Israelis Assault Award Winning IPS Journalist
GAZA CITY - Mohammed Omer, the Gaza correspondent of IPS, and joint winner of the 2008 Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism, was strip-searched at gunpoint, assaulted and abused by Israeli security officials at the Allenby border crossing between Jordan and the West Bank on Thursday as he tried to return home to Gaza.
Omer, a resident of Rafah in the south of Gaza, and previous recipient of the New America Media's Best Youth Voice award several years ago, was returning from London where he had just collected his Gellhorn Prize, and from several European capitals where he had speaking engagements, including a meeting with Greek parliamentarians.
Omer's trip was sponsored by The Washington Report, and the Dutch embassy in Tel Aviv was responsible for coordinating Omer's travel plans and his security permit to leave Gaza with Israeli officials.
Israel controls the borders of Gaza and severely restricts the entrance and exit of Gazans allegedly on grounds of security. Human rights organisations accuse the Israelis of using security as a pretext to apply collective punishment indiscriminately.
While waiting in Amman on his way back, Omer eventually received the requisite coordination and security clearance from the Israelis to return to Gaza after this had initially been delayed by several days, he told IPS.
Accompanied by Dutch diplomats, Omer passed through the Jordanian side of the border without incident. However, after arrival on the Israeli side, trouble began. He informed a female soldier that he was returning home to Gaza. He was repeatedly asked where Gaza was, and told that he had neither a permit nor any coordination to cross.
Omer explained that he did indeed have permission and coordination but was nevertheless taken to a room by Israel's domestic intelligence agency the Shin Bet, where he was isolated for an hour and a half without explanation.
"Eventually I was asked whether I had a knife or gun on me even though I had already passed through the x-ray machine, had my luggage searched, and was in the company of Dutch diplomats," Omer said.
His luggage was again searched, and security then proceeded to go through every document and paper he had on him, taking down the names and numbers of the European parliamentary officials he had met.
The Shin Bet officials then started to make fun of the European parliamentarians, and mocked Omer for being "the prize-winning journalist".
The Gazan journalist was repeatedly asked why he was returning to "the hell of Gaza after we allowed you to leave." To this he responded that he wanted to be a voice for the voiceless. He was told he was a "trouble-maker".
The security men also demanded he show all the money he had on him, and particular attention was paid to the British pounds he was carrying. His Gellhorn prize money had been awarded in British pounds but he was not carrying the entire sum on him bodily, something the investigators refused to believe.
After being unable to produce the prize money, he was ordered to strip naked.
"At first I refused but then I had an M16 (gun) pointed in my face and my clothes were forcibly removed, even my underwear," Omer said.
At this point Omer broke down and pleaded for an end to such treatment. He said he was told, "you haven't seen anything yet." Every cavity of his body was searched as one of the investigators pinned him down on the floor, placing his boot on Omer's neck. Omer began vomiting, and fainted.
When he came round his eyelids were being forcibly opened and his eardrums probed by an Israeli military doctor, who was also armed. He was then dragged along the floor by his feet by the Shin Bet officials, with his head repeatedly banging on the floor, to a Palestinian ambulance which had been called.
"I eventually woke up in a Palestinian hospital with the doctors trying to reassure me," Omer told IPS.
The Dutch Foreign Ministry at the Hague told IPS that Foreign Minister Maxime Zerhagen spoke to the Israeli ambassador to The Netherlands and demanded an explanation.
The Dutch embassy in Tel Aviv has also raised the issue with the Israeli Foreign Ministry, which in turn has promised to investigate the incident and get back to the Dutch officials.
Ahmed Dadou, spokesman from the Dutch Foreign Ministry at the Hague told IPS, "We are taking this whole incident very seriously as we don't believe the behaviour of the Israeli officials is in accordance with a modern democracy.
"We are further concerned about the mistreatment of an internationally renowned journalist trying to go about his daily business," added Dadou.
A spokeswoman at the Israeli Foreign Press Association said she was unaware of the incident.
Lisa Dvir from the Israeli Airport Authority (IAA), the body responsible for controlling Israel's borders, told IPS that the IAA was neither aware of Omer's journalist credentials nor of his coordination.
"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.
"I'm not aware of the events that followed his detention, and we are not responsible for the behaviour of the Shin Bet."
In the meantime, Omer is still traumatised and in pain. "I'm struggling to breathe and have pain in my head and stomach and will be going back to hospital for further medical examinations," he said.
