Least we forget.....blessings to M.O...prayers for complete
recovery.../msa


http://www.agenceglobal.com/Article.asp?Id=2042

A Journalist Beaten -- One Year Later
By Mohammed OmerReleased: 26 Jun 2009




June 26, 2008 is a day I will never forget. For the events of that day
irrevocably changed my life. That day I was detained, interrogated, strip
searched, and tortured while attempting to return home from a European
speaking tour, which culminated in independent American journalist Dahr
Jamil and I sharing the Martha Gellhorn Journalism Prize in London -- an
award given to journalists who expose propaganda which often masks egregious
human rights abuses.

I want to address the denials from Israel and the inaccurate reporting by a
few journalists in addition to requesting state of Israel to acknowledge
what it did to me, prosecute the members of the Shin Bet responsible for it
and put in place procedures that protect other journalists from such
treatment.

Since 2003, I’ve been the voice to the voiceless in the besieged Gaza Strip
for a number of publications and news programs ranging from The Washington
Report on Middle East Affairs to the BBC and, Morgenbladet in Norway as well
as Democracy Now! These stories exposed a carefully-crafted fiction
continuing control and exploitation of five-million people. Their impact,
coupled with the reporting of others served to change public opinion in the
United States and Europe concerning the dynamics of Israel and its
occupation of Palestine .

After receiving the Martha Gellhorn prize I returned home through the
Allenby Bridge Crossing in the Occupied West Bank between Jordan and Israel.
It was here I was detained, interrogated, and tortured for several hours by
Shin Bet and border officers. When it appeared I may be close to death an
ambulance was called to transport me to a hospital. From that day my life
has been a year of continued medical treatments, pain -- and a search for
justice.

Lisa Dvir from the Israeli Airport Authority (IAA), the agency responsible
for controlling Israel's borders in an June 29th article by Mel Frykberg for
the Inter Press Service stated, “the IAA was neither aware of Omer's
journalist credentials nor of his coordination.”

The statement is wholly inaccurate and impossible on two counts. First,
because I’m Palestinian, I am unable to enter Israel or leave Gaza , even
through the Rafah border with Egypt , without Israeli permission, something
quite difficult to get. Each time I’ve left Gaza for speaking tours required
substantial lobbying and political maneuvering by several governments. In
2006, it was the American governments who ultimately won my visa.
In 2007 the Dutch Parliament invited me back to speak to the Standing
Committee on Foreign Affairs and in 2008 when it was announced I won the
Martha Gellhorn Prize, several European countries requested Israel grant me
a visa but it was MP Hans Van Baalen of the Netherlands who, with great
efforts, secured and guaranteed my passage out of Gaza and Israel, as well
as the return for both the 2007 and 2008 trips on the condition I travel and
be escorted by members of the Dutch Embassy in Tel Aviv while within Israel
or the occupied West Bank. Therefore I was under diplomatic escort with the
full knowledge of the Israeli government when I arrived at Allenby on June
26th. In fact Israeli security had blocked my re-entry for four days,
causing me to miss a family wedding and wait in Jordan .

Secondly Dvir’s claim that the IAA didn’t know I was a journalist is proved
false by the actions of the Shin Bet and border police. During the
interrogation an Israeli security personnel searching my belongings
repeatedly asked ‘Where’s the money from the prize, Mohammed?’ The prize is
only given to journalists. Not only were they fully aware I am a journalist.
They knew exactly how much I received, for what and where.

Dvir further perjured herself when she claimed, "We would like to know who
Omer spoke to in regard to receiving coordination to pass through Allenby.
We offer journalists a special service when passing through our border
crossings, and had we known about his arrival this would not have happened.”
Her denial shocked a Dutch diplomat in Tel Aviv who had confirmed with the
state permission for me to cross on June 26. Again, I was traveling under
diplomatic escort and when I asked to phone the escort -- waiting on the
other side of the terminal -- Shin Bet’s response was they knew and didn’t
care.

While not admitting that the interrogation and torture took place, Divr then
dismissed any actions by the Shin Bet as out of her department’s control: "I
m not aware of the events that followed his detention, and we are not
responsible for the behavior of the Shin Bet." But the Israeli Airport
Authority, Divr’s department, like most port authorities, is responsible for
border security and those who enforce that security in Israel are members of
the army and the Shin Bet.

