'When you shoot the messengerMel Frykberg,
The Electronic Intifada,
3 July 2008 GAZA CITY (IPS) -
The assault of IPS Gaza correspondent Mohammed Omer has left Israeli security personnel with a lot of explaining to do. And they are not doing a very good job of it.Omer was abused and assaulted by Israeli security personnel at the Allenby border crossing into Israel from Jordan as he tried to return to his home last week in the Gaza Strip.Omer was returning from Europe where he had addressed European parliamentarians on the situation on the ground in Gaza. In London he picked up a prize as joint winner of the 2008 Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism (along with IPS correspondent Dahr Jamail).Omer, who also reports for The Washington Report, told IPS he was verbally abused, strip-searched at gunpoint and physically beaten. He was later hospitalized with broken ribs and related trauma.Israeli officials denied to IPS in Jerusalem that the award-winning journalist had been mistreated. They said the Gazan journalist had "lost his balance" after being searched on "suspicion of smuggling in illegal items."The officials were unable to explain how Omer, who is still hospitalized and in severe pain, "lost his balance" and then broke his ribs and severely bruised his arm in the "fall."The Israeli officials could not explain what illegal items they suspected Omer could have smuggled in. He was assaulted after he had passed through the x-ray machine and his belongings had twice been searched. The officials said only that they would look into the matter further.Omer's situation is neither unique nor rare. Both Israeli and international human rights organizations have accused Israel of regularly mistreating and abusing Palestinians both at border crossings and during arrests.Reporters Without Borders has "condemned abusive behavior by Israeli security agents towards Palestinian journalists moving around the territories or returning from visits abroad."The worldwide press freedom organization said it had "recorded five incidents of wrongful arrest in the past ten days. One journalist is still being held, while another needed hospital treatment after being subjected to brutality and humiliation at an Israeli checkpoint by members of Shin Bet [Israeli internal security service]."But what made Omer a particular embarrassment to Israel's slick PR machine was the media attention, both domestic and international, the issue attracted. The Guardian and The Independent in London were among several media publications that reported at length the treatment Omer had been given.Furthermore, the involvement of the Dutch Foreign Ministry and its demand for an investigation placed additional heat on the Israeli government, which maintains good relations with the Netherlands.'
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