The Warped Mirror: Mohammed Omer's 'truth'

How does it feel for a young Palestinian journalist from Gaza to accept an award named after the legendary journalist Martha Gellhorn? Gellhorn is widely regarded as one of the most outstanding war correspondents of the 20th century, but it has been said about her that "she switched off her sympathy when it came to the sufferings of Arabs. She was entirely committed to the cause of Israel [...and] remained deaf to the Palestinian case."

That is perhaps not an entirely fair characterization, because in her famous 1961 report on "The Arabs of Palestine"  Gellhorn was by no means "deaf" to the plight of Palestinian refugees - indeed, she left no doubt that she wanted to see their problems addressed and solved as quickly as possible. But as a reporter in Europe during and after World War II, Gellhorn had seen refugees before, and she did not hesitate to point out the "unique care and concern" and "the unique publicity" reserved for Palestinian refugees. She also did not hesitate to argue that the "unique misfortune of the Palestinian refugees is that they are a weapon in what seems to be a permanent war [...] Their function is to hang around and be constantly useful as a goad."

Gellhorn passionately rejected Arab and Palestinian claims that Israel should be held responsible for the situation of the refugees and noted sarcastically that the "details of the Arab case vary, depending on the political climate of the moment and the audience. However, the Palestinian refugees always remain the invaluable, central theme. The case is painted the color of blood in the Arab countries: Revenge and Return. For the Western public, tears replace blood; the Arab case rests on the plight of the refugees and is a call to conscience rather than to arms."

Almost fifty years have passed since these lines were written, and there is now a "Martha Gellhorn prize" that, according to the official website, "is awarded to a journalist whose work has penetrated the established version of events and told an unpalatable truth, validated by powerful facts, that exposes establishment propaganda, or 'official drivel', as Martha Gellhorn called it."

Obviously, Martha Gellhorn intended to tell "an unpalatable truth" when she dismissed the way the plight of the Palestinians was presented by the Arab world as politically motivated propaganda, and it thus rather awkward when the prize established in her name is awarded to a journalist who reports about the Palestinians in exactly the terms rejected by Gellhorn. 

But Mohammed Omer, who accepted the Martha Gellhorn prize at a recent ceremony in London, claims that it is his ambition "to get the truth out, not as pro-Palestinian or anti-Israeli, but as an independent voice and witness." So what is the truth? How about this "truth" from a recent piece by Omer entitled "60 Years and Counting", where he looks back at the event of 1948 and claims: "All of this occurred within one year - and three years after the end of the Nazi holocaust, an event in Europe where, over a period of six years, martial law, ethnic cleansing and terror were used to force Jews and others who did not fit Nazi ideals into concentration camps. Palestinians now enter their 60th year of such treatment."

If Omer believes there is any "truth" in such a statement, he clearly doesn't believe that truth has anything to do with facts. Indeed, Omer apparently believes that whatever story he tells will be accepted as "the truth" - and it turns out that he is not entirely wrong: as an award-winning Palestinian journalist, he can count on an audience that is obviously prepared to believe any story he tells, no matter how many contradictions there are. The most recent story Omer has offered is a good illustration of how easy it is to spread a story that doesn't hold up to even five minutes of googled fact-checking.

Omer's website prominently features several articles that tell a harrowing story of how he was mistreated, even tortured, by Shin Bet officers when he recently returned from his trip to Europe via Jordan to Gaza. According to one account by John Pilger, Omer remembers one of the Shin Bet officers "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."

The next account by Mel Frykberg notes that Omer had fainted, and "[w]hen he came round his eyelids were being forcibly opened and his eardrums probed by an Israeli military doctor, who was also armed." According to the account by John Pilger, a Dutch official accompanying Omer "waited outside the Israeli building, unaware Mohammed had been seized by Shin Bet, Israel's infamous security organisation." Given that Omer was supposedly tortured by the Shin Bet for four hours, the patience of the Dutch official is quite astonishing. However, according to the other account by Mel Frykberg, Omer stated that he underwent the security check "in the company of Dutch diplomats".

A Dutch report that is not posted on Omer's website states that Omer "says that the people who arrested him forced him to strip and hand over his suitcase, then squirted a pepper spray in his face. As a consequence he was admitted to hospital in Jericho." Just in case you wonder: the pepper spray is not mentioned in the two reports posted on Omer's website.

An Associated Press report which is also not posted on Omer's website notes that "Dr. Diaa Husseini, who examined Omer at the hospital [in Jericho], said the journalist had no signs of physical injury. He said Omer had suffered a nervous breakdown brought on by emotional stress and was given stomach medication and released after two hours." Photos of Omer posted on his website, which were apparently taken in a hospital in Gaza and first published just a few days after a Shin Bet officer supposedly attacked his face "gouging, scraping and clawing with his nails at the tender flesh" show no sign of any injuries in his face. But now Omer claims that he has broken ribs.

It's hard to know what to believe when somebody tries to pass as "truth" whatever story he comes up with. But one thing is clear: Mohammed Omer's story of his "torture" at the hands of Israeli Shin Bet officers spread like wildfire: if you google "Mohammed Omer torture", you get 36400 results. One of them is an interview with Omer which offers yet another version of his story. . .One of the new twists on offer is that Omer "felt how it feels for a black African man to be under the apartheid system."