© 2008 Inter Press Service
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68 Comments so far
Show AllThis is the Israel which candidate Obama has pledged to unconditionally support. I imagine he would pledge eternal support even if they strip-searched and brutalized his own children...such is the servility of the Democratic candidate for 'change'.
Corbeil,
Lot of silence here. No apology. Are you reading? Hiding? Either way, you've done us a favor. Stay that way, please.
In a way, the worst part is the Dutch government's rather pro forma attempts to pretend to care. I say that because one such behavior from the Israelis isn't terribly surprising, whereas it's been a while since the Dutch got exercise their murderous colonial ya-yas out on a mostly defenseless population.
Hi Namaste.
More crossed wires above than
animosity
from substantive differences.
I believe I saw Mike C. make the point that if, as I said, Israeli individual soldier-citizen arrogance is sympotamic of the collecitive consciesnious, it would be true in America also.
It is. ethnocentric flag-waving entitled (they feel) Americans support American aggression and and Immperialist OIl-Military World Rape.
Speak aggressively in defence of our endless bombing of far away people of different skin color.
That is horrible arrogance, individual and national.
Canada mostly gets a pass, all things being relative.
Too bad the people in Israel do not believe in the Lord's own hand written Commandments . I guess everybody has their own idea about they want to live their religion .
Every time I hear a story like this about Israel, I think of Nazi Germany
It is a painful reminder of how we in our turn manifest the evil that has been done to us. These are the new Nazis and their insignia is an Israeli uniform, or the wielding of Israeli power over the defenseless from a position of Israeli power.
Hey MIKE CORBEIL
Yes Mike Corbeil, you stupid, My post is perfectly clear.
You got the first sentence BACKWARDS and went into a defensive vituperative hateful threatening attack against me.
So you owe me an apology I'm not interested in.
As for my stupidity, I've got a BA in Middle Eastern Studies with honors, I'm a published author, and unlike you, I READ CAREFULLY.
Now defend getting it wrong. That's what people like you do.
Thanks for the laughs.
And I HATE THIS HELLBENT ISRAELI GOVT CRIMINALITY!
Filthy Yids think that they can rule the world.
They will not prevail.
" TruOrange June 28th, 2008 4:32 pm
Lisa Dvir from the Israeli Airport Authority (IAA), the body responsible for controlling Israel's borders, ... "I'm not aware of the events that followed his detention, and we are not responsible for the behaviour of the Shin Bet [Israel's domestic intelligence agency]."
Passing the buck. Oldest trick in the book. No accountability, same as in the U.S. Surprise, surprise, surprise."
Well, Omar and the Dutch officials accompanying him got through the Jordanian border side without any problems at all, the article says. And the article says that it's Shin Bet, not IAA agents, that committed the extreme abuse against Omar on the Israeli side, and perhaps no IAA agents were present; if Shin Bet would've ordered the IAA agents to absent themselves for a while, then I expect they would comply.
Furthermore, if Omar did not fly out and then to The Netherlands, and wherever else the article says his trip took him to, from the Israeli airport, then I suppose that he would not have had anything to do with the IAA for his departure and return flights.
So maybe Lisa Dvir is truthful, very.
Otoh, you quoted her saying, ""I'm not aware of the events that followed his detention, ..."", and that means what? It means she denies knowledge of what happened to Omar following his detention, sure; but what about before the detention? Perhaps the answer is found in, f.e., my above words, but maybe not; and if the latter is the case, then what does she know about him or Shin Bet at the border, or both, and before Omar's detention?
And why was Shin Bet and not the IAA manning the border point Omar went through; was this the case at all or many other border points on the Israeli side, or was this border point Omar went through the sole one Shin Bet manned? If the latter, then was it known by others what border point on the Israeli side that Omar would be passing through, and if the answer is yes, then Shin Bet could've also known, right?
If yes to all of that, then Shin Bet may have arranged to replace IAA agents there and specifically for this "special" treatment of Omar.
After all, being such a great Palestinian journalist and one who refuses to stay out of Palestine for the sake of the human rights and dignity of the Palestinians, the Gazans anyway, would surely be a serious 'THORN' in the Israeli leadership's "sides". Like Shin Bet told him about their and therefore the Israeli leadership's views of him, he's a [trouble-maker], a 'thorn', muckraker, ..., and a world-renowned one! OUCH!; the Israeli leadership must feel.
They evidently [knew] of him and lied about not knowing of him, or something close enough to that, for to say that he was a 'trouble-maker' meant that he must surely have a record, of sorts, a reputation with the Israeli leadership, which wants us all to believe that they are good and Palestinians bad, etcetera.
