Born Tunisia, May 1948. Died Tel Aviv, February 22, 2009, aged 60.
April 7, 2009 10:19A talented journalist, editor and TV news presenter, Dan Scemama gained an early reputation as a professional who never compromised his integrity, writes Mordechai Beck.
Tunisian-born, with two sisters who survive him, he completed his army service in Israel and then studied TV journalism in Paris.
His father, André, a founder-member of Israel’s Foreign Press Association in 1957, was Israel correspondent for French radio, TV and the newspaper Le Monde. Returning to Israel in 1972, Dan Scemama began his long career with Israel Television.
He came to national attention in 1982 when he upset Ariel Sharon, then Minister of Defence and author of the invasion of Lebanon in Menachem Begin’s government, by broadcasting the words of a ditty he had heard sung by soldiers who were holding Druse and Christian factions apart. The nursery rhyme variant went:
Come down to us little plane / Take us to Lebanon / We will fight for Sharon / And come home in an aron [coffin].
Scemema’s credentials as a principled and conscientious journalist were cemented but Sharon was so incensed, he deprived Scemama of military privileges and banned him from accompanying troops into battle zones.
His father, André, had similarly been at odds with influential Jerusalem mayor, Teddy Kollek, who considered all correspondents for foreign news outlets to be spies.
As a result, in 1983 Dan took leave of absence to fundraise for the Joint Israel Appeal, touring small Jewish communities in Britain and explaining the situation in Israel. By the end of 1984 he was put in charge of small communities and isolated Jewish families with no links to Israel or the JIA. He stayed for some eight years before returning to work in Israel.
His journalism covered many areas: crime, immigration, the Knesset and, of course, war reporting. In 2003 he sneaked into Iraq with a colleague from the newspaper Yediot Acharonot but was apprehended by the Americans, who took them for spies.
Scemama was confronted by an army captain who barked at him to lie on the ground, stick his head in the sand and “Don’t look”. Scemama told him he was 55 years old. The captain replied: “Do it, or I’ll shoot you.”
His war journalism received accolades from veteran radical journalist, Uri Avneri. Expressing his disgust at the lack of authentic objective reporting of the Iraq war, Avneri observed: “The only exception I know is TV reporter Dan Scemama, who stole into Iraq, was caught by the Americans, imprisoned in a jeep and starved for 48 hours. He saw what was really happening.”
Never officially married, Scemama, who died of cancer, is survived by three daughters, Noa, Daphna and Eliya, and two grandchildren.