Former Soldier Works for Peace in Israel/Palestine

Refusing the occupation: an interview with Rotem Mor

Sarah Price, The Electronic Intifada, 13 October 2008

Rotem Mor leading a tour group through occupied East Jerusalem. (Photo courtesy of Rotem Mor)

Like most Israeli youth, at age 18, Rotem Mor readied himself for military conscription. In the army, he was a liaison soldier with foreign armies at the Port of Egypt, but was kicked out of the unit for under-performance. After that, he was a soldier-teacher working with civilians, and spent a year in Jerusalem, working with disadvantaged kids. But he wasn't happy.

Mor began to have misgivings about the army even before he joined. He felt he had a responsibility to himself and his society. "I stopped blaming the army for my misery and took a stand," he said. He began serving in February of 2000, but by August 2001, he knew the army was not the place for him, and he sent a letter requesting exemption for reasons of conscience.

In the two weeks between his refusal and discharge, he tried to prepare himself for prison, where he knew he would be sent for refusing, but he had no regrets. "I went from a depressed soldier to attention and exposure," he says. "I worked a lot harder trying to get out of the army than I ever did while I was in it."

But there was a lot of uncertainty in standing up to a system with more power than he. "They could hold me in prison for a long time," he says. "The main thing that scares people away [from refusing], is not knowing what will happen to you. You can be tried again, once you get out of prison." In the end, he spent 28 days in jail.

"More people are speaking out," he says, "but it's still quiet. Not like it was 10 years ago, though. There's a lot more support now. In some places, refusing is the norm, in others, not, and those places can be right next to each other."

According to Sergeiy Sandler of New Profile, a movement working to demilitarize Israeli society, it's difficult to determine how many refuseniks are ideological, because there are so many other ways of avoiding service that don't lead to prison sentences.

"Some are not called up to begin with -- even though by law they are supposed to be," Sandler says. "Those are most of the members of the Palestinian minority among Israeli citizens, making up roughly 20 percent of the relevant age group among Israeli citizens. Religiously observant Jewish women are exempted upon submitting a simple declaration often made by not-so-observant women as well; about one-third of all Jewish women are exempted on these grounds."

Medical discharges, and especially psychiatric ones, he adds, are quite common, especially for those who've already been enlisted and have decided then to opt out. Ultra-Orthodox Jewish men, who decide to be full-time students of religious colleges, or yeshivoth, get a complicated scheme of deferral of military service. Declared conscientious objectors are a relatively very small group to be added on top of that.

"There are negative consequences," says Sandler, "but they are usually not very substantial. There is a considerable deal of discrimination against those who have not served in the military in the labor market, for example, but most of it is due to the large proportion of security jobs in the general job market in Israel, and a lot of it is just a thin disguise for ethnic discrimination against Palestinians."

But the public condemnation for avoiding military service is far more pronounced, although it has decreased in recent years.

"Up to some 20 years ago," says Sandler, "military service was considered some sort of sacred duty by most Israelis. It often still is, but overall, as the numbers of those deciding not to serve rose, the decision to avoid military service was beginning to be considered increasingly more legitimate. Nevertheless, the pressure to enlist is still exceptionally high, and includes an enormous amount of military presence in culture and education, from kindergarten on."

Rotem Mor

This is an action that Mor has taken issue with. In a letter to foreign organizations, asking for their help to further his case, at the time of his refusal, he wrote, "questions began arising long before I was recruited. They stemmed from information I had been acquiring about the Israel-Arab conflict and the discovery of the disinformation I had been subjected to over the years about it. I found that the more I educated myself, the less I believed the 'official' Israeli version of events. This point of view is the moral premise on which most Israeli youths justify their army service. I had begun to realize how much hate and fear were instilled in me from a very young age. I found that I do not believe in the existence of an 'enemy,' but of people of another culture who were just as scared and angry as I was."

Increasing attitudes like Mor's among Israeli youth has caused the government to take action to renew public dedication toward service.

"The recent year saw a concentrated public campaign by the military itself and some civil-society groups sponsored by it to restore the old attitude," says Sandler.

"It is too early to judge how effective this campaign will turn out to be," he adds. "My own guess is that they won't be able to turn the clock backwards after all."