But I don't know what, if anything, this can prove about Lisa Dvir; although I wonder what she knew or knows of Omar prior to his detention. I'd also want her questioned on why it is that the IAA allowed its border agents to be replaced with Shin Bet. These two questions, for starters anyway.
Bambanjo- Yes Arab people have highjacked aircraft in the past. Many of them are later revealed to have deep CIA ties and training.
As for your blind adherence to the US Government line that '19 Arab high-jackers committed 9/11', I would seriously suggest you read 'Crossing the Rubicon' by Mike Ruppert. It answers a lot of questions left deliberately UNANSWERED by the official 9/11 commission.
And please tell me, how did 19 high-jackers manage to get the entire US air defense network to stand down on that day? As well, please explain why no steel framed building before or since has collapsed solely due to fire?
Bobby kennedy was done in by the same people who assassinated his brother JFK. All the bullets removed from Bobby were .38 caliber. The gun Sirhan Sirhan used was a .22 caliber, and they recovered all of his bullets from surrounding materials in the room. There is no way to tell me you can fire .38 caliber bullets from a .22 caliber chamber. Also, please tell me why is has been necessary for the authorities to keep Sirhan Sirhan in a state of drug induced insanity, and away from competent treatment and inquiry?
And if the Israelis are so pure and noble, why do they keep Mordechai Vanunu under house arrest, preventing him from traveling or speaking with reporters, after serving his 20+ year prison term for revealing the truth about the secret Israeli nuclear weapons cache? Why will no-one call Israel on the blatant double standard?
By the way, Araboushkin is what Israelis call Arabs.
It means nigger.
I accept your insult that I am stupid.
I do reitterate that I attempted to support what I percieved as your indignation re USAn's rhetorical quesiton.
It seemed to minimiize the horror of human rights abuses; this piqued my interest over coffee.
It was my pleasure to compliment your mind.
Feel feel to insult and threaten me further.
It is okay.
Signed, a "Stupid" Araboushkin.
You misunderstood my point, which was directed at USAn.
That he/she was screwed if they sparred with you because I've read your posts I know you to be quite intelligent.
I'm going to reread my post.
You or I owe the other an apology. But I attempted to compliment your intellect.
I've reread it. Go take a Valium.
Because of lisa...'s obvious stupidity, or trying to deceive CD readers, I'll re-post what USAn said, once again.
" USAn June 28th, 2008 3:32 pm
But when a human-rights outrage is committed, and no one hears of it on the TV or newspaper, did it happen at all?"
THAT DOES INHERENTLY say that USAn's questioning if reports of human rights abuses of outrageous, extreme, totally unacceptable kind aren't true unless reported by also corporate msm "news" media; and sane, informed, honest, intelligent people KNOW that we can't rely on the latter "news" sources for [important] matters, except some local stuff. Even then we know that the corporate "news" media is again often corrupt.
Iow, USAn was questioning whether this IPS article is truthful, or not, given corporate western msm "news" media hasn't reported on the story. So what I said, above, on his question remains unchanged.
USan said "But when a human-rights outrage is committed, and no one hears of it on the TV or newspaper, did it happen at all?"
I think USan was criticizing the media for suppressing news of Israeli practices. Let's turn down the heat and stop the personal insults.
This is an unworthy thread of commentary. Stuff regarding Israel usually degenerates like this. It is not what we need. We need to focus on what happens there and, if possible, what are the paths to justice and peace and who is on them, Jews, Palestinians and yes people in the USA (the great enabler).
This is just despicable......I hope there is more coverage of this terrible event and the journalistic community has the chance to speak the truth about the horrors of the occupation.
"lisa3210peace June 29th, 2008 10:00 am
I've read Mike Corbeil's post's USAn
And you are screwed."
SHOW ME HOW I'M 'SCREWED' and 'bring it on' lady; I can slap ya good. On the streets, telling someone they're 'screwed' is to threaten them, so 'bring it on' little sick lady, and like I said; I won't hesitate to put you through a spin.
It's not that I'm 'screwed', but that you're a damn IDIOT and can't intelligently communicate!
"He's way too smart for you"
Coming from someone as stupid as you are, I'm not offended.
"and you are in the wrong;"
BS! It's that you're stupid!
