The BBC has been made aware by several people but have not yet reported it. I myself spoke to the international desk at CNN in Los Angeles (Rory Suchet) on Saturday, to inform him of this situation. I forwarded him the article from IPS and the one concerning the formal complaint registered by the Dutch as well as Mohammed's phone number 48 hours ago.
REMEMBER: Mohammed is in the HOSPITAL receiving pain medication for his physical trauma. The emotional trauma he experienced is incomprehensible. He is a journalist who is protected not only under international law, but under Israeli law also (supposedly), yet this crime occurred against him.
As of yet, NEITHER the BBC or CNN has chosen to cover what has happened to Mohammed.
Does anyone think for a minute that if Mohammed was an American or British journalist this wouldn't be headline news the minute it occurred?
Let's remember back, over a year and a half ago, when Israel was refusing to allow him to come here to receive his first major journalistic award. (Indeed, he did not arrive on time, but came late and did a multi-city tour in December 2006 sponsored by WRMEA)
Who intervened on his behalf to get out of Gaza then? Condaleeza Rice herself. The US State Department, even the Secretary of State herself, is WELL aware of who Mohammed Omer is because she had to intervene on his behalf herself THEN.
Now is the time for ALL US citizens and anyone else reading this, to contact them on Mohammed's behalf. The tour he was returning from when this criminal act against him took place was sponsored by an AMERICAN publication, WRMEA. His travel coordination was done by the Dutch who have lodged a complaint.
Here is the contact info for the Dept. of State: (thank you Julie for posting these numbers on Desert Peace)
Americans - deluge your senators with letters, calls and emails as well as all news outlets and the state department. State’s Israel Country Desk in Washington D.C. 202-647-3872. Call them until they do something.
For those in Israel or Palestine, the US State Dept foreign service numbers Billy Feely 972-2-626-7205, Kirk Lindly 972-2-628-0345, Amy Schedbauer 972-2-622-7281, Bernard Woerz 972-2-622-7132
Following is the letter Mohammed wrote to Secretary Rice in 2006Dear Secretary of State Rice:
I am the youngest journalist living in Gaza and reporting on the realities of life there. My articles are published and read around the world, including in the United States, and give a voice to millions. As a result, I’ve been asked to come to the United States on a speaking tour with dual purposes. The first is to help Americans understand the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, an acknowledged root cause of instability in the Middle East. Secondly, my trip will serve to assist Palestinians in understanding the U.S. Too often the only impression the Palestinian people have of America arrives at the end of a gun barrel or bulldozer. I know you agree that understanding each other, seeing each other as human beings, is the first step to peace, and requires a dialogue between people. This trip will allow me to act as a conduit for bridging misconceptions and healing misunderstandings.
In order to embark upon this trip, however, I need your help.
The American Consulate has agreed to grant me a visa interview in Jerusalem. Last January, however, Israel passed a new law forbidding Christian and Muslim Arab men between the ages of 16 and 35 from traveling between Gaza and the West Bank, or into Israel, if they are unmarried, or have fewer than two children. Ridiculous? Yes. Petty? Definitely. But real. Such discrimination based on a person’s faith and race does Jim Crow proud.
Being 22 and having just graduated college, I’m really not ready to get married, Madame Secretary. From what I understand, this is not an uncommon situation for 22-year-old American men, either. Yet this is Israel’s excuse. Although the United States has agreed to allow me to travel to your country, Israel is preventing me from going to your consulate for the interview because I am an undefined, ambiguous “security risk” to them—but not to the U.S.
My only weapon is words; my conduct throughout my life proves this. How is it that a small country, a nation which every year receives 40 percent of America’s foreign aid budget, can continue to violate international law and consistently ignore the requests of the most powerful nation on this planet? Madame Secretary, with all due respect, why is the United States allowing a tiny country to dictate who can and cannot visit your country? Shouldn’t America decide?
My touring the United States is in the best interests of the American government, as it would help win the hearts and minds of the world’s 1.6 billion Muslims, not to mention the nearly 2 billion non-dispensationalist Christians also affected by Israel’s policies against the Palestinians and Christian customs and holy sites.
I’ve read your speeches, Dr. Rice. Like me, you look for diplomatic solutions, a thinking person’s remedy to conflict. Like me, your actions show you seek justice, and justice resides within understanding. Does truth undermine security or strengthen it? By exposing injustices, truth forces people to act with justice, thereby benefitting all—with one exception: those profiting from fear, ignorance and misinformation. Could it be that Israel considers me a “security threat” because I tell the truth?
Madame Secretary, my next door neighbor, a middle-aged man who was not part of the resistance, was killed in late September during another Israeli attack. My friend is dead because he was not Jewish.Walking through the wreckage of his home, I saw shells and weapons fragments with U.S. markings littering the ground.Gaza today is a graveyard of wasted minds and marginalized lives. How many more wasted minds must perish?
Any man may wield a sword. It takes an exceptional person to reason, persuade, change hearts and minds and convince others to set aside hate in favor of the more difficult task of negotiation. Perhaps this is why when God sent Jesus, a man who, solely on the strength of words and ideas, conquered the most powerful empire in the world.
American values are based on the conviction that a person’s worth or participation in society is not determined by skin color, faith, national origin or gender. Living under Israeli occupation, we Palestinians have never experienced these values. We would like to. In order for this to happen, however, people need to see us for what we are—human. This is what my trip is about.
Given the principles governing your country, the values canonized within your Declaration of Independence, Constitution and Bill of Rights, it seems unconscionable that the United States would allow another nation to prevent a reporter from speaking to the American people about what it is like to grow up and live under apartheid—for we Muslims and Christians live in a segregated society of privilege for one group and oppression for another. The criteria for deciding who is privileged and who is not in Israel is faith first, race second—and no third. Being non-Jewish and Arab, we simply do not count.
I fervently hope you will give me a chance to share Palestine with the American people and the American people with Palestine. Understanding is how bridges are built, and dialogue instigates peace. Madame Secretary, please ask Israel to grant me the freedom to travel to Jerusalem for my visa interview so I may come to know your nation, and it us.
Respectfully,
Mohammed Omer, Journalist
Rafah, Gaza Strip, Occupied Palestine
UPDATE: Haartz carried the following article via REUTERS! (the one published by India Reuters originally, although the tagline says "Gaza")
| Gaza reporter: Israeli security officials broke my ribs | |
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| By Reuters | |
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Tags: Israel, border security, Gaza  | |
A Palestinian journalist said from his hospital bed on Monday that Israeli security personnel abused him and broke his ribs on his way home to the Gaza Strip after receiving a journalism award in Britain. Mohammed Omer, who writes for the pro-Palestinian Washington Report, said he was strip-searched and detained for nearly four hours at the Israeli-controlled Allenby Bridge when he crossed from Jordan into the West Bank, en route to the Gaza Strip, on June 26. | |
Read more>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
This comment was of great interest:
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Funny thing is, when you GOOGLE "Mohammed Omer" then click "news", the Haartz article does NOT come up, although the Reuter's India article does, which is the SAME article.
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