"The message from the government about service is that it's your national duty, it builds the country, and it's good for your career," says Mor. "But they skew the messages based on the class of people they are talking to. If you are in the lower echelon, it's a lot harder."

He feels that Israel's classification of itself with Europe and the US, and its attempt to remove itself from identification with the Middle East, as well as determined separation from Palestinians, has a lot to do with the state of conflict today.

"The overall opinion about Palestinians seems to be getting worse, and I feel it is because of more separation," he says. "People in Israel are recognizing more political rights for the Palestinians, but they are afraid to speak out."

"There are very few initiatives inside Israel [directed toward unity]. If there is going to be a peaceful Jewish existence, they have to be part of the Middle East, and not so aligned with Europe and the US. Israel is portrayed as a united society, but has a lot of small subgroups with a lot of different opinions and experiences. In a broad sense, the US is seen as protector and ally, but also as someone telling Israelis what to do and how to do it."

On the subject of the Israel lobby's influence in the US, he says, "Each side can use the other to blame because they can say they are being told what to do. It's very convenient to have someone to blame."

He adds: "I think we need to learn more about where we live."

To that end, he has headed up a number of initiatives in the seven years since his refusal and discharge.

After his release, he spent a year traveling to different countries, meeting with political activists and talking to them about his experiences. Upon his return to Israel, he began running seminars for young people who were contemplating their own refusal. "These two-day seminars created a safe space for young people to contemplate their army service and refusal," he later wrote. "The seminars also provided youth with a variety of information and strategies for carrying out their decision to refuse."

He also worked with the American Friends Service Committee to strengthen the Israeli conscientious objector movement, including organizing meetings between Israeli conscientious objectors and Palestinians, living both in Israel and in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. In addition, he was involved in the nonviolent movement against Israel's wall in the West Bank.

Currently, he is studying Middle Eastern classical music through a program at the Center for Middle Eastern Classical Music in Jerusalem, called Promoting Middle East Culture through Peace, which he describes as "a project acting to empower and promote Middle Eastern culture in Israel as a means of integrating Israeli society into the Middle East. Despite the seldom-mentioned fact that the majority of Israel's population (Jewish, Muslim and Christian) is of Middle Eastern origin, Middle Eastern culture (in all its expressions: music, cinema, theater, religion, history and heritage) has only a marginal space in Israeli society and mass culture."

"In school, there is a lot of racism and prejudices present, but I think it opens up a lot -- learning about another culture opens you up to them," he says. "Some of the students, even though ideologically they stood with the Palestinians, there was still a divide. Learning about another culture is like learning another language and speaking the same language brings people together."

In the meantime, Mor continues to spread his message of unity in any way he can, believing that this is the only way to really have peace. He is currently writing a book about his experiences, which he hopes to finish next year.

Sarah Price is an American freelance journalist based in Los Angeles, CA. She recently visited the occupied Gaza Strip.

The Silencing of Journalists

The Silencing of Journalists: Its Harm to All of Us
By Sarah Price

When 24-year-old Palestinian journalist Mohammed Omer was awarded the Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism in London on June 16, he accepted it on behalf of 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza, his home. He had decided at the age of 17, even before the loss of his home to house demolitions and his brother to sniper fire, that he would be their voice. But upon his return from Europe on June 26, his own voice was nearly silenced. Eight armed Israeli security agents were waiting for him at the Allenby Crossing between Jordan and the West Bank. They strip- and cavity-searched him and beat him unconscious. He survived, but has sustained broken ribs, a damaged trachea that kept him on a liquid diet for over a month, possible sterility from one kick, and pain in his legs and hands. With physical difficulty, he is writing again and continues to be a voice for Gaza, but he wonders for how long. Despite international media attention and calls from the Dutch and British parliaments for formal investigations into the attack, as well as compensation for Omer’s medical expenses and help getting surgery he needs and cannot get in Gaza, his case remains largely untouched. An investigation report released by the Israeli Foreign Ministry in late August claimed his allegations were false. However, the investigators failed to interview Omer or his doctors, and requested no medical records for review. Robert Dekker, spokesman for the Dutch Foreign Ministry, said they are not satisfied with the report, and have requested an independent investigator. "I can inform you that Mr. Omer's account and the Israeli report differ in conclusion on what exactly transpired," he said. "The Netherlands has urged Israel therefore to initiate an independent investigation to find out the exact course of events." The Israeli Foreign Ministry offices in London and Jerusalem have failed to provide a copy of the investigation report.

