
Photography: Yuval Chen, Yedioth Ahronoth
Local Testimony 2024
Gallery
2024
Photo of the Year | Series of the Year | News | Society and Community | Religion and faith | Nature and Environment | Sport | Urbanism and Culture | Long Exposure | Video
AN ENDLESS WAR
Dana Wohlfeiler-Lalkin, Founder and Executive Curator of Local Testimony
The Local Testimony 2024 exhibition is almost entirely devoted to the October 7 war and its consequences, and is being shown while the war is still raging. The images appearing in the exhibition are testimony to how different this war is from everything Israel has experienced until now and from all the armed conflicts that have featured in previous Local Testimony exhibitions. The war and its effects appear in each one of the exhibition categories: News, Society and Community, Urbanism and Culture, Nature and Environment, Sport, and more.
Alongside the images of destruction appear images of mass demonstrations in support of the hostages’ families, expressing concern for Israeli society’s identity and values, the pain of bereavement, anger at the abandonment of the residents of the south and the hostages, as well as displays of mutual aid. Unwilling heroes - families who lost their dear ones and families of hostages - voice shared pain, organize protest actions, inspiring and expressing
a yearning for change.
Apart from loss and pain, the exhibition also includes moments that instill hope: those who returned as part of the hostage release deal and their reunions with the family members who were looking forward to their return, and the rehabilitation processes of the wounded who survived the inferno. Also displayed are pictures of Israeli athletes who won a record number of medals at the Paris Olympics and Paralympics; inspiring athletes, whose achievements and the playing of our anthem provided moments of comfort and pride during the hours of darkness.
The Local Testimony exhibition was founded in 2003, and since 2009 it has been displayed at MUZA, Eretz Israel Museum, Tel Aviv. The long-running partnership with the Museum contributes to public recognition of the cultural and historical importance of documentary photography in Israel. Through the photographs appearing in the exhibition one can see the photographers’ dedicated and creative work, as it develops and increases in sophistication over the years, reflecting the tradition of investigative journalism that values loyalty to freedom of expression more than questions of rating. This year, more than ever, photojournalists have been exposed to danger - physical and psychological - and thanks to their uncompromising work the general public can be shown images of
the war that is not yet over.
I wish to thank those involved with the exhibition: Thanks to Dana Wohlfeiler-Lalkin, founder of Local Testimony and executive curator, and to Anat Saragusti, curator of Local Testimony 2024. Thanks to Reut Earon, the designer of the exhibition, thanks to Noa Ehrmann for graphic design, thanks to Sandy Teperson and the Local Testimony board.
Thanks to Raz Samira, deputy director and chief curator of MUZA who supervised the process. Thanks to Guy Raz, Barak Pony and Amir Ulrich. Thanks to Tamar Shenker for text editing and catalogue production, to Daphna Lev for her meticulous linguistic editing, to Simon Montagu for English translation and to Fawzi Ibrahim for Arabic translation.
A personal thank you to all the museum staff.
LOCAL TESTIMONY 2024
Anat Saragusti, curator of Local Testimony 2024
Local Testimony 2024 is an exhibition of massacre and destruction. One can almost hear the sounds of war and smell the smoke from the burning houses. One can only imagine the lives that were cut off. The photographs in the exhibition bear witness to the dedicated work of the photographers, who journeyed into hell on October 7 and since then have not ceased to produce documentation of the scenes of battle, the damaged communities, the
evacuees, and the efforts to release the hostages.
As an annual exhibition of documentary photography, Local Testimony 2024 reflects the events of the past year, but it is not a memorial to the October 7 debacle; that would require distance and perspective. The exhibition is not a summing-up of anything, because the war is still going on, and widening in scope: the current situation is unclear, and the parties to the conflict are attempting to shape the picture of the battle. Documenting a war that is raging in parallel on multiple fronts — Gaza, Lebanon, the West Bank, Syria, Iran, and Yemen — involves the difficulty of coping with photographers’ limited access to the different battlefields.
Some of the photographs appearing in the exhibition were taken by photographers who had been called up for combat in the reserves or by photojournalists accompanying the IDF forces. The IDF spokesman decides who may enter the Gaza Strip and Southern Lebanon and what they are allowed to photograph. Publication of the photographs requires authorization by the military censor, who frames the story from the Israeli perspective. Representation from the Palestinian side is also complicated. There are no foreign photographers staying in the Gaza Strip and none are permitted to enter; Palestinian photographers do not submit photographs to an Israeli based exhibition and the photographs coming out of Gaza are controlled by Hamas, who have their own interest in
how to frame the story.
