Image Credit: mage Credit: Mohammed Omer, Rafah Today 2006-11-09.
Palestinian Journalist Mohammed Omer Wins Recognition for Telling the Story of an Israeli Incursion
BBSNews 2006-11-13 -- Events in the Gaza Strip are usually somber and involve funeral processions and laments over attacks from Israeli's that invariably kill and injure many innocent civilians who have nothing to do with terrorism, one bright spot has happened recently, young photo journalist Mohammed Omer has won the first annual National Ethnic Media Award for Best Youth Voice.
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Palestinian children are looking at blood pool of their friends killed by the Isareli tank shells.
Image Credit: mage Credit: Mohammed Omer, Rafah Today 2006-11-09. |
New American Media was formed in 1996 to bring together ethnic voices from around the United States and the world. Mohammed won for his article entitled "'Sharon, Why Did You Destroy My House?': Operation Rainbow a Year Later" -- a piece that poignantly described an Israeli incursion into occupied Palestine in May of 2004 that could very well have been been written about Beit Hanoun (see "Gaza: 'Where is the American and British Press?'" 2006-11-10). In the winning piece Mohammed wrote in part about the 2004 "Operation Rainbow":
"Israeli snipers commandeered taller houses and took up positions on rooftops, shooting anything and anyone who moved, even killing two teenagers whose 'hostile activity' consisted of taking laundry off a clothesline and feeding pet doves. All the while, the shells from the Apache helicopters turned its victims into scattered body parts. As the week wore on, people ran out of food, water and medicine. Ambulances were pinned down by Israeli fire and could not reach the injured. The morgue in Al Najjar hospital was overflowing and, when no one could venture outdoors to bury their dead, a commercial refrigerator that usually stored vegetables was pressed into service to hold corpses.The ceaseless din of explosions and gunfire couldn't drown out the human chorus of despair—children crying for a piece of bread, for a cup of milk, for a drop of water, the laments of parents who had nothing to give them, the wails of the newly widowed and orphaned, the screams of the dying and dismembered. But sometimes there was only stunned, disbelieving silence, as friends and relatives tried to identify their loved ones from scattered body parts—a leg, an arm, a piece of a torso—that was all the ambulance drivers could gather."
We asked Mohammed by email some questions about how the award may help inspire other Palestinians to enter journalism and help get out the story from Palestine:
BBSNews: "Will an award like this help other Palestinian photographers and writers in the future to keep striving for journalistic recognition?"
Omer: "Yes, I do agree that this award will give the youth the hope to continue working and show the story to the outside world! As this is an important thing to do for the Palestinian community."
BBSNews: "What would you like to see happen most from other journalists and media covering issues in Occupied Palestine?"
Omer: "I would like to see more about daily life in Palestine, that the journalists go in depth and focus on the daily life of people, inside their homes, what they eat, how they live and what they are doing and how they manage their daily life with lack of money—other than that; I would like to see a focus on children and victims who are getting killed every single day, I would be glad also to see some feature stories about the Palestinian traditions and the Palestinian culture, this is a very important thing to show to the outside world -— We should remove this sticker which Israel, US and other countries stick on the Palestinian body by describing Palestinians as "terrorists," this is very important that we focus on showing how Palestinians are being killed every single day, the suffering of homeless families is a very important issue, indeed."
BBSNews: "Will the recent move by Arab states to lift an aid embargo imposed by the US, the EU and most of all Israel upon the occupied territories result in any real change in the day to day Palestinian situation on the ground?"
Omer: "You never know how serious Arab states are, but I guess if USA will put pressure on them not to lift the siege imposed on Palestinians, then I guess they will respect such a decision and that's a possible matter. But, I guess a national unity government might help in lifting the siege, and again, that depends if the US and Israel agree on the leaders for the new government. All indications shows that Prof. Mohammed Shabir will be the new PM for the upcoming [Palestinian] national government."
Our readers no doubt recognize that Mohammed Omer appears here in the BBSNews Middle East section about once a week or so, bringing our readers a unique perspective directly from the ground in the Gaza Strip and some of the most telling and powerful photos available from the area [See inset]. Western journalists seem to have in many cases, simply lost sight of actual investigative reporting when writing about the real problems Palestinians face from the decades old occupation. And Israeli Prime Minister Olmert is being disingenuous when he proclaims to the world that Israel has pulled out of Gaza. The Gaza Strip is a prison imposed by Israel upon the Palestinians. The infrastructure has been destroyed by Israel, freedom of movement is impossible under the conditions set by Israel that include American made Apache helicopter gunships and fighter jets that regularly terrorize the populace with sonic booms and worse, raining down hellfire upon civilians in the hopes of getting a militant.
It is far past the time that Western journalists start relating the real truth of what is going on, and how these civilians are being terrorized on a daily basis by a US enabled country called Israel who thumbs their noses at legitimate UN Resolutions.