seaver College Board of Visitors and the Seaver Parents’ Association.
The series will continue Feb. 18 when Los Angeles County Sheriff Leroy D. Baca will speak on “Law Enforcement Challenges in Urban America.”
Baca will be followed by Dr. Luis Lugo March 18 with “The Diminishing Divide: Religion’s Growing Role in American Public Life.”
The series will conclude April 8 with Dr. Molefi Kete Asante’s presentation, “Afrocentricity: Multiculturalism and the Clash of Civilization.”
All lectures begin at 7 p.m. in Smothers Theatre.
Going against the advice of the Beirut AP Bureau chief, Azar made a conscious decision to stop taking “bang-bang” pictures to sell to the wire services, photos that were only “throwing gasoline onto the disinformation fire.”
Instead, he began to seek out a body of work that told the story of the people affected by the war.
“The stories of these people go untold in the U.S.,” Azar said. “We hear about the numbers, but they remain nameless and faceless.”
Azar’s photographs have appeared in many publications, including The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Christian Science Monitor, US News & World Report and Newsweek.
He was the subject of the 1987 Emmy award-winning CBS short feature, “Beirut Photographer,” and is the author of 1991’s “Palestine, A Photographic Journey.”
“When one looks at the news,” Azar continued, “ … we think of those things only as the news of the day. We forget to think about the context.”
Azar’s intentions proved to be worthwhile when he stumbled across 30 orphans living in the bombed out National Stadium in the capital of Beirut.
The kids had turned the field into a giant playground, using the bomb craters as a gymnastics pit and the fallen-in stadium walls as slides.
To survive, Azar said, they would pool their money each morning and go by Chiclets, which they sold on the street and used the profits to pay a woman who lived nearby to cook them food.
“Their lives were just as real as the lives of children in the U.S.,” Azar said.
The American government and media be-came involved just as the Israeli invasion of Palestine failed.
The U.S. subsequently brokered a deal, but tragically a suicide bomber killed 257 sleeping American soldiers, an event that Azar called a precursor to Sept. 11.
However, Azar said that Americans are still ignorant and need to broaden their worldview if any changes are to be made, especially after Sept. 11.
Azar stressed the knowledge necessary to gain a full picture of the conflict.
“We tend to know very little about the lives of people in the rest of the world,”Azar said.
“But that’s our duty. If we’re to have a functioning democracy, we need to know that’s being done in our name.”
Junior Spanish major Ann Desmond agreed with Azar’s unique and personalized message.
“I was impressed. He not only showed the importance of the historical roots of the conflict,” Desmond said. “It’s not as simple as just Sept. 11 came and we look at some pictures and try to make sense of it all.
“As Americans, we’re biased. He gave a human side to the Palestinians,” she continued.
Seaver College has hosted the annual Seaver Dean’s Lecture Series through the support of the Seaver College Board of Visitors and the Seaver Parents’ Association.
The series will continue Feb. 18 when Los Angeles County Sheriff Leroy D. Baca will speak on “Law Enforcement Challenges in Urban America.”
Baca will be followed by Dr. Luis Lugo March 18 with “The Diminishing Divide: Religion’s Growing Role in American Public Life.”
The series will conclude April 8 with Dr. Molefi Kete Asante’s presentation, “Afrocentricity: Multi-culturalism and the Clash of Civilization.”
All lectures begin at 7 p.m. in Smothers Theatre.
SIDEBAR
THE HISTORY
Arab-Israeli Conflict is a 20th-century war between Arabs and Jews in the Middle East over the land of Palestine.
The conflict has led to several wars, beginning in 1948, among Arab nations, Palestinian refugees, and the state of Israel, which was created hat year by the United Nations.
Since 1979, several peace accords have been signed addressing individual parts of the conflict, but with little measurable success.
Ever since the exile from Israel after the destruction of the Temple in 60 A.D., Zionist Jews have fought to return to their homeland in Israel, which was occupied by the Muslim Arabs and called Palestine.
The Zionist movement began to reunite the Jews with their homeland gained strength in the late 19th and early 20th centuries when large numbers of Jews immigrated to Palestine.
Jews and Arabs came into increasing contact, fueling world debate about whether and how to establish a Jewish homeland.
The Israelis makde key land gains, including the West Bank, in the Six Day War of 1967, but lost the land in the Yom Kippur War of 1973.
In the late 1980s Palestinians began the intifada, or uprising, a widespread campaign against the continuing Israeli occupation of the Gaza Strip and West Bank.
The campaign combined elements of mass demonstrations, civil disobedience, riots, and terrorism.
As a result of the intifada, increased within Israel to expand the peace process. The opportunity came in 1991 with the Persian Gulf War, which resulted in a Western-Arab victory.
For the first time, all sides sat together to discuss bilateral and region-wide peace talks at the Madrid Conference of 1991.
In 1993, Palestinians and Israel secretly negotiated the Oslo Accords, which set the stage for a gradual transfer of power to the Palestinians.
Agreements in 1994 and 1995 gave the Palestinians and their leader, PLO chairman Yasir Arafat, autonomy over most aspects of life in the Gaza Strip and in urban areas of the West Bank.
Meanwhile, many Arab states felt freer to engage Israel openly. After the 1993 agreements, Israel and Jordan took steps to negotiate a cooperative relationship, signing a peace agreement in 1994.
By the mid-1990s, Israel had also achieved diplomatic relations with Arab countries in North Africa and the Persian Gulf.
Despite these accomplishments towards peace, some terrorism and bloodshed continued. Palestinians conducted terrorist attacks on Israeli citizens, and on a number of occasions Israeli extremists responded in kind.
Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated in 1995 by an Israeli student opposed to the peace process. Under Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the peace process stalled in 1997.
Despite accords signed by Netanyahu and Arafat in October 1998, the peace process was again deterred. In 1999 elections, Ehud Barak defeated Netanyahu, vowing to move the peace process forward. Since then, the controversial Ariel Sharon has succeeded Barak, and the peace process has taken a significant hit as terrorism has increased.
Hostilities have continued in the area while action against Americans has increased since 1997 with the bombings of the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
This anti-American sentiment culminated in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the first ever on U.S. mainland soil.
AZAR ON THE CONFLICT
“The driving force is not insatiable hatred of Jewish people but decade after decade of absolute hopelessness,” Azar said. This hopelessness, he continued, cannot be put to rest without the help of the international community.
While attempts at peace have been made, Azar believes that agreements such as the Oslo Accords were nothing but a “repackaging of the occupation.”
“The problem with the conflict is that we’re not dealing with equal partners,” he said.
Azar blames the U.S. for contributing money to the Israelis, making the sides so skewed, there’s no chance for dialogue.
He believes that what the process needs it the international community to broker the talks or a U.S. promise of neutrality as a mediator.
The key, Azar said, it to ensure U.S. credibility.
“We have to listen to what they’re saying in the Arab world,” he said.
January 31, 2002