What do 80 year old Holocaust survivor and a Palestinian reporter have in common? Israeli Torture.

Story One.

Via Philip Weiss blog.

Inter Press is reporting that its correspondent in Gaza, Mohammed Omer, who is also working for the Washington Report, was stripsearched and assaulted at the border crossing from Jordan on Thursday. Omer, pictured here in London, where he lately won a Martha Gellhorn prize for his journalism, says he was forced to undress, then battered and kicked, dragged around, head banged. Every cavity of his body was probed, and he vomited and lost consciousness, woke up in a Palestinian hospital. The soldiers seemed angered by his having won a prize.

The article is here, in ipsnews.net:

GAZA CITY, Jun 28 (IPS) - 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.

So who is this guy, Mr. Mohammed Omer?

He is a big time reporter, it seems.

He lives in Rafah, in Gaza.

He has received the 2008 Martha Gellhorn Prize, which is a pretty big deal, according to the Wikipedia:

Martha Gellhorn (8 November 1908 - 15 February 1998) was an American novelist, travel writer and journalist, considered to be one of the greatest war correspondents of the 20th century. She reported on virtually every major world conflict that took place during her 60-year career. Gellhorn was also the third wife of American novelist Ernest Hemingway, from 1940 to 1945. At the age of 89, ill and nearly completely blind, she ended her life by taking a poison pill

Gellhorn died in London in 1998, aged 89, taking her own life after a long battle with cancer and near total blindness. Since her death, The Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism has been established in her honour.

Gellhorn remained a committed leftist throughout her life and was contemptuous of those, like Rebecca West, who became more conservative. She considered the so-called objectivity of journalists “nonsense”, and used journalism to reflect her politics. Politically, Gellhorn had two major favorites, Israel and the Spanish Republic. For Gellhorn, Dachau had “changed everything” and she became a life-long champion of Israel. She was a frequent visitor to Israel after 1949, and considered moving to Israel in the 1960s. An uncompromising opponent of Fascism, Gellhorn's attitude toward communism was ambiguous. While she is not known to have praised communism and Stalinism, she equally refused to criticize it, and remained a believer in Alger Hiss until her death. A self-described “hater”, she attacked fascism, anti-communism, racism, Joe McCarthy, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and the Palestinian and German peoples with equal vigor.

So, Ms. Gellhorn was a communist, not just a leftist, and used her journalism to attack the right and conservative politics and political proponents.

Money quote from Wikipedia:

Gellhorn never forgave the German people for Hitler, and reveled in their suffering after WW II. Her hatred of the Palestinians was extreme and friends learned never to mention them in her presence.

What a lovely lady!

A communist who spouted extreme left wing (I consider myself left wing, but not to the extent of being a communist!) ideology.

A woman who hated Germans and Palestinians, and forbid the mention of Palestinians in her presence.

Ms. Gellhorn was a racist.

Ms. Gellhorn was a hateful individual.

Ms. Gellhorn, whose "both parents were Jewish", "was raised as a secular humanist", and of course was a huge supporter of Israel.

Oh, and she was also a whore, according to Wikipedia:

She had only two marriages but countless lovers, who tended to be married men.

.
What a splendid individual Ms. Gellhorn was!

So this extreme woman, extreme in her leftist (communist) views, extreme in her support of Israel, and extreme in her hate of Germans and Palestinians - her memory and legacy was rewarded by a journalism prize, established to honor her name.

So who has won the Gellhorn 2008 journalism prize for excellence in journalism?

Why, Mohammed Omer, a Palestinian journalist living in Gaza.

After knowing what exactly the Gellhorn prize represents, and whose name it honors, and which policies it promotes by extension (support of Israel and hatred of Palestinians and Germans), you can imagine that when a Palestinian named Mohammed winning it would irk some people.

Make them angry.

And so it did.

Lets go back to the ipsnews article and analyze it a bit, shall we?

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.

Mr. Omer seems big time - he speaks to powerful people, and is known in the elite circles of Europe.

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.

Mr. Omer's trip was sponsored by The Washington Report, and was supported by the Dutch Embassy in Israel.

Like I said, the dude is big time.

Not a Joe Schmoe reporter - but somebody who is very much in the public eye.

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.

He was accompanied by Dutch diplomats, who were there for one reason. And if you are not an idiot, or a willful idiot American Israel booster, you could very well imagine what that reason was.

As protection.

Because, the Europeans think, that when official diplomats travel with somebody, the nation that they travel in would at least refrain from, say, torturing their companion.

It seems to work in African countries, where the local despots and tin pot dictators do not want such unfavorable incidents to further mar their legitimacy to govern.

But did such protection work in Israel, the so called "only democracy" in the Middle East, according to countless quotes from various talking heads on American TV and talk radio and countless writers writing for American newspapers, including the op/ed columns in Washington Post, NY Times and others?

Hell no!

Israel does not give a shit for public opinion, because it knows that it has political cover from its retarded big bully brother, the United States.