In spite of the limitations, the exhibition attempts to withstand the challenges presented by journalistic documentation, which strives to achieve a truthful picture and aims to express the heavy human price that the war imposes on us all. This adds to the importance of showing the exhibition while the war is still going on. It enables the viewers, for all the difficulties, to see an initial documentary impression and process the events, and presents
a picture of the year that has gone by. The photographs collected here take on a museal dimension, providing visitors to the exhibition with the time and the setting for artistic, emotional, collective and personal processing.
Photo of the year
PHOTO OF THE YEAR IN MEMORY OF ROEE IDAN, PRIZE SPONSORED BY THE UNION OF JOURNALISTS IN ISRAEL
𝘊𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘎. 𝘚𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘮𝘮𝘦𝘭
A ZAKA emergency response volunteer collects bloodstains and human tissue in a house where an elderly man was murdered on October 7. Remains of the deceased are meticulously collected so that they can be buried in a religious ceremony. Identifying the victims of the October 7 massacre was especially
difficult due to the fact that some of the houses were burned to the ground. This necessitated arduous, precise and sensitive work, both by the ZAKA personnel who collected human tissue and also by archaeologists who were called in later to locate remains of bones for DNA testing.
Kibbutz Be’eri
5 November 2023
Series of the Year
POLARIS IMAGES
Ziv Koren
YEDIOTH AHRONOTH
Ariel, Ellai, and Yael Golan suffered grievous burns from a gas cylinder hurled into their house by Hamas during the October 7 attack. The parents physically shielded baby Yael and they escaped through the safe room window. All three required a lengthy rehabilitation process.
5 November 2023
Kibbutz Be’eri
News
Single
News
Ohad Zwigenberg
The mailboxes of members of Kibbutz Nir Oz after the October 7 attack. Around a quarter of the residents of the kibbutz were murdered or abducted to Gaza. The residents had to cope with the murderous attack on their own, when no help appeared. By the time the armed forces finally arrived, at midday, the last attackers had already left Nir Oz. Natalie Madmon, whose mother Ofelia Roitman had been abducted to Gaza and was later released in the hostage deal, stuck stickers on the mailboxes of the victims of murder or abduction.
Kibbutz Nir Oz
21 November 2023
Single
News
MATAN GOLAN
Police officers preventing demonstrators, including soldiers in the reserves, from breaking into the military court at the Beit Lid base. The demonstrators were calling for the release of their comrades, who were being detained for investigation into allegations of abusing a Palestinian prisoner from Gaza.
Beit Lid military base
29 July 2024
Single
News
REUTERS
RONEN ZVULUN
The temporary burial plot for members of Kibbutz Be’eri. Since the security situation did not permit funerals to be held at the kibbutz, a temporary section was dedicated at Kibbutz Revivim. Later the victims were transferred and laid to rest in the Be’eri cemetery.
Kibbutz Revivim cemetery
15 November 2023
Single
News
AP
Ohad Zwigenberg
A picture of Ariel Bibas on the door of the safe room from which he was abducted on October 7. Four-year-old Ariel was kidnapped with his mother Shiri and his brother Kfir, who was then nine months old, the youngest of those kidnapped to Gaza. Yarden, the father of the family, was abducted separately.
Kibbutz Nir Oz
21 November 2023
Society and Community
3rd prize
Single
Society and community
Ziv Koren
Polaris Images
YEDIOTH AHRONOTH
Portraits of the four abducted field observers - Agam Berger, Liri Albag, Naama Levy and Karina Ariev - before and after the abduction, on posters at a demonstration calling for a deal to release the hostages.
Sha’ar Begin, Tel Aviv
25 May 2024
2nd prize
Series
Society and community
Avishag Shaar-Yashuv
For THE NEW YORK TIMES
Hostages who returned from Hamas captivity in the deal that took place from November 24 to December 30, 2023. In the photos: Giora Almog and his grandson Gal Goldstein Almog, Mia Leimberg and Bella the dog, Danielle and Emilia Aloni, Amit Susana.
Around Israel
December 2023 - April 2024
Religion and Faith
1st prize
Single
Religion and faith
YEHOSHUA YOSEF
for Israel Hayom
A right-wing demonstration led by Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) MK Almog Cohen, protesting against those opposing the placing of a Tefillin stand near the school entrance. Tel Aviv has become the arena for conflicts and clashes between secular liberal values and religious indoctrination.