Almost 200 Palestinian journalists have been injured and nearly a dozen killed since September 2000, including Fadel Shana, a 23-year-old Reuters cameraman who was killed in Gaza on April 16 by an Israeli tank shell – the final images from his destroyed camera showing the shell aimed at and flying toward him. The results of an investigation released in August cleared the soldiers of any wrongdoing, but Reuters slammed the claims, pointing out that the markings on his flak jacket and his vehicle clearly identified him as a journalist, and the wire service is considering legal action. The Israeli Foreign Press Association fears that the probe’s conclusions could cause worse consequences for journalists in the region, if soldiers take the lack of disciplinary action as a green light to fire on members of the press.

The silencing of journalists is not a new practice, nor is it confined to any one region of the world. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), 15 have been killed worldwide so far in 2008, 13 more are suspicious deaths under investigation, and at least 82 reporters have been exiled in the past year.

In China, tough restrictions on foreign journalists were eased in an attempt to garner good press during the Beijing Olympics. On December 1, 2006, China's State Council issued a decree granting foreign journalists more freedom in reporting in the run-up to the 2008 Olympic Games, from January 1, 2007 through October 17, 2008 (one month after the end of the Paralympics). Foreign journalists would not be required to be accompanied by a Chinese official, would be allowed to engage in independent reporting in all localities without permission and could hire Chinese citizens to assist them.

But there are concerns for what happens after October 17 for foreign journalists, and what happens in the meantime for members of the Chinese media. China still remains the largest jailer of journalists in the world, with 26 currently imprisoned. According to CPJ, China has held this distinction for nearly a decade. The longest-held journalists in China, Chen Renjie and Lin Youping, have been jailed since July 1983. The two have been sentenced to life in prison for writing and distributing all of 300 copies of a pamphlet called Ziyou Bao ("Freedom Report"). Their colleague, Chen Biling, was executed.

Even within the allotted months of reporting leniency, there have been violations. In July, the Hong Kong Journalists’ Association and the International Federation of Journalists condemned Beijing police for a number of recent incidents against Hong Kong reporters covering pre-Olympic activities, citing police brutality and negligence, detention, and deliberate misinformation to allow for further attacks. Some reporters were assaulted by police when they were told they had strayed out of the reporting area, but the situation was confusing, said journalist Felix Wong, because “the police kept changing the so-called reporting area.” Others had their cameras confiscated, were ordered to delete footage, and pressured to sign documents saying their matter was closed, so they could take no further action against the police.

However, we needn't look so far to see such violations against free speech. On Monday, September 1, in St. Paul, MN, "Democracy Now!" host Amy Goodman and two of her producers, Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar, were arrested on riot charges as they interviewed protesters outside the Republican National Convention. Goodman received a call that her producers had been "bloodied by the police," and she ran to where they were. By the time she arrived, they had been put into police vehicles. Asking officers if she could just see them, she was immediately arrested, too. The incident was caught on tape and was the most-watched video on YouTube the next day. Like Shana, all three were clearly marked as members of the press.

For whatever complaints there may be about the mainstream media and its collective complacency, there are untold numbers of journalists risking, and sometimes losing, their lives to bring the truth about the injustices around them to light. In an article for The Nation, Omer wrote, “The might of the Israeli military will not silence my pen or darken my camera lens.” But if these voices continue to be silenced, whether through maiming, intimidation, censorship or death, there will soon be no one to speak for any of us. "When the press is shut down", Goodman told the Los Angeles Times, "it's closing the eyes and ears of a critical watchdog in a democratic society."

Gaza Journalist Assaulted by Shin Bet

Gaza Journalist Assaulted by Shin Bet
By Sarah Price

The Independent Monitor, July 2008

The last words in his acceptance speech were, I can’t wait for the day I retire as a war correspondent. Then he came home to a whole new battle.