"if you wave that Zionist-Nazi flag over mangled Palestinian bodies"
I certainly wasn't waving any 'Zionist-Nazi flag' over anything. The problem is that you are STUPID. And you are that to such a severe degree that you may actually be another mole trying to insert a lot of BS at CD. Moles have been operating at many websites over the past several years, inserting all of their F*CKED UP claims, and what you previously posted is pure BS. Like I above-posted, you are spreading stereotyping bigotry, hypocrisy, lies, and so on, and [intelligent] people do not do that if they are also [honest].
You're not of such category of intellect!
"BECAUSE EVEN THOUGH THEY WON'T BE ON FOX NEWS THEY REALLY DID DIE AGONIZING DEATHS AT JEWISH HANDS."
NO shit stupid, which is what I suppose 'boushkin' means. But heh, USAn is the one who inferred that extreme human rights abuses do not happen, except when reported in the corporate msm "news" media. If you knew how to read, had any noteworthy [intelligence] and [honesty], and read USAn's post, then you'd have realised what I'm saying.
NO true Palestinian blindly hates Israeli Jews or anyone else; only being opposed to the criminals and their acts against Palestinians. There are, unlike yourself, SANE Palestinians (and other Arabs) who know very well that my above post is TRUTHFUL and who would definitely [distance] themselves from you and your likes.
"Signed, an Araboushkin."
Boushkin sounds like something a little infant would be called by mommy and daddy, and it seems fitting; only I wonder why such infantile minds try to communicate in circles that are or should be only for truly [adult] minds.
I've read Mike Corbeil's post's USAn
And you are screwed.
He's way too smart for you and you are in the wrong; if you wave that Zionist-Nazi flag over mangled Palestinian bodies BECAUSE EVEN THOUGH THEY WON'T BE ON FOX NEWS THEY REALLY DID DIE AGONIZING DEATHS AT JEWISH HANDS.
DOES THAT ANSWER YOU MEANHEARTED QUESTION?
Signed, an Araboushkin.
" lisa3210peace June 28th, 2008 4:11 pm
The Jack-Booted Nazi arrogance of Israel's soldier seems to reflect the national conciousness quite accurately."
FALSE! And if it was true, then the same would really have to apply in the USA, Canada, Britain, and so on. It'd also have to apply in Arab countries, as well as others. And that's to have a seriously BS view of reality. In most of these countries, majorities of each, all of them, are opposed to many things our govts do; and they, not [we], hold the reins of the military and law enforcement forces. So what if it's the taxpayers who foot the bill; that does not mean that they hold the reins of their or our govts, which [we] clearly do NOT.
There are Israelis who support their hellbent govt and its crimes, but there are many Israelis, including among the Jewish, who are opposed to their govt's hellbent criminality, and want peace [and] justice for all Palestinians and Israelis.
They, like US, all of us, don't control our govts!
Among Israelis opposed to their govt's criminality there are also former IDF soldiers who've become publicly opposed to the crimes, and have given very serious, strong testimonies to inform the public about what they know of the crimes, given they have first-hand knowledge, were witnesses, and some, like with many US veterans now dissenting, also committed some of the crimes.
So lisa3210peace is spreading more bigotry, narrow-mindedness, ignorance, hate-mongering, etcetera; and Israel has certainly more than only one 'soldier', btw.
After all, it's very well known that Shin Bet is definitely HELLBENT, extremely criminal, etcetera. It's just that the msm corporate "news" media is NOT likely to ever publish truth on the EVIL Israeli govt.
And if USAn's question had any credible value to it, then it would really be equivalent to saying that the war on Iraq is not criminal, that the U.S. Congress and Senate are innocent and have voted correctly all along on funding for this war and the war on afghanistan, that the US 'SALVADOR OPTION' in Iraq, as in El Salvador during the 1980s, were acts of holiness, and so on.
That implication would be like a necessarily inherent one, for USAn would then be right about it being false that there are extreme human rights abuses when they're not reported in the msm [corporate] "news" media; that only when these corrupt media providers report can the reports be truthful.
Given USAn is hellishly mistaken, biased, trying to help cover up Israeli crimes of extreme kind, and so on, well, CD seems to possibly have itself yet another MOLE working here and to try to DECEIVE dumb readers among all CD readers, which, in turn, means that he thinks many enough readers here are just 'DUMB ANIMALS'. A mole pretending to be a true patriot of the USA by calling himself, falsely, USAn.
" USAn June 28th, 2008 3:32 pm
But when a human-rights outrage is committed, and no one hears of it on the TV or newspaper, did it happen at all?"
That's either:
a) A rhetorical question, like to mock the general public, the many deniers, brainwashed, and so on, but POORLY presented; or,
b) A plain DUMB question; or
c) A dumb question posed by a Zionist, pro-Israeli hell, crime, etcetera, "activist", warmonger, hein monger, ....
