A Day in the Life of Israel

It is such a small country, yet it occupies such a large place in the hearts and souls of so many diverse peoples. To Christians, it is the Holy Land. To Moslems, the lost land of Palestine. To Jews, it is Eretz Yisrael, the ancient homeland heroically reestablished after 2,000 years. This scrap of desert - center stage for many of the world's miracles and spiritual struggles for 5,000 years - was a rich subject for the world's top photojournalists during one 24-hour period in May 1994. More than sixty photographers from more than a dozen countries left the world's newsfronts to participate in A Day in the Life of Israel. They flew to Tel Aviv from Los Angeles and Lima, New Delhi and New York, Melbourne, Madrid and Moscow. Since many were Day in the Life veterans, they came expecting to make "extraordinary pictures of an ordinary day". But by chance, A Day in the Life of Israel turned out to be anything but ordinary. May 5 was a landmark in the country's history - the first day of offi