This was originally going to be a profile of young Palestinian journalist Mohammed Omer, called “Gaza’s Best Hope.” I was going to write about his rise from the poverty-stricken refugee camps of the Gaza Strip to international readership and acclaim; the murder and maiming of family members and demolition of his home by the Israel Occupation Forces that have only served to fuel the fire of his mission: to get the word out about the truth of life in Occupied Palestine; and of his peaceful nature, despite years of tragic loss – his own and that of his homeland. He wants peace on both sides, and admonishes violence toward Israeli citizens as much as he does that toward Palestinians. He made a choice, in his words, “not to pick up a gun, but to pick up a camera,” because he knew the only solution was to document the truth of what is going on, and he has done so diligently for the last seven years.

But since the events of June 26, 2008, the focus has changed.

On Saturday, May 17, I received an excited e-mail from Mohammed: he had won the prestigious Martha Gellhorn Prize, an award given “for journalism that exposes establishment propaganda,” and would be sharing it with his friend, Dahr Jamail, an American journalist celebrated for his independent reports from Iraq. He had just received the news from John Pilger, an Australian-born, UK-based journalist and former war correspondent who sat on the judging panel, and had come to admire Mohammed for his work. At age 24, he would be the youngest journalist ever to have won it.

He was due some good news. He was still recovering from the loss of two close friends one month earlier: Gazan Reuters cameraman Fadel Shana, who was killed by an Israeli tank shell on April 16; and Palestinian rights activist Riad Hamad, the news of whose suicide circulated a day later. The previous four months had been hell for Gaza, in general. An Israeli siege hit the small strip of land in January, two months after peace talks had begun between Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. Over 120 Palestinians were dead – most of them civilians, and dozens of them children, and several hundred more injured. A small number of their most critical cases were being sent to Egypt for treatment, but only about one-third were being granted entry. “The rest of the cases,” said Dr. Medhat Abbas, Director of Crisis Management at the Gaza Ministry of Health, “will continue receiving the new formula of PFU in Gaza (‘pray for us’).”

Mohammed had been working constantly through fear, fatigue, and close calls on his own life to keep up with his reports about the siege for the number of publications for whom he writes: The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs (WRMEA) in Washington, DC, New Statesman in the UK, Inter Press Service (IPS) in Italy, and several publications throughout Europe, for whom his articles are translated into various languages, as well as maintaining his own website, RafahToday.org, named for his hometown, located on the Egyptian border. He also regularly works to help patients who can’t get the treatment they need in Gaza, to get out and get what they need from Israeli hospitals – an almost impossible feat that he attempts for one patient after another, taking each case personally. He supports his parents and six siblings, and has done so since the beginning of his father’s 12-year imprisonment in an Israeli jail. He found work in a factory, which he would do every day after school, and late into the night. He would come home around 11pm, exhausted from school and work, sleep until about 5am, and get up and do it all again, still barely making enough to feed his family. And he was six years old.

His dream growing up had been to work as an interpreter for the International Red Cross. He loved languages, and even in grade school, taught himself new words in English when he came across them, getting so far ahead of his classmates that they accused him of having an American mother. By his mid-teens, he was already taking courses in international public relations, photography and journalism, and translation. In 2006, he graduated from the Islamic University of Gaza with a BA in English.

But by the time he was 17, his dream of being an interpreter had been replaced by what he saw as an obligation to become a journalist. He was seeing bloodshed on a daily basis – his town being bombed; people being shot by soldiers in the street; and the homes of his relatives and friends being bulldozed with no warning in the middle of the night. And yet, there seemed to be no coverage of this anywhere in the press. No one else is documenting this, he thought, so I need to. He started with just a notepad, writing every day what he saw. After a while, he put together a website, documenting with his words and photographs, life in Gaza.

In 2003, he began keeping a journal regularly on RafahToday. But he was not yet aware of the terrible year he was soon to document.

