From Triumph
to Torture
Israel’s
treatment of
an
award-winning
young
Palestinian
journalist
is part of a
terrible
pattern
By John
Pilger
02/07/08
"The
Guardian/UK" --
- 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.
johnpilger.com
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News and
Media
Limited 2008
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