Nazeh Darwazeh

http://www.ap.org/pages/whatsnew/Darwazeh.html

APTN cameraman Nazeh Darwazeh, killed in clash, was often on the front lines 

By KARIN LAUB

Associated Press Writer

JERUSALEM (AP) -- Nazeh Darwazeh, a cameraman for Associated Press 
Television News, was often on the front lines, filming clashes between Israeli 
soldiers and Palestinians in the West Bank, where he met his death Saturday at age 
43.  

Darwazeh was killed while filming a confrontation between Israeli soldiers and 
Palestinians throwing stones and firebombs. Witnesses said Darwazeh was shot by 
an Israeli soldier taking cover behind an armored vehicle in an alley. The military 
insisted there were also Palestinian gunmen in the alley.  

Darwazeh threw his energy into work after becoming disillusioned with Palestinian 
politics, a youthful passion that landed him in a Jordanian jail when he was in his 
20s.  

He once told his colleagues his proudest day as a cameraman was April 8, 2002, 
during Israel's biggest military offensive against Palestinian militants.  

At the time, troops had sealed off Nablus' old city, or casbah, and Darwazeh was 
among the first journalists to get to the area of fighting, filming rows of bodies of 
gunmen in a makeshift morgue in a mosque, which also served as a field hospital 
for wounded Palestinians.  

Darwazeh, a burly man with a large mustache and glasses, was a familiar figure in 
Nablus, where he managed one of three family- owned photo studios.  

Born July 30, 1959, into a large family -- he had five brothers and two sisters -- 
Darwazeh became politically active as a teenager, joining the Popular Front for the 
Liberation of Palestine, a Marxist group and one of several PLO factions dedicated 
to ending Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.  

As a 17-year-old, Darwazeh formed his own splinter group, distributing leaflets and 
trying to recruit members. Israeli troops ordered him to leave his Nablus high school 
because of his activism and forced him to spend his senior year in a nearby village.  

In 1979, Darwazeh went to Jordan, planning to study economics at Jordan 
University in Amman. Several months after his arrival, he was arrested by 
Jordanian intelligence because of his activism and was sentenced to 7 1/2 years in 
prison. At the time, Jordan was clamping down hard on PLO activists, who in 1970 
had staged a revolt against the monarchy.  

Dr. Nizar Qaed, a Nablus physician who shared a cell with Darwazeh for some of 
the time, said his friend eventually became disillusioned with Palestinian politics.  

"He had put his energy into politics, but later found the Palestinian factions to be 
false, so he turned his energy to his job," Qaed said.  

In Palestinian society, time spent in prison for political activism is not unusual. Tens 
of thousands of Palestinians have been rounded up by Israel, many for membership 
in outlawed factions or for stone- throwing, and others for involvement in armed 
attacks.  

Darwazeh returned to Nablus in 1990, becoming an apprentice in one of the family's 
photo studios. After saving some money, he married his wife, Naela, who holds a 
degree in English literature from An Najah University in Nablus. The couple had four 
boys and a girl, ranging from four months to 11 years old.  

In 1994, with the establishment of the Palestinian Authority as a result of interim 
peace deals with Israel, Palestine TV was formed and Darwazeh was hired as a 
cameraman in Nablus. Two years ago, several months after the outbreak of Israeli-
Palestinian fighting, he began working for Associated Press Television News. 
Nablus, the West Bank's largest city, has been one of the hotspots. As a militants' 
stronghold, it was the scene of frequent battles between Israeli troops and 
Palestinian gunmen. Darwazeh was often in the front lines, but rarely rattled -- a 
cool his colleagues attributed to his prison years.  

Only a few days ago Darwazeh was on the streets of Nablus as usual -- this time 
joining a group of several dozen Palestinian journalists to protest the death of a 
reporter for al-Jazeera, the Arab satellite network, killed during the U.S. attack on 
Baghdad.  

On Saturday, Darwazeh's body was carried through Nablus wrapped in Palestinian 
flag to a funeral attended by about 4,000 people.  

©2003 The Associated Press.