In January, Israeli forces destroyed two water wells and demolished more than 50 homes in the last week alone, in order to make room for a wall between Rafah and Egypt, its neighbor to the south; between March and May, peace activists Rachel Corrie and Tom Hurndall, and filmmaker James Miller were killed by Israeli forces in Rafah. In March, his own home was demolished by an Israeli bulldozer, with his mother and sister inside. They managed to get out through the kitchen window as the walls and roof fell in, but his mother still suffers from the leg injuries she sustained from her escape.

But by November, things were much worse.

In late September, Mohammed’s younger brother Issam was shot in the leg, which had to be amputated; and on October 18, his younger brother Hussam was shot seven times and killed by an Israeli sniper. Trying to bring his body out of the street, their next door neighbor was also killed, and trying to save her, her husband was injured – all in full view of their small children. “The moments can't be described when my mother got the news of the murder of my brother,” he wrote. “They were the worst in my whole life.”

But through it all, he persisted. Within a year, he was contributing to WRMEA, Morgenbladet newspaper in Norway, Agence France Presse, and the BBC, as well as several newspapers across Europe. In November 2006, he was awarded his first journalism prize, New America Media’s Best Youth Voice Award, but because of the difficulties getting permission to leave Gaza, he missed the ceremony, but was able to embark on a 15-city tour of the US, to give his presentation of life in Gaza, Gaza on the Ground, to thousands of people. Six months later, he was doing the same thing in Europe, but he had updated it, calling it Welcome to Hell. Days earlier, just before his 23rd birthday, he had survived an encounter with militants in Gaza who had cornered him on a dark street when he was trying to make his way home to Rafah from his work in Gaza City. The three gunmen surrounded him, discussing with each other where to shoot him, and whether or not to just kill him. He talked to and pleaded with them until they tired of him and let him go.

But with great struggle and work has come great admirers. The growing popularity of his writing spread to include international dignitaries and well-known writers. Soon, he was in touch with the likes of Noam Chomsky and Norman Mailer, who, before his passing in November 2007, was helping Mohammed write a book about his life; and had more requests from Europe and the United States for personal appearances. But the ongoing siege in Gaza made leaving even more difficult, so the news of his award in May was tempered with caution – he wanted to combine his visit to receive the award in London on June 16 with the opportunity to accept the invitation to speak to press and parliament members in Greece, Holland, France, and Sweden; and address the House of Commons in London, but didn’t know if he would make it out. The Dutch Foreign Ministry stepped in on his behalf, but Israel was making it very difficult to get the green light. Mohammed had been frustrated in Gaza for some time and was desperate for a chance to get away from the death and destruction he not only had to see every day, but as a journalist, had to seek out. By the end of May, he felt certain he would not get to go. “I am rejected and imprisoned in this hell,” he wrote.

But then the call came that he had been granted exit, and he rushed to get ready to go.

The three-week whirlwind tour of Europe was a great success. The opportunity to meet and speak with so many government and press representatives energized him, and gave him new contacts and notes for future articles. In his acceptance speech on June 16, he thanked his supporters, but said that he looked forward to the day that he could retire as a war correspondent.

Mohammed with co-recipient Dahr Jamail (left) and John Pilger in London, June 16 (Photo: Paul de Rooij)

In trying to get him permission to leave, they had been careful to do everything correctly, so that getting back in would not be a problem. He was trying to get back to Gaza for his brother Fadi’s wedding, and expected to be home on Sunday, June 22. But upon his arrival in Amman, Jordan, he received the news that Israel was not granting him re-entry. Between Saturday, June 21, and Wednesday, June 25, the Dutch Foreign Ministry worked frantically to convince Israeli officials to let him cross back home to Gaza. John Pilger urged Mohammed to go to the press, but he preferred to handle it diplomatically, and failing that, would go public. But he wanted to see if they could do it quietly first.

He was concerned about his status, because upon returning from his US tour in December 2006, he had been stuck in Cairo, trying to get back in, for three weeks, and he had already met people in Jordan who had been stranded there for months. But he hoped that since he had more diplomatic help this time, it wouldn’t take too long. On Wednesday, they finally got word that he would be allowed back in the next day. “Why can’t I go today?” he asked. “We don’t know,” was the response. “They just said tomorrow.” The answer made him suspicious and nervous.

