Mohammed Omer: journalist, price-winner receives 'peppered' welcome
Mohammed Omer, a journalist who writes about the Palestinian area’s and has his own website (Rafah’s Web) received the Martha Gellhorn Prize in London last week. It proved to be problematic for Omer to receive his prize in person, but with the assistance of Dutch diplomats he could come to the ceremony in London. On his return however he seems to be mistreated by Israëli borderpatrol who forced him to undress and sprayed a sort of pepperspray in his face. There are also reports of even more serious maltreatment.
Several of the ‘heroic’ Dutch defenders of free speech (among others: LWH, GS, DZ, AE) remain quiet about this case, showing their rather hypocritical stance towards issues of free speech (and are therefore probably bigger threats to the freedom of speech than the people they usually accuse of endangering free speech). An exception to the rule is Dutch MP Van Baalen (VVD; a conservative liberal party) who has demanded an investigation into these events and the Dutch minister of foreign affairs, Verhagen, has complained about this to the Israeli ambassador in Den Haag (DUTCH) and also requested an investigation. The ambassador stated he shared the concerns of Verhagen and that he will investigate the matter.