Which is the case with USAn? 'C' is not unlikely.
As long as the likudniks hold the US economy and Congress by the balls, nothing will change. The likudnik infestation runs silent and deep in our country. Israel is nothing more than a terrorist state.
Peter Montana
Good Morning Namaste.
I'm gonna burn one for you.
Then 'I'll be back'
12:23 post: Yes, this would lead to Armagedon. Kill Arabs, Cool! Disrespect a Jew=world headlines, riots, WW3.
I'm laughing, the double standard is so incredibly disgusting...
my Jewish life is worth the world, but your gentile blood has no value.
And I know I'm included in that no value category too. Nice. Namaste, they take over, we're dead. Or in a concentration camp like Gaza.
To Zee New Nazi's!
Bamabanjo,
You are a disgrace to humankind.
__________ B A M A B A N J O __________
Please don't make me ANGRY about that certain Kennedy's death per CIA Mk-Ultra brain festooning …
__ You really wouldn't like me __
_____ when I get _A N G R Y _____
B O O M A R A N G __ B A M B O O Z L E R
__________ B A M A B A N J O __________
Perhaps shoving a banjo up his a$$, and sending him to the hospital for several days, might just QUALIFY as torture, for anyone with an iota of compassion ?
¿ Perhaps not, for psychopathic thugs and wicked sadists ?
.
Namaste « Presence »
« We must be the change we wish to see in the world » — Gandhi
« There is a sufficiency in the world for man's need but not for man's greed » — Gandhi
« We adopt the means of nonviolence because our end is a community at peace with itself » — ML King
Are the Israelis a "law unto themselves" ?
If so, that would rather seem to preclude them following any 'Higher' laws, --such as those strongly recommended by their Maker.
To constantly rebel against common human decency is one thing, but to repeatedly spit in the eye of God is quite another.
*None of us* have entirely clean hands, but the rightwing Israelis (-not the many *good guys* over there) are really pushing their luck by so very often acting in such a vile (and violent) way.
They seem so very determined to sow the seeds of their own misery and undoing.
And so the wailing at 'The Wailing Wall' will inevitably be increased one-thousand-fold when all the malignant seeds now being sown by that nation are reaped in one *very* bitter harvest...
(This also of course, applies just as much to our own nations).
A 'Chosen people' ? ...
~ Those who have chosen to repeatedly disobey their Maker are not / cannot be 'chosen' for anything other than their supposed Maker's strong disapproval.
= Not a wise choice.
[But that's one way to learn.]
______________________
The emblematic figure of Rachel Corrie (to name just one of their many thousands of relatively recent innocent victims) is a spectre hanging over that nation like a mighty funeral shroud. When this nation is eventually hoist high upon it's own terrible petard, who will they cry out to?
Maybe their God won't be able to see who is crying out for mercy,
-- due to all that spit in his eye?
xx
Sounds exactly like an anecdote about Jews inside The Third Reich. Vy did you come back to ze Hell we have created for your people to die in?
Language, and you have no problem with somebody using the word scum to describe a nation of people- see that tells me that you're not criticizing Israel; you have some sort of irrational hatred for the people in Israel. Reflect on your feeling for Germany after WW II? Do you call them a scum nation? And they did the Holocaust!
And if you are going to sling some 911 nonsense, you better show something- in this case show me this manifest. Links to sites that also hawk the Elders don't count.
There's enough dirty deeds to go around both sides of the issue. But notwithstanding its people or religion, Israel is a terrorist nation, like the U.S. Period.
Hey bamabanjo, take pill. You're gonna hurt yourself. Such a mouth! Do you eat with that mouth? Kiss your mother with that mouth? What does Iranian Hezbollah have to do with the Liberty? If true? Do your homework. What, is it a body count contest? Why were none of the Arab 911 hijackers' names on the airline manifest? Yeah, we can all find links to suit our purpose. How about:
http://www.sweetliberty.org/issues/israel/blackops.html
Or since you think Wikipedia is a reputable source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lavon_Affair
Therzal-
What- you don't think anyone is subject to cavity search upon entering the US, or the EU? Zionists, barbarians? I'd accuse the countries demanding beards, outlawing music, cutting hands off for stealing, attacking Christians and churches, of being barbaric; not a country producing medicine, high tech, literature, poly-ethnic in every sense…
The fascists in this case are Hamas etc. that preach a universal caliphate that will be established through submission or the sword. It's the mufti of Jerusalem- al-Husseini, that studied at their jackboots. Have you seen video from a Hezbollah rally? Looks like Berlin 1933 to me.
