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John Pilger (The Guardian) Action addresses and further reports Francesca Rosa adds: Hello everyone, Many of you have now probably heard about the severe beating and torture of young journalist Mohammed Omer by Shin Bet at the Israeli Border on his return from London after accepting the Martha Gelhorn Prize for Journalism - along with co-recipient Dahr Jamail - whose article about the incident and the award is below, along with some notes on the Fourth Geneva convention. Here is a little info on the woman the award was named for: Martha Gellhorn reported from Spain in the 30’s, risking her life many times, and was one of the first reporters inside Dachau during WWII. She was briefly married to Ernest Hemingway. Despite her courage as a journalist and commitment to human rights throughout her life, she was a classic PEP (progressive except Palestine) and considered living in Israel in the 1960’s. She was a secular person, and had little use for organized religion of any sort, although both her parents were Jewish. She had apparently transferred her hatred of the Nazis onto the Palestinians, and would listen to no arguments as to the Palestinian’s own need for human rights and a homeland. One can only wonder what she would have made of this whole incident. -F. Dahr Jamail’s dispatchesdahr_jamail_dispatches@dahrjamailiraq.com MidEast Dispatches: He Lacks Privilegesource By Dahr Jamail On June 16 I was the co-recipient of the Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism with Mohammed Omer in London. Omer is a 24 year-old Palestinian with whom I felt, and feel, honored to have shared this award. During my brief talk while accepting the award, I told the audience I could not think of anyone else I would rather share the award with. Omer’s work from his Gaza homeland has been a beacon of humanitarian reportage; his work serves as a model of peace and attempted reconciliation with Israel for the youth in his occupied territory. Unlike me, Omer’s journey to London to receive the award was next to impossible. When I heard the news that I was a co-recipient, I simply booked my flight from San Francisco and boarded my plane. Omer - whose home has been crushed by an Israeli bulldozer and who has seen most of his seven siblings killed or maimed by the Israeli army which occupies his homeland - struggled even to get an exit visa. The veteran journalist John Pilger, who handed us each our award, described his journey: “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.” Then, after the ceremony, came our even more different return journeys. My biggest problem was an hour’s delay for the flight back to my home country – which last year gave Israel $2.38bn in military aid. And will again give that same amount for the coming fiscal year, along with an extra $150m. (As of July 2006 direct US aid to Israel had reached $108bn according to conservative estimates.) Omer, on his return home last Thursday, was tortured by Israel’s security forces, Shin Bet. He was met by a Dutch official at the Allenby Bridge crossing (from Jordan to the West Bank) who was to ferry him back into Gaza. The official waited outside for Omer as he entered the Israeli building. Inside, Omer was told he was not allowed to call this embassy escort when he asked to do so; a Shin Bet officer searched his luggage and documents, and asked him for his English pounds. Omer was surrounded by eight armed Shin Bet officers. This is how he described what happened next. “A 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?’ “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 it into the hard floor. I lay there for over an hour. The room became a menagerie of pain, sound and terror.” Consider the fact that the Israeli Supreme Court has allowed the use of “moderate physical pressure” in the questioning of prisoners. Israel holds more than 10, 000 Palestinian prisoners, many of them under administrative detention (no charges filed, detention can be renewed every six months). Now consider the fourth Geneva Convention (1949) : “ (1) Persons taking no active part in the hostilities shall in all circumstances be treated humanely, without any adverse distinction founded on race, colour, religion or faith, sex, birth or wealth, or any other similar criteria.” “To this end the following acts are and shall remain prohibited at any time and in any place whatsoever with respect to the above-mentioned persons: (a) violence to life and person, in particular murder of all kinds, mutilation, cruel treatment and torture; (c) outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment” Former Dutch ambassador Jan Wijenberg said of what happened to Omer: “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.” Janet McMahon, managing editor of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs with whom Omer files stories, just told me he is still in hospital. “He may go home, or have an operation. He’s still in a lot of pain - and it’s hard for him to swallow, or to breathe deeply. He’s being fed intravenously.” As Omer’s colleague, I cannot reconcile the disparity in our experiences. How can we reconcile something that is irreconcilable in the absence of all justice? Dahr Jamail’s MidEast Dispatches Dahr Jamail’s new book, /Beyond the Green Zone/ is NOW AVAILABLE! Winner of the prestigious 2008 Martha Gellhorn Award for Jounalism! All images, photos, photography and text are protected by United States and international copyright law. If you would like to reprint Dahr’s Dispatches on the web, you need to include this copyright notice and a prominent link to the http://DahrJamailIraq.com website. Any other use of images, photography, photos and text including, but not limited to, reproduction, use on another website, copying and printing requires the permission of Dahr Jamail. Of course, feel free to forward Dahr’s dispatches via email. from Yael Kahn Contacts to complain to, or request confirmation of condemnation of Mr Omer’s abuse:1. Israeli Airport Authority (IAA), Ombudsman: telmas@iaa.gov.il and avia@iaa.gov.il +972 (0) 3 9752386 2. Allenby Border Terminal, Terminal management: +972 (0) 2 548 2600 3. Israeli Press Association 4. The Government Press Office (GPO), Director of the GPO Daniel Seaman: +972 (0) 2 5007502 Others working for GPO: sharon@press.pmo.gov.il, pnina@press.pmo.gov.il, jason@press.pmo.gov.il, jason@press.pmo.gov.il, orna@press.pmo.gov.il 5. International Centre For Journalists: communique@capefrance.com +33 1 56 40 15 15 6. Foreign Press Association (APE), President : Gideon Kouts: info@presse-etrangere.asso.fr +33 (0) 1 42 78 11 90 7. Israeli Press Association in Paris (PIAP), President : Michel Zlotowski: piap@paris.com 8. Israel Foreign Ministry, Spokesman Mark Regev: www.mfa.gov.il 9. Association of Israeli Journalists, 10. InterNational Federation of Journalists (IFJ ifj@ifj.org) + 32-2-235 22 00; Rachel Cohen rachel.cohen@ifj.org Human Rights and Information Officer +32 2 235 2207 11. Physicians for Human Rights: +1 (0) 617 301-4200 http://physiciansforhumanrights.org/about/contact/ Deputy Director, International Policy and Advocacy Sources of web reports:1. From triumph to torture: www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/jul/02/israelandthepalestinians.civilliberties 2. http://rafah.virtualactivism.net/news/todaymain.htm [“MIDEAST: Israelis Assault Award Winning IPS Journalist” By Mel Frykberg June 30 and “Action Alert from WRMEA” June 27 ] 3. www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=43005 4. http://karmalised.com/?p=3242 5. www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/997593.html 6. www.palsolidarity.org/main/2008/07/01/targeting-journalists/ 7. Israel denies injuring reporter: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7483801.stm 8. www.greenmountaindaily.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=2899
BBC [contacts via web pages]: 1.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/talking_point/default.stm 2. www.bbc.co.uk/newswatch [“a BBC news item or programme”] 3. www.bbc.co.uk/info/contactus [“General BBC feedback”] 4. www.bbc.co.uk/feedback [“Feedback about other areas of bbc.co.uk”] 5. www.bbc.co.uk/complaints [“making an official complaint”] 6. www.bbc.co.uk/radio/contact/ [“Contact a BBC Radio Station”] 7. www.bbc.co.uk/feedback/broadband_comment.shtml Protest statements: 1. Reporters sans frontiers: www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=27692 2. The Council for the Advancement of Arab-British Understanding (CAABU): www.caabu.org/press/releases/mohammed_omer_june08 |