Israel’s treatment of an award-winning young Palestinian journalist is part of a terrible pattern
{josquote} “This is by no means an isolated incident, but part
of a long-term strategy to demolish Palestinian social, economic and
cultural life … I am aware of the possibility that Mohammed Omer
might be murdered by Israeli snipers or bomb attack in the near future.”{/josquote}Two weeks ago, I presented a young Palestinian, Mohammed Omer, with
the 2008 Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism. Awarded in memory of the
great US war correspondent, the prize goes to journalists who expose
establishment propaganda, or “official drivel”, as Gellhorn called it.
Mohammed shares the prize of £5,000 with Dahr Jamail. At 24, he is the
youngest winner. His citation reads: “Every day, he reports from a war
zone, where he is also a prisoner. His homeland, Gaza, is surrounded,
starved, attacked, forgotten. He is a profoundly humane witness to one
of the great injustices of our time. He is the voice of the voiceless.”
The eldest of eight, Mohammed has seen most of his siblings killed or
wounded or maimed. An Israeli bulldozer crushed his home while the
family were inside, seriously injuring his mother. And yet, says a
former Dutch ambassador, Jan Wijenberg, “he is a moderating voice,
urging Palestinian youth not to court hatred but seek peace with
Israel”.
Getting Mohammed to London to receive his prize was a
major diplomatic operation. Israel has perfidious control over Gaza’s
borders, and only with a Dutch embassy escort was he allowed out. Last
Thursday, on his return journey, he was met at the Allenby Bridge
crossing (to Jordan) by a Dutch official, who waited outside the
Israeli building, unaware Mohammed had been seized by Shin Bet,
Israel’s infamous security organisation. Mohammed was told to turn off
his mobile and remove the battery. He asked if he could call his
embassy escort and was told forcefully he could not. A man stood over
his luggage, picking through his documents. “Where’s the money?” he
demanded. Mohammed produced some US dollars. “Where is the English
pound you have?”
“I realised,” said Mohammed, “he was after the
award stipend for the Martha Gellhorn prize. I told him I didn’t have
it with me. ‘You are lying’, he said. I was now surrounded by eight
Shin Bet officers, all armed. The man called Avi ordered me to take off
my clothes. I had already been through an x-ray machine. I stripped
down to my underwear and was told to take off everything. When I
refused, Avi put his hand on his gun. I began to cry: ‘Why are you
treating me this way? I am a human being.’ He said, ‘This is nothing
compared with what you will see now.’ He took his gun out, pressing it
to my head and with his full body weight pinning me on my side, he
forcibly removed my underwear. He then made me do a concocted sort of
dance. Another man, who was laughing, said, ‘Why are you bringing
perfumes?’ I replied, ‘They are gifts for the people I love’. He said,
‘Oh, do you have love in your culture?’
“As they ridiculed me,
they took delight most in mocking letters I had received from readers
in England. I had now been without food and water and the toilet for 12
hours, and having been made to stand, my legs buckled. I vomited and
passed out. All I remember is one of them gouging, scraping and clawing
with his nails at the tender flesh beneath my eyes. He scooped my head
and dug his fingers in near the auditory nerves between my head and
eardrum. The pain became sharper as he dug in two fingers at a time.
Another man had his combat boot on my neck, pressing into the hard
floor. I lay there for over an hour. The room became a menagerie of
pain, sound and terror.”
An ambulance was called and told to take
Mohammed to a hospital, but only after he had signed a statement
indemnifying the Israelis from his suffering in their custody. The
Palestinian medic refused, courageously, and said he would contact the
Dutch embassy escort. Alarmed, the Israelis let the ambulance go. The
Israeli response has been the familiar line that Mohammed was
“suspected” of smuggling and “lost his balance” during a “fair”
interrogation, Reuters reported yesterday.
Israeli human rights
groups have documented the routine torture of Palestinians by Shin Bet
agents with “beatings, painful binding, back bending, body stretching
and prolonged sleep deprivation”. Amnesty has long reported the
widespread use of torture by Israel, whose victims emerge as mere
shadows of their former selves. Some never return. Israel is high in an
international league table for its murder of journalists, especially
Palestinian journalists, who receive barely a fraction of the kind of
coverage given to the BBC’s Alan Johnston.
The Dutch government
says it is shocked by Mohammed Omer’s treatment. The former ambassador
Jan Wijenberg said: “This is by no means an isolated incident, but part
of a long-term strategy to demolish Palestinian social, economic and
cultural life … I am aware of the possibility that Mohammed Omer
might be murdered by Israeli snipers or bomb attack in the near future.”
While
Mohammed was receiving his prize in London, the new Israeli ambassador
to Britain, Ron Proser, was publicly complaining that many Britons no
longer appreciated the uniqueness of Israel’s democracy. Perhaps they
do now.