Regarding Israelis' efforts both for Arab citizens and Palestinians in the West Bank- there are in fact many folks that work in this area. In contrast, where was the German B'tselem? Where are the Muslim groups working to protect minority or immigrant rights in Saudi Arabia for example, or standing up against Arab and Muslim racism say in Darfur (name one?)
The fact is Jews have historically stood up against the range of oppressive regimes- from the struggle against fascism to that for civil rights- and were often killed for their efforts.
Rachel Corrie's death was tragic. But this example is notable because it is an isolated case. Palestinians in contrast have killed many more American citizens, starting loosely with Bobby Kennedy (http://avpv.tripod.com/AmericanVictims.html ) and continuing on through a long list to Marla Bennett at Hebrew U., where a bomber intentionally attacked University students-and on and on.
Regarding the Liberty- how many more people died at the hands of Iranian Hezbollah in the bombing of the Marine barracks in Lebanon? And again, an isolated case (if true) in contrast with the long pattern of Arab and Islamic terrorism against Americans, Russians, their own people…
Another correction is that America hasn't always been Israel's largest supporter ("single greatest weapons supplier") and wasn't in this position during the Six Day War.
Only since around 1967 has this become the situation, for a variety of reasons (see http://meria.idc.ac.il/journal/1998/issue3/jv2n3a2.html#author, which also shows that America's support hasn't been unconditional).
Galen-
One more thing- why can't you just accept that Arab terrorists hijack planes; 911 certainly wasn't the first time (see http://www.emergency-management.net/airterror_hijack.htm and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_notable_aircraft_hijackings )
As far as checkpoints, they didn't exist before the establishment of the PA, and in particular the second intefada and suicide bombing. A Nabulsian (someone from Nablus) could go the club in Tel Aviv, and drive home again, with nothing in the way. Just like an Israeli could visit the Market in Hebron, and go back home to Beersheva. Maybe those were the days, before the creation of the PA divided the area between the Jordan and the Mediterranean into a potentially unmanageable mélange of territories, overlapping authorities, and often weak security and disconnected economies. I know there are certainly many Palestinians and Israelis who remember this period before fences, walls and barriers fondly (as do I), although as a supporter (at the time) of the Oslo process, getting rid of the PA and going back to the former situation is certainly a hard position to accept, just as returning to the period of daily, often multiple, suicide bombings in Jerusalem is just as unacceptable.
Dbesco-
The Deuteronomy reference is somewhat dated- the fact that there are over 3X as many Palestinians in the territories now as when Israel took them in 1967, disproves this accusation and attempted linkage to Bible stories. Approximately as many Palestinians were killed by Jordan in eleven days of the Black September uprising than six years of the second intefada.
In response to an earlier post by citizenblog: coordination is extensive between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Starting right after Oslo, the Palestinian Authority brought in trained soldiers from Tunis, among other PLO locations they were brought from. Israelis and PA soldiers had joint patrols of their shared, newly created borders. While initially welcomed by resident Palestinians as a symbol of their newfound independence, the corruption and degeneration into autocracy of the "Tunisians" was eventually resented by Palestinian residents.
Coordination today occurs through Ministries within the Palestinian Authority established for this purpose, and covers everything from security and military affairs, to electricity, water and food. In other words, Palestinians have achieved some measure of local government through cooperation with Israel. To the extent that it is limited is often because of their own internal issues.
veracity..
Random searches of all Israeli citizens travelling to anywhere else can be justified on grounds of the "war of terror".. After all, who knows waht they have hidden??
The Israelis should understand this as they make a huge amount of money from the machinery (literally) of oppression..
Have you ever seen, or been through, one of their disgusting turnstiles??
This treatment of Mr Omer is in no way justified on "security grounds". Security grounds??? The third most powerful army in the world is so scared of the power of the written word it has to stick its finger up some poor blokes arse..??
Pitiful, pathetic and therefore ultimately vulnerable.
The only reason the bastards do it is because they can. The Zionists are the new barbarians. no doubt about it. Fortunately history teaches us that the days of any tyranny are always numbered. So these knuts are living as the unavoidable clock of history is ticking.
Veracity- I am just sick and tired of Israeli goons doing this and getting away with it.
Israel should be held to account to obey the UN Declaration of Universal Human Rights and the Geneva Conventions with regard to Crimes Against Humanity.