The Herzliya Hebrew Gymnasium, Tel Aviv
10 January 2024
Nature and Environment
Sport
Urbanism and Culture
1st prize
Single
Urbanism and culture
DAN BAR DOV
Daniel Weiss singing “We Have to Go On Playing” on the ruins of his parents’ house. Yehudit and Shmulik Weiss were murdered on October 7. Daniel’s backing group was directed by the musician Doron Raphaeli, manager of the Tararam group.
Kibbutz Be’eri
1 January 2024
Single
Urbanism and culture
For YEDIOTH AHRONOTH
JONATHAN BLOOM
Dori Ben-Zeev. Following the October 7 massacre, presenters and editors of radio music channels rallied round and produced extended broadcasts, with music selections appropriate to the public mood.
Kan Broadcasting Corporation radio studio, Tel Aviv
16 October 2023
Long Exposure
3rd prize
Series
Long exposure
Polaris Images
Ziv Koren
YEDIOTH AHRONOTH
Gali Segal and Ben Benjamin were wounded by grenades hurled into the shelter where they were hiding on October 7, after escaping from the Nova music festival. They each lost their right leg. 29 people were
murdered in the shelter. The couple were married after undergoing a lengthy rehabilitation process together.
Sheba Tel-HaShomer Medical Center, Ramat Gan
January - July 2024
Video
NAAMA STERN
Eshet Chayil.
A photojournalist who is married to a reserves soldier attempts to deal with the tensions between her desire to go on photographing and being left alone at home with her two small children and anxious about her husband on the battlefield. Through her photos she expresses feelings of fear, loss, and longing.
Around Israel
November 2023 - June 2024
Creator and Photographer: Naama Stern
Editor: Ashrina Lepon
This project was produced in the Photographic Communication Department of Hadassa Academic College, Jerusalem.
ROTEM PESACHOVISH PAZ
Hotel Sanctuary.
Documentary on the evacuees from Kibbutz Nir Am after a months-long stay in a hotel.
Herod’s Hotel, Tel Aviv
November 2023 - February 2024
Director, Photographer and Editor: Rotem Pesachovish Paz
Participants: Oriana Ben Aba Golan and members of Kibbutz Nir Am
This project was produced in the Steve Tisch School of Film and Television, Tel Aviv University
SHAY LEE NISSIM
The Dance Floor.
National children’s and youth ballroom dancing contests.
Around Israel
2023-2024
Creator: Shay Lee Nissim
Participants: dancers, directors and teachers in ballroom dancing clubs.
Project Guidance: Nurit Yarden
Editor: Ran Slavin
ARIEL BERNSTEIN AND ASA RIKIN
A Night in Beit Lid.
Dozens of demonstrators, led by coalition MKs, attempted to break in to the military court at the Beit Lid military base in protest at the detention of nine reserves soldiers on allegations of sexually abusing a Palestinian detainee.
Beit Lid military base
29 July 2024
Photography and editing: Ariel Bernstein and Asa Rikin
OR SITT
Let’s Hit the Streets Together.
The hostages’ families hit the streets to make their voices heard, urging the public to join in the protests and demand that the government work towards a deal for returning the hostages.
Tel Aviv
30 March 2024
Director, photographer and editor: Or Sitt
BAR PELEG, HAARETZ
Winter, Spring, Summer, War.
A journalist’s docu-diary: riots, demonstrations, wars and reserves duty.
Around Israel
August 2023 - August 2024
SHELLY SHALEV
Even If You Had a Tail.
It has been estimated that more than half a million people will need psychological help following the events of October 7 2023. Psychiatric disorders and mental illnesses, including PTSD, are invisible diseases and syndromes, chiefly because they do not present visible symptoms. The creator of this video has tried
to provide visual illustrations of the disorders from a perspective of hope and optimism.
Jerusalem
June - September 2024
Director: Shelly Shalev
Editor: Yael Moinester
CREATION PRIZE, “SHOMRIM” - THE CENTER FOR MEDIA AND DEMOCRACY


















































































