Description

Photojournalist Micha Bar-Am has traced the state of Israel since its birth in 1948, capturing its dramatic history and character. On the morning of June 5, 1967, the Six-Day War broke out. After a period of tension and waiting, the Israeli Government decided to launch a pre-emptive attack. The war was waged against Egypt, Syria, and Jordan. Over the next six days the Israeli Defense Forces captured the Sinai Peninsula, Jerusalem East, the West Bank of the Jordan River, and the Golan Heights. Pictured here, the Israeli Paratroops descended on the Old City in Jerusalem in June 1967 to liberate the Western Wall, which Jewish worshippers had been denied access to since the War of Independence in 1948.

If you're too close to events, you lose perspective. It is not easy to be fair with the facts and keep your own convictions out of the picture. It is almost impossible to be both a participant in the events and their observer, witness, interpreter

Micha Bar Am
© Micha Bar-Am | Magnum Photos

Micha Bar-Am has been a Magnum Correspondent since 1968. He was born in Berlin in 1930 and moved with his family to Israel, then Palestine, in 1936.

Growing up in Haifa, Bar-Am lived on a kibbutz and began to document kibbutz life with borrowed cameras. Active in the pre-state underground, Bar-Am was drafted in 1948 when the Jewish-Arab conflict turned into all-out war. After his military service, he had several jobs before he began to photograph seriously.

In the mid-1960s, Bar-Am curated several exhibits and books with Cornell Capa, including Israel: The Reality. He assisted Capa with the establishment of the International Center for Photography in 1974 and became an active curator. His reportages on Israel have been published in a large number of magazines and books.

© Micha Bar-Am | Magnum Photos

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