He passed through the Jordan side of the Allenby Bridge crossing early the next morning, but when he came to the Israeli side, there was trouble right away. He gave his passport to the woman at passport control and she asked where he was going. When he answered, “Gaza,” she asked “what?” in Hebrew several times as he tried to make her understand. Finally, he answered her in Hebrew, “Azzah.”

“Oh,” she replied. “Actually, according to my computer, you have no coordination.”

He did have coordination, he protested, but she told him to wait at the side, where he stayed for the next 90 minutes, until someone came to get him and told him to bring his bags. He had been through x-ray by this time, and his bags had already been searched and were ready to be picked up. He was made to wait at the Shin Bet office, and could see that there were two cameras on him, on either side. Then he saw two Palestinian men coming out from other offices and they were dressing themselves. He knew then that these were rooms for strip-searching, and that he was probably in trouble.

A young blond Shin Bet agent told him to come with him, collecting his bags from the holding area, where they had been searched already, and demanded his cell phone. Mohammed was going through the Allenby Bridge crossing under diplomatic escort from the Dutch embassy, as he had left, and asked if could call his escorts to let them know what was happening. The young man barked at him that no, he could not.

After a few minutes, another agent, an investigator in his forties referred to as “Avi” by the other agents, entered and started going through all his belongings, along with another interrogator who had joined him. After searching through everything and dumping all his notes, cell phone, and memory cards into a box, they demanded to know where the money was. He wasn’t sure what they meant, but told them what traveling money he had on him – various amounts in British pounds, Euros, Israeli shekels, and Jordanian dinars. They demanded he put it all on the table, which he did, thinking maybe this was a shakedown – they would take the money he had and then let him go. But they were still dissatisfied. They asked again about the English pounds he had, and he realized then that they were looking for the prize money. The Martha Gellhorn Prize, since it was shared, would come out to roughly $5000 USD. But he had felt it safer to have it transferred to his bank, rather than carry it with him. When he told them this, he said, they were visibly irate and called him a liar.

By this point, the room had filled with more agents and he was outnumbered eight-to-one. They were angry and wanted money he didn’t have. And they were armed. When he repeated that he had shown them everything he had on him, Avi escorted him to an empty room.

“Take off your clothes,” he ordered him. Mohammed refused. He had already been through x-ray, and a pat-down would have revealed anything he might have been hiding.

“Take off your clothes,” he demanded again. So, he stripped down to his underwear.

“Take off everything,” he pressed.

Mohammed refused again. “I am a journalist,” he said, “and I have an escort from the Dutch embassy waiting for me. Call them and tell them what’s happening and that you want me to take off my clothes.”

Avi retorted that he knew all this, and insisted again that he take off his underwear. By this time, Mohammed was frightened. “Why are you treating me this way?” he asked.

“This is nothing compared to what you will see now,” Avi replied, putting his hand on his revolver, pressing his weight against Mohammed’s hip and forcibly pulling it off. He then patted his body down, “up one side and down the other,” Mohammed said later, and he was subjected to a cavity search. He then demanded he move to the left and right, in some kind of dance. When Mohammed refused, Avi pulled him left and right.

He had held his composure as long as he could, and started to cry. Avi backed off at that point.

“He looked satisfied,” he said. “He just wanted to humiliate me. He didn’t care about what I had; the intention was not to bring me to Gaza.”

He ordered him to get dressed and come back into the other room, where another of the intelligence officers was still going through his belongings.

The agent shook his head at Mohammed. “You are a crazy man,” he said. “I can’t understand why someone who has traveled to Sweden, Holland, Greece, London and Paris is coming back to Gaza. Gaza is a dirty place with dirty people. I thought the dream of those people is to leave Gaza and live in Europe. Why do you want to go to Gaza? There’s nothing in Gaza – no food, no fuel, no clean water. There is darkness. Go live in Paris; it’s beautiful there. Or do you like to be around the Hamas system in Gaza?”

Goading him, and not really looking for a response, he continued: “Aren't you ashamed to have your name and reputation associated with such a dirty place as Gaza?”

Mohammed answered, “No, I want to be there because I want to be a voice for the voiceless. I want to get the truth out. I have no affiliation with Hamas; I don’t even think they like me.”

“Then you choose to suffer.”

