When I first read about the plight of Gaza reporter Mohammed Omer, I was suspicious.
Omer claimed that when he returned to Gaza (via Jordan) after receiving a “journalism” award he was mistreated and beaten by Israel guards. The truth was that the pictures of Omer, didn’t show someone who was in such bad shape. I wasn’t the only one who noticed.
Snapped Shot for example noted that compared to the treatment some reporters suffered at the hands of Hamas and Hezbollah, this wasn’t even worth mentioning:
Get a tiny scratch from the IDF, however, and it’s time for weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Israel Matzav heaped on some more scorn:
I want you to look at this picture where Omer is holding up his left arm. Am I the only one who thinks that looks more like a ‘hickey‘ than that someone beat him?
The Israeli authorities have looked into Omer’s case and found his complaints to be without basis. HonestReporting UK has the scoop:
Regarding the Complainant’s collapse, as it were, it should be noted that the paramedic who attended to him found no evidence of a physical cause of collapse. The Complainant’s behaviour raises doubts as to the sincerity of the situation. In any event, the Complainant was sent to an infirmary and an ambulance was ordered for him.
As to the Complainant’s allegation that he was compelled to stand on his feet for twelve hours, we point out that according to our records, the Complainant arrived at the Allenby Crossing at approximately 11:00, and the entire incident ended at approximately 14:00. Thus, this claim is also baseless.
Read the whole thing.
Ah, but you’ll say, “Of course, Israel would claim this. It must defend the actions its security forces took against an award winning journalist.”
Wait, stop right there. Mohammed Omer is not a journalist. He “reports” for the Washington Report on Mideast Affairs (WRMEA), a publication of the innocuously named American Educational Trust (AET). AET is a virulently anti-Israel (if not antisemitic) organization headed by former diplomats who represented the United States in the Arab world.
Since George W. Bush was elected President there have been occasional news stories about diplomats who have joined together to criticize President Bush for not pressing Israel more. These weren’t spontaneous gatherings, but organized by AET or a related organization the Council on the National Interest. However in order to embarrass the president these criticisms were treated as news and not as the press releases from a highly biased organization.
Still what does this have to do with Omer’s trustworthiness? AET didn’t hire him as a reporter but as a propagandist. Take this article he wrote about Christian in Gaza.
Father Musallam explained why Christians in Gaza do not feel singled out or oppressed. “Palestinian Christians are not a religious community set apart in some corner. We are part of the Palestinian people,” he asserted. “Our relationship with Hamas is as people of one nation. Hamas doesn’t fight religious groups. Its fight is against the Israeli occupation.”
When asked about Western media reports that Gaza’s Christians are considering emigrating because of Islamic oppression, Father Musallam sighed. “If Christians emigrate, it’s not because of Muslims,” he emphasized. “It is because we suffer from the Israeli siege. We seek a life of freedom–a life different from the life of dogs we are currently forced to live.”
This isn’t reporting, it’s propaganda. Father Musallem is often quoted in the media. And he can be counted on to criticize Israel and apologize for Hamas. I don’t know if he’s a coward or an accomplice.
Still this is false. Christians aren’t moving out of the Middle East (and Israel specifically) because of Israeli oppression. In fact the numbers tell a much different story.
Midway through this century, Christians comprised about 80 percent of the population of Bethlehem. Christians now make up less than 15 percent of the town. This is a trend that mirrors the Christian flight throughout the Palestinian Authority. However, this exodus began long before Israeli checkpoints and the security wall. It is estimated that nearly two-thirds of the Christian population fled during the time when Jordan occupied the West Bank. The Christian population under the Palestinian Authority has suffered from a negative growth-rate and now number less than 50,000, or about 2.4 percent of the population.
In fact, the Christian population throughout the Middle East has been in rapid decline. In 1900, Christians comprised 20 percent of the population of the Middle East; now, they are less than 2 percent. While the Muslim population has expanded rapidly in Europe and the U.S., Christians in the Middle East have experienced a negative population-growth rate. The only country noting a positive growth rate for Christians is Israel.
To call Omer a critic of Israel is to sell him short. His false and easily refuted portrayal of Israel’s oppression of Christian is not the work of a critic, it is the work of a hater. Of course he’s writing for an organization that hates Israel (despite its claim of supporting resolution 242). Mohammed Omer is not trustworthy, so there’s no reason to believe his claim.
This leads to one final irony. Elder of Ziyon observed that Omer was abroad to receive the Martha Gellhorn prize. Here’s the truth about Martha Gellhorn:
Martha Gellhorn was an amazing journalist who did some groundbreaking reporting over sixty years, traveling to most major conflicts.
I’ve mentioned her views on Palestinian Arabs in the past, when she filed reports from 1961–1967. Even though she was a committed leftist, she had no patience for how the Palestinian Arabs had turned into pawns in the conflict nor for their wildly inflated claims as to what happened in 1948. She was passionately pro-Israel.
So she would be aghast at the fact that the award named in her honor has been going to people who she would have eaten for lunch in real life, such as Robert Fisk. The award committee includes such rabid anti-Israel advocates as John Pilger.
It’s not enough that Mohammed Omer is a crude and dishonest anti-Israel propagandist. He has also been awarded a prize named for someone who supported the Zionist enterprise that he opposes.
UPDATE: Above I argued that Mohammed Omer should have had no credibility on account of his ties to WRMEA. There’s a stronger argument, he was contradicted by a doctor in a Jericho hospital:
Dr. Diaa Husseini, who examined Omer at the hospital, 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.
(h/t Noah Pollak)
Crossposted on Soccer Dad.