Unfortunately Dvir’s diversions were just the beginning. In the days
following my detention and torture, the Israeli Government Press Office
acknowledged that despite traveling under diplomatic escort I was searched
due to suspicion that he had been in contact with hostile elements and had
been asked by them to deliver items to Judea and Samaria (Occupied West
Bank).” This has been mentioned and quoted in different papers. Like
everyone else entering, my bags were x-rayed and cleared multiple times
excluding the possibility I was carrying some type of contraband. And I was
traveling in the Dutch Embassy’s car directly to Erez crossing with Gaza ,
as communicated to the Israeli authorities. There was zero possibility of me
delivering ‘items’ to anyone.

Confronted with the medical reports and injuries including bruised ribs
Israeli officials told the BBC on July 1, 2008 that, “He lost balance and
fell, for reasons unknown to us,” other officers suggest, “Mr. Omer had a
nervous breakdown due to the high temperature.”

Despite the attempts at denials, the emergency medical technician who sat in
the back of the ambulance with me reported, "We noted fingerprints on his
neck and chest," the type bruising caused by excessive force often used in
forensics to identify an attacker.

When Associated Press reporter Karin Laub called me on my cell phone for an
interview after my ordeal, I detailed how I was stripped and held at
gunpoint. Her reply? “Go on,” she stated. “This is normal about what we hear
happening at Ben Gurion Airport . It’s nothing new.”

Torture, strip searches and holding award winning journalists or any other
human beings at gun point is normal at Israel ’s largest airport? Ms.
Laub’s apathy continued. In her article for the Associated Press on June
29th she wrote that she interviewed "Dr. Husseini who claims there were no
signs of physical trauma."

There’s only one problem with this. This Dr. Husseini never treated me. The
Minister of Health in Ramallah confirmed that Husseini never made any such
statement to the AP reporter. For reasons known only to her, Ms. Laub
appears to have fabricated this comment and purposely ignored the medical
reports and the statements by the attending paramedics -- counter to
journalistic ethics and standards upheld by the Associated Press. Despite
this, no independent investigation took place.

Meanwhile the Jerusalem correspondent for the Los Angles Times, Ashraf
Khalil, conducted an investigation into my case and noted in his article on
November 3, 2008, that my medical records describe: "Tenderness on the
anterior part of the neck and upper back mainly along the right ribs
moderate to severe pain," and "by examination the scrotum due to pain
varicocele (varicose veins in the spermatic cord) at left side detected and
surgery was decided later." Fevers and falls do not cause such distinctive
marks. Kicks, punches and beatings do. Continuing Khalil explains that,
“Paramedic Mahmoud Tararya arrived in a Palestinian Red Crescent Society
ambulance and said he found Omer semiconscious with bruises on his neck and
chest. Tararya said Israeli security officers were asking Omer to sign "some
sort of form written in Hebrew. The paramedic said he intervened, separated
Omer from the soldiers and loaded him into the ambulance, where he remained
semiconscious for most of the trip to a hospital.”

Khalil notes in his article that Richard Falk, the U.N. human rights
official wrote to Verhagen, the Minster of Foreign Affairs of The
Netherlands and stated: "I have checked out Mr. Omer's credibility and
narrative of events, and I find them fully credible and accurate."

Recovering mentally and physically from torture and interrogation is far
from easy. This should not happen to anyone. My objective is for my case to
focus attention on universal human rights, the right of freedom of
expression and freedom of movement. There are places in this world where
these freedoms do not exist. Israel insists it is not one of those places,
but both the government and the complicity of individual journalists in
covering up what they did to me prove otherwise. Ironically, the day the
Shin Bet chose to detain, interrogate and torture me -- June 26 -- is the
date set aside by human rights groups as the International Day Against
Torture.


Mohammed Omer has reported for numerous media outlets, including the
Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, Pacifica Radio, Electronic
Intifada, The Nation, and Inter Press Service; he also founded the Rafah
Today blog. He was awarded the 2007 Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism.

Copyright © 2009 Mohammed Omer -- distributed by Agence Global

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Released: 26 June 2009
Word Count: 1,507

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