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".

Secret police thugs making fun of diplomats?

You wouldn't expect it in the most corrupt, lawless African nations; you wouldn't expect it in the Soviet Union - all nations in the world have respect for other nations' diplomats and diplomatic niceties.

You can't touch, nor criticize a foreign diplomat, and definitely cannot "make fun" of him/her.

Things like that just don't happen in the civilized world.

But, remember, this is Israel, and different rules apply.

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.

Strip naked, sand-nigger!

You might be a big shot in Europe and America, but this is Israel!

We'll show you what's up, in a minute, you trouble making sand-nigger!

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.

Remember, the Dutch diplomats were nearby...

This was a show of force, designed deliberately to show Mr. Omer, the Dutch embassy, and indeed the rest of the world - this is Israel, and here we, the Jews, rule.

The rest of the world will have its policy of multiculturalism, of respecting other races, other cultures, other religions, other customs...

The rest of the civilized world - Europe, industrialized Asia, Canada - might respect human beings and have a due process of law (USA deliberately excluded from the civilized world -AG).

But not in Israel - this is a Jews only homeland, and sand-niggers should not apply.

And when sand-niggers leave, they should not return.

This is Jews only land.

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.

This is Israel.

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.

This is Israel.

It is not a modern democracy.

Different rules apply here.



Story Two.

This is Israel.

Different rules apply.

Even for Jewish Holocaust survivors.

If you are an American non-Jew...

As you read about Mr. Omer, and as you watch the 80 year old Ms. Hedy Epstein, calmly explain as she was arrested by Israeli security officials (who, note, had their nametags turned the other way to not show their names), and was called a terrorist, a security risk and was given a full internal cavity search (while stripped naked), think on the United States slavish support of Israel.

Think of the gigantic US "aid" money, currently the "official" count is $3 billion per year (this does not include certain moneys masked in Pentagon budgets and the so called "loans" which Israel does not need to repay - ever).

See for example the decent informative Wikipedia article, and then google your own way to the truth.

Think of Obama speaking at AIPAC, think of Nancy Pelosi speaking at AIPAC, think of Lieberman speaking at AIPAC, 'W' bush, elder Bush, Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton... all trying to outdo each other in their support of Israel.

Think of your tax money, at the least $3 billion (which is more than the whole continent of Africa receives in aid money, the money which actually IS aid money, going to starving children, for example).

And, having read all this, and google'ed your way around this topic, I expect you, the American citizen, to do nothing.


As an American Jew...

As you read about Mr. Omer, and as you watch the 80 year old Ms. Hedy Epstein, calmly explain as she was arrested by Israeli security officials (who, note, had their nametags turned the other way to not show their names), and was called a terrorist, a security risk and was given a full internal cavity search (while stripped naked), think of the AIPAC slavish support of Israel....

Think of singing the Ha'tikvah, the Israeli national anthem in your synagogue.

Think of this Palestinian guy humiliated and tortured, to the point of him passing out.

Think of the 80 year old Ms. Hedy Epstein, a Jewish Holocaust survivor, going to Israel, the Jewish homeland, the place where all Jews are supposed to find a place of refuge, and being stripped naked, humiliated and cavity searched while being called a terrorist.

As an American Jew, I want you to think long and hard regarding your perhaps ideolized view of Israel and your support of it.

I know that it can be hard to turn back the years of social mores, the social pressure, the religious school, the stories of Exodus and the heroic Israelis fighting hordes of unwashed barbarians.

I am only asking you to open your eyes to what is going on now, and to think about it a bit.

That's all.

However, I expect the non-Jewish American to do nothing, and plop down in front of the TV to watch the latest American Idol...

And similarly, I expect you, the American Jew, to also do nothing. Simply ignore my blog, ignore your conscience, ignore your humanity, to be a good German and carry on.

If not actually increase your AIPAC donation, and to shout the louder about anti-semitism and self-hating Jews.

And so it goes on, and so it will.

And so Haim Saban will give even more money to AIPAC.

And so president Obama will order airstrikes on Iran, based on Israeli supplied "intelligence" and cheered on by the usual suspects - Perle, Wolfovitz, Feith, Krauthammer, Thomas Friedman, William Kristol, Eliot Abrams...

And I expect to be called an anti-semite, by a rabid crowd of "internet Israeli intifadah", who will defend Israeli actions, the torture of a Palestinian reporter, the humiliation of an 80 year old American citizen Holocaust survivor, with the pathetic defensive "argument" of 'other countries do it too, why do you concentrate on Israel americangoy - you are an anti-semite!'.

And so it will go on.

At least my blog lets me cheat my conscience a bit, pleading with myself that this represents some kind of an action against the rampant hypocrisy, the lies, and the hijacking of this great country of the United States by a foreign power.

What is your excuse as you read about Mr. Omer and Ms. Epstein, if you are an patriotic American citizen (whether goy or Jew)?

At least I have my blog - what do YOU do?