It is time to stop kowtowing to the Israelis because of Christian myth and dogma (mostly as promoted by American radical evangelicals) that the so-called 'Holy Land' must remain in this disgusting state of affairs until conditions are 'right' to bring about the Christian's much anticipated 'Second Coming' of a mythical figure based on the syncretic assemblage of pre-Christian Pagan beliefs.
I would feel the same level of sarcastic disgust if someone were to beat an animal in front of me. In point of fact, I have physically intervened in that actually happening.
I try to be a peaceful man, but if I were to witness such gross abuse of another person by agents of my own government, I could certainly understand those who would take up arms to oppose such treatment.
G A L E N
It pissed me off a lot too, but from your inspired posting, can I properly assume that you have some special connection this issue ?
L I S A 3 2 1 0 P E A C E
I think "random" searches of Israeli tourist's ( w/o proper transits papers ) cavities would likely lead directly to WW III - as these people have some serious connections too.
Namaste
To get an idea of the level of depravity Israeli checkpoint guards have sunk to, listen to this (MP3) interview of Anna Baltzer, a 28 year old American Jewish peace activist, in which she desribes the ordeal she underwent at one such crossing.
bamabanjo,
I never said anything like you accuse me of. Nice try but you don't know my religious beliefs and they are none of your business anyway.
Bamabanjo- I was using sarcasm and actual DOCUMENTED historic incidents to counterpoint the activities committed by the Israeli GOVERNMENT, which as far as I understand it IS NOT a religion. Yet.
And the Israeli government are not Nazis. Just Fascists.
And they learned their trade at the jackbooted feet of the Nazis.
One becomes what one hates.
In their efforts to avoid becoming victims again, the Israelis have become the mirror image of those who once oppressed them... the abused is now the abuser. It's simple and classic psychology.
So, who still says the Israeli government isn't a racist, anti-democratic, apartheid state? i guess I don't understand how someone can say that sort of thing sober, or with a straight face.
evanj-
who the f__ are you to talk about "the Jewish soul" and "Global Jewry?"
Go back to your Baby mama David Duke you Jack Boot MF!
Speak about your own religion/nation's ills, before you try to pull some backward looking -sins are on our children- bs.
Galen and citizenblog can equally take their Nazi references back to their white supremacist X-tian Identity meeting.
If one Israeli journalist were brutalized like this one time the cry would be heard around the world for a year.
It would set tv's on fire and Israelis would kill extra Palestianians and World leaders would bemoan anti-semitism and vow to fight it to the ends of the universe.
Israeli sadism has poisoned the Jewish soul and utterly vanquished the moral capital built up by Jewry over several millenia and culminating in the great calamity.
Global Jewry, save for a handful of outspoken and committed dissenters, now either actively supports or lies silent before this barbarism.
NJH- What? And be called an anti-semite?
perhaps it is time to subject israeli citizens to the same treatment as they pass international borders. perhaps then their arrogance will diminish a touch.
Citizenblog- Allow me my alliterations. :)
"...leather lampshades"
Are these all the rage in Jerusalem now Galen?
Voice of a typical Israeli government PR flack: 'Oh, but we poor Jews were so put upon and mistreated by the Nazis! You MUST understand that we have not been able to move past that horror, even though many of us alive in Israel today never suffered it.'
'The Palestinians are the very soul of our past Nazi oppressors, and any actions we take in response to them reacting to our provocations and occupations are TOTALLY justified!'
'If it were not for the actions of Zionist Christians in 1920's Britain supporting our freedom fighting forefathers in their brave struggle against the native farmers and people of Palestine, Israel would not exist!'
'And it's not as if we have a record of trying to provoke world super-powers like the United States to attack our sworn enemies in Egypt. All those so-called 'survivors' of the USS Liberty are liars. We would never mount a sneak attack on a ship of the line belonging to our single greatest weapons supplier, who so graciously 'lost' a nuclear weapon we then fortuitously retrieved and copied 200 hundred times in secret, in violation of the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty!'
'And it's not like we ran over one of your citizens deliberately with an armored bulldozer while she was defending a Palestinian family from having their house destroyed. She refused to get out of the way. What choice did we have?'
'And we certainly DID NOT use cluster bombs we were given by America indiscriminately on southern Lebanon, deliberately dropping them on civilian areas just hours before the cease fire was t take effect.'
'And we did not have Mossad agents in place throughout America prior to 9/11 posing as art students, aiding and abetting CIA trained 'terrorists' who would later be accused of the actions of that infamous day. And we certainly have not had spies and those with dual citizenship steal secrets for advanced nuclear weapons from the US.'