“No,” Mohammed said, “I choose to tell the truth.”

They continued to go through his luggage, taunting him about various items he had come home with:

“What are the perfumes for?”
“My friends and family, people I love.”
“Oh, you have love in your culture?”
“Of course.”

“What is this?” they asked, referring to a trophy he was given by the Greek Union of Journalists. When he told them, Avi replied that Greece was not a friend of Israel, only of the Palestinians.

“I don’t know,” Mohammed responded, wondering how Greece would feel about that, “it’s not my business.”

He had been standing for quite some time by then and had been without food, water, or a toilet for several hours. The stress and abuse caused him to feel faint, and he vomited and collapsed. A doctor said later that he had suffered a nervous breakdown. He was unconscious for nearly an hour and a half on the floor, he estimates, but could hear what they were saying, and feel what they were doing to him.

“They didn’t believe I had really passed out,” he said, “so they were out to make me react to their pressure.”

One agent dug his nails into the skin under his eyes and behind his ears, pinching him. Another pressed his shoe hard enough against his neck, that Mohammed could feel the outline of it. Another used two fingers to press into the space between his neck and chest, cutting off his airway. Mohammed remembers feeling himself choking. The damage to his trachea was so severe that even weeks later, he could not swallow anything but liquids. Finally, another pressed his hands into his chest with all the weight of his body, which eventually resulted in several fractured ribs, and breathing problems. They also continued to taunt him, saying, “Come on, Mohammed, we’re going to take you to Rafah now!,” expecting that would cause him to suddenly recover.

They eventually realized the severity of the situation and began to panic, calling for an ambulance, and an Israeli doctor checked his heart and performed an EKG. He was still unconscious in the ambulance, but Shin Bet agents continued trying to revive him – calling his name, forcing open his eyes, and spraying a sort of smelling salts into his face. But the efforts were not out of concern for his health: they needed him to sign a waiver, releasing them from all responsibility. Fortunately, the Palestinian ambulance driver, Mahmoud Taraira, intervened. He cannot sign that, he protested, he’s unconscious. He added that anything signed in that state of mind is non-binding.

They finally made it to the Palestinian doctors in Jericho, who were reassuring him he would be OK now.

At last able to call his escorts, after at least five hours, he found his cell phone amongst his belongings, but then he noticed his mobile was acting strangely – it was dialing numbers and sending messages by itself. The agents had told him earlier to give it to them and take out the battery. He believes that they used that opportunity to put something in it to track him. For days, it would only work off and on. Sometimes people could get through, others times, not at all. So he borrowed a phone and called the Dutch embassy to come get him. He arrived home safely, but by the next day, he was back in the hospital with breathing problems and chest pains. Due to the damage to his trachea, he couldn’t swallow, and spent six days in European Hospital in Khan Younis, being fed and medicated through an IV drip.

He discovered later that although all the money had been returned, an expensive watch and some other items had not.

In his bed at European Hospital in Khan Younis, in the Gaza Strip (Reuters)

Israel’s immediate responses ranged from being completely unaware of the incident to washing their hands of the actions of Shin Bet.

Lisa Dvir, from the Israeli Airport Authority (IAA), the body responsible for controlling Israel’s borders, told IPS, “We would like to know who Omer spoke to in regard to receiving coordination to pass through Allenby. We offer journalists a special service when passing through our border crossings, and had we known about his arrival this would not have happened.”

The truth is that Palestinian journalists have been targeted for some time.

Reuters cameraman Fadel Shana, 23, had shown up at the site of an air strike on April 16, 2008, to film the outcome of the incident, when he was killed by an Israeli tank shell, filled with small metal darts called flechettes, in full view of the soldiers operating the tank. His car was clearly marked “TV” and “Press,” as was his bullet-proof vest. The blast also injured his soundman, and killed two children in the area instantly, and two more from their injuries days later. He was filming the tank when they fired at him. The tape from his destroyed camera shows the shell coming at him.

Al-Aqsa TV cameraman Imad Ghanem, 21, was shot while he filmed a clash between Palestinian militants and Israeli soldiers on July 5, 2007. As he fell to the ground, he held up his camera to show he was unarmed, but a tape filmed by a colleague shows that he continued to be fired upon. He survived, but lost both legs.

