In a statement to the press, World Press Photo managing director Michiel Munneke said the organization decided to close the entire show rather than remove selected images. “Removing any prizewinning photos would come down to censorship, which for us is not acceptable. In this instance, closing the exhibition was the only way we could remain true to our principle of promoting freedom of information. We regret that we had no other choice and we hope that we will be able to bring our exhibition back to Lebanon soon again.”
The organizers said the show opened on May 12 without incident, but last week there had been some local protests at the exhibition, which included work by an Israeli photographer, Amit Sha’al. A staff photographer for the newspaper Calcalist, Sha'al won third place in the World Press arts and entertainment stories category. "For a week it was no problem and then someone noticed that he is an Israeli photographer," Erik de Kruijf, a World Press Photo project manager, told The Associated Press.
Officials from Lebanon’s General Security Directorate asked that Sha’al’s work be removed. Currently, Lebanon does not enter Israeli citizens to enter the country.
Ironically, Sha’al’s series, “A Journey Through Time and Place,” is not explicitly pro-Israel. He photographed modern-day street scenes in Israel while holding vintage images of the same scene taken years before – in some cases, before the formation of the state of Israel. In one photo, for example, he shows a street in Haifa. The historic photo he holds shows an Arab standing in front of a mosque on the same street in 1941.
"I have no intention of representing Israel or Israeli policies, many of which I oppose personally,” Sha’al told the Associated Press. "There are dark people on both sides of the fence."