John Pilger fortæller i dagens Guardian om den palæstinensiske journalist Mohammed Omer, der for to uger siden fik Martha Gellhorn-prisen, som går til verdens bedste krigskorrespondenter.
At få lov til at rejse fra Gaza til London for at modtage prisen var et diplomatisk mareridt for Omer, der kun fik lov til det efter pres og sammen med en ledsager fra den hollandske ambassade.
Da han kom tilbage fra prisuddelingen, stod den Israelske efterretningstjeneste Shin Beth parat for at stjæle de 5.000 britiske pund, som prisen består af:
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.”
Moderne, israelsk apartheid i en nøddeskal?
En forfærdelig påmindelse om det regime, besættelsen påtvinger de besatte såvel som besætteren, et regime, hvor det mindste tegn på oprør eller international anerkendelse skal kvæstes. En forfærdelig påmindelse om, at Israels besættelse af Vestbredden og Gaza er en skændsel og bør ophøre snarest muligt.