1st Prize, Long-Term Projects – World Press Photo Story of the Year

11 December 2020

Antonio Faccilongo, Italy

Getty Reportage

Habibi

Nearly 4,200 Palestinian security detainees are being held in Israeli prisons, some serving sentences of 20 years or more. Conjugal visits are denied and physical contact is forbidden, except for children under the age of ten. Since the early 2000s, long-term Palestinian detainees hoping to raise families have been smuggling semen out of prison, hidden in gifts to their children. Habibi (‘my love’) chronicles people’s courage and perseverance against the backdrop of one of the longest and most complicated conflicts in modern history.

The photojournalistic perspective of the photographer, along with the uniqueness of the story, have created a masterpiece. This is a story of human struggle in the 21st century: a story about those unheard voices that can reach the world if we as a jury act as a medium. It shows another side of the long contemporary conflict between Israel and Palestine.

Ahmed Najm, General Jury member

The story looks into a series of families, who are trying to smuggle semen from husbands in prison to wives who are trying to conceive, and so continue their family legacy, and in a broader sense, continue the existence of this very particular community that has been threatened over time.

NayanTara, General Jury chair

Audio Commentary

Aesthetic Considerations
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