Award-winner abused by Israeli security
The NUJ was one of many organisations to protest at the treatment of a Palestinian journalist when he returned home in June after winning a top press award in London. Mohammed Omer was strip-searched, humiliated and tortured by Israeli security agents.
The union met Foreign Office ministers and wrote to the Israeli Embassy to protest at the treatment. General Secretary Jeremy Dear said: “It appears that Mr Omer was targeted because of his work as a journalist exposing human rights abuses by the Israeli armed forces.”
FIONA O’CLEIRIGH met Mohammed Omer in London and tells the story.
ON JUNE 16 Mohammed Omer, a 24-year old Palestinian photojournalist, received the Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism from John Pilger in London. The prize was shared with Dahr Jamail, the Arab-American journalist well known for his reporting on the occupation of Iraq.
On his return to Palestine from Jordan ten days later Mohammed was brutally interrogated and tortured by agents of Shin Bet, Israel’s security service. He was forcibly strip-searched, mocked and beaten unconscious. He now has two broken ribs and breathing and speaking problems.
Mohammed is a friendly, forthright and gracious person. I met him at the office of the Council for Arab-British Understanding where on June 18 he gave a presentation to an audience of politicians, diplomats and journalists. He later addressed MPs at the House of Commons.
Mohammed Omer spoke to us of life and death in Gaza. His account was visually graphic, horrifying, moving and never losing sight of the human story. Looking at photographs of dead children, the thought struck me: if this happened to my daughters it would be front-page news. In Gaza, it goes unreported.
Mohammed Omer links the presentations he gave in London with the treatment he received from Shin Bet. “They want to silence me, to stop me talking. To humiliate me after I won this prestigious award.”
The humiliation included an examination of the business cards Mohammed had collected. “You were in the BBC World Service?” he was asked. “You know you are a crazy man? You have been in France, Sweden, Greece, the Netherlands, the UK – why would you be coming to Gaza, a dirty place full of dirty people?”
“I want to get the truth out of Gaza,” he replied. “You choose to suffer,” observed the Shin Bet agent. “Not really, I choose to tell the truth.” “That’s suffering,” was the reply.
“This is one more step in a long running attempt to intimidate Gazan journalists,” says Chris Doyle, the director of CAABU, the Council for Arab-British Understanding. “There is a drying up of news reporting. How do you report sniper fire or rocket attacks from boats, when you don’t have journalists on the ground?”
Colin Breed, one of the MPs that Omer met in London, has tabled a Parliamentary motion demanding a full investigation by the Israeli government. So far there has been no response. The Israeli Embassy has refused to comment while they are still investigating with the Foreign Ministry in Israel.
Mohammed Omer says that foreign journalists should write to embassies to demand that protection be given to journalists. “Today it is our turn; tomorrow it is their turn.”
Mohammed Omer’s presentation to CAABU can be viewed at www.humanrightstv.com/episode/469