'So how DARE some Palestinian upstart pen jockey accuse us of mistreating him?! We treated him in exactly the same way we treat all *untermenschen*. Now, if you will excuse me, I have to talk to a man about some leather lampshades.'
That sounds believable. That's exactly their attitude - which is why some small Israeli human rights groups are trying to be present at border crossings to observe and record and help.
Apartheid.
...and more settlements, and more occupation, and more lies, and more bigotry -- It's a shame that Palestinian's weren't born Blue, because it would be obvious what is going-on in the "promise-land."
Remember Civil Rights? It applies to all cultures and Bigots, Arabs included. The good people of the region are not the problem it's the bigots among them that need to be stopped.
We Americas had a civil war and race riots to keep our bigots in check.
I rarely link to videos as I know what it is like being in the slow lane in America but I'm unashamedly linking to this here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WS4E2a_p5To
It's written in the bible. Dut. Ch.20 V.17-18. Of the lands which the lord thy god doth give thee for an inheritance, thou shall leave alive nothing that breath, but thou shall utterly destroy them. These people are following their gods orders.
"...voice for the voiceless.."
Trouble maker? Something we should all aspire to me thinks.
Jclientelle quotes (with irony) the Republicrat line: "Our best friends and the only true democracy in the Middle East blah blah blah". Of course, "Our" does not mean yours and mine, but theirs. Think 'economic class'...
Isreal exists at the pleasure of the imperialist leaders, primarily in the USA. The endless excesses of jack-booted Zionist 'security' forces could be stopped in a moment by a few words from Washington, but that won't happen under the present mafioso regime. The enemy is at home! A successful socialist revolution in America will also be the end of Zionist oppression.
citizen1
He said he'd like the "CURRENT REGIME to vanish from the pages of time"
So says Juan Cole anyway, who can be trusted w/ an accurate translation.
-Juan Cole, Informed Comment-
I tell you Israel is the root of all evil. It is a colonial, racist and genocidal state.
Just like Ahmedijan "I wish Israel would just vanish from the face of the earth". (BTW something like this was what he had said, rather than that he would like destroy Israel. There is a big difference between the two - but of course Americans are too dumb to realize the difference).
And oh Obama-lovers, your candidate is a "friend" of this scum of a state called Israel.
Is this why Secretary of War Rumsfeld used Israel to teach 'manners' to his jackbooted thugs? It shows.
Lisa Dvir from the Israeli Airport Authority (IAA), the body responsible for controlling Israel's borders, told IPS that the IAA was neither aware of Omer's journalist credentials nor of his coordination [also] "I'm not aware of the events that followed his detention, and we are not responsible for the behaviour of the Shin Bet [Israel's domestic intelligence agency]."
Passing the buck. Oldest trick in the book. No accountability, same as in the U.S. Surprise, surprise, surprise.
I am sorry, Mr. Omar. For all of the ways that I contributed to your horror - by my actions and lack of actions; my words and lack of words - please forgive me.
US guns. US bullets. US aid. The US government is also responsible for these crimes.
This assault on Omer was not only barbaric and brutal, it was stupid. You'd think his abusers would have enough sense not to treat a well-known journalist this way. But I guess they don't give a shit.
The Jack-Booted Nazi arrogance of Israel's soldier seems to reflect the national conciousness quite accurately.
Sadistic and Cruel
Nazi-Like
Invasive
Too AIPAC. They supported an occupation, Thanks Walt/Mearshiemer.
Who waged a "full court press" in our senate recently for some more war.
USAn June 28th, 2008 3:32 pm,
I would hate to think what happens if nobody knows you at all and these officials take you into their custody. Not to belittle the gravity and horror of Omer's experience. What we don't know about, but are still able to read between the lines happens and that doesn't get reported at all, must be even worse and shocking.
I've never heard of the word coordination used in a context like this before. What does it mean?
Nothing on the BBC or other mainstream media here in the UK - what a surprise - we obviously don't want to be "off message" to Israel.
Nelson Mandela has just celebrated his 90th birthday, he is a true statesman of our times, but if he had been a Palestinian, he would not have lived beyond 30, and the World would not have been any wiser.
When is this unconditional support of the Zionist state going to end?
How much of this story will we hear or see in the North American MSM?
Our best friends and the only true democracy in the Middle East blah blah blah
But when a human-rights outrage is committed, and no one hears of it on the TV or newspaper, did it happen at all?
So wrong.