Cameras, don’t leave home without ‘em
Posted: Wednesday, March 21, 2007 2:42 PM
Filed Under:
Tel Aviv, Israel
By Jeff Riggins, NBC News Cameraman
News in Israel is never that far away from home -- especially since it is, in fact, a very small country.
Sitting at my home computer Tuesday morning, I was mildly annoyed by the sounds of helicopters flying around. I say mildly annoyed because I hear Blackhawk and Apache helicopters all day long as they fly up and down the coast on their daily missions. But this was different, the helicopters were right over the house, or so it seemed.
Then I heard the sound of bullhorns admonishing people to stay back and to stay in their cars. That's when I jumped up grabbed my cameras and took off out the door.
Head towards the action
I live in small community off the main traffic artery heading north out of Tel Aviv. It’s pretty quiet most of the time, so I was a bit startled to hear all the commotion.
As I headed out, the neighbor’s gardener asked me what was up. He knows I'm a cameraman for NBC News and naturally thought I would know the answer. I shrugged my shoulders not knowing the answer and sprinted toward the car, cameras banging against my hips.
I drove toward the sound of the choppers and the bullhorn. I thought, who knows, maybe it's a car accident, but you never take much for granted here, so I kept going.
There are fields of purple irises and potatoes growing between the highway and the road on the way out of town. As I rounded the corner I could see what seemed to be hundreds of police lights and just as many policemen.
I parked, leapt out of the car and ran across the fields, no doubt upsetting the farmer who was sitting on his tractor waiting for the ruckus to end so he could finish spraying his crops.
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| Jeff Riggins / Nbc News |
| Israeli police and bomb squad officers examine a suspicious mini-van for explosives. |
Get as close as you can
Cars were backed up in both directions as far as I could see. I was crossing the potato fields when a policeman started shouting at me to go back. Of course, that’s like waving a red cape in front of a bull for a cameraman. We're just arrogant enough to think we know everything. But, since he had an M-16 slung on his shoulder, I thought maybe I should heed his call.
In the midst of the mass of police cars was a mini-van called a Sherut. A Sherut is a kind of bus-taxi operated by people who drive up and down the road and pick up other people traveling to Tel Aviv and beyond. One can travel anonymously in one of these vans -- and in the past suicide bombers have used them to move around the country.
The Sherut was blocked in by police cars and bomb squad officers outfitted with blast suits, flak jackets, helmets and eye protection were heading toward the mini-van. OK, I told myself, we have a bomb scare or a terrorist alert.
I started shooting pictures, stills and video, slowly working my way around the scene and circling in a bit closer as I went -- careful to stay out of eyesight of the police who by now had everybody well back from the scene. I stayed at what I felt was safe distance and carried on filming what little action I could see.
The bomb squad guys were going through the van and removing items one by one after determining that they were non-lethal. No explosives were found, but three arrests were made, according to authorities.
As I safely returned home, after checking out the action no more than 400 yards from my apartment, I thought to myself that sometimes one needn't go far in Israel to find news stories, sometimes they find you.