On July 8, 2006, photojournalist Mohammed al Zanoun, 20, was shot by a helicopter as he documented Israeli attacks in Gaza City. As paramedics rushed to save him, he pleaded with them to save the camera, so that what he saw would be documented. He has sustained permanent damage to his head and chest.

Omer had recently reported, after Shana’s death, that “journalists have long been targeted in the region. Since September 2000, Israeli forces have killed nine journalists, and have wounded at least 170 others.”

The news of Mohammed’s attack started to spread on Friday, June 27, as friends and colleagues were in touch with him from his hospital bed.

Hans van Baalen, a member of the Party for Freedom and Democracy in the Dutch parliament, who had been personally responsible for arranging his exit from Gaza both for this European tour and his previous one, in June 2007, said, “I cannot understand it because Israel wanted him to travel through Israel. The Dutch embassy escorted him a year ago and this time, so they should have known he is decent journalist and should have treated him in a decent way, they should also treat other innocent Palestinians and other travelers decently. But this did not happen.”

He filed a protest with the Israeli government and asked that Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs Maxime Verhagen do the same, demanding “an investigation with public conclusions.”

“We will monitor this,” he said. “If we don’t like [the results of the investigation], we will speak out.”

Harry Kney-Tal, the Israeli ambassador to the Netherlands, assured them that if the claims were accurate, that this act was not according to official procedure. In response to a claim reported by Reuters that an Israeli official said that no rules were breached and that Omer had fallen somehow on his own, breaking his ribs, Kney-Tal said that was not the official response, and that there was a full investigation in progress and he expected results shortly.

However, on July 9, The Israeli Government Press Office released a statement on the incident, discrediting Omer. In it, they claimed that he and his baggage were searched, “due to suspicion that he had been in contact with hostile elements and had been asked by them to deliver items to Judea and Samaria.” (“Judea and Samaria” is a phrase commonly used by the Israeli right wing to dismiss the existence of the West Bank and to claim the area as exclusively Israeli), although he had been x-rayed and his baggage searched before the interrogation occurred. The press release went on to point out several points in Omer’s claim that they said contradicted their investigation, but it failed to cite the sources of their research, and often quoted him out of context.

When the Dutch Press Office became aware of the press release, they were surprised, said spokesman Robert Dekker, and they confronted Ambassador Kney-Tal about it. “He confirmed that this is not the official report, and that it is still expected in the next few days,” he said.

News of Omer’s attack spread quickly across the blogosphere and alternative news sources, as well as media outlets across the Middle East, but getting into the mainstream media in the West has been difficult. Concerned friends and colleagues deluged CNN, BBC and AP offices with requests that they cover the story, to no avail. When it was mentioned by the BBC and the New York Times, it was to say that Israel was denying the charges. But when Karin Laub, from the AP Jerusalem bureau published an article also disputing Omer’s claims, yet also failing to cite sources, it was the story that spread across American news websites. While she was interviewing him, Omer said later, she continually cut him off while he tried to give her his account of the incident, and although in her article she stated that strip-searching was not the norm in Israeli security procedure, when he was telling her about his, she said that that was normal.

More respected writers in the US have also had trouble getting the US press to pay attention.

“I've been following it closely, signing petitions, joining in protests,” said author and political activist Noam Chomsky. “I've brought it to the attention of the very few journalists with whom I still have contact. It will, I'm afraid, be very hard to get the US media to pay any attention, or even to believe the facts.”

Omer’s Martha Gellhorn Prize co-recipient Dahr Jamail has also faced difficulty in getting the news published.

“I'm doing all I can to get it out,” he said. “Nada in the US mainstream, which is no surprise. The only response I got was an email from someone at CBS asking to be removed from my dispatch list when I sent out the press release about his torture. Doing all I can....but of course we know that they will censor this the best they can.”

Omer’s editors at the Washington Report circulated a petition protesting the abuse, which they planned to hand-deliver in a meeting with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, garnered approximately 3600 signatures; Israeli civil rights group New Profile also circulated a petition calling for the just treatment of journalists, citing Omer as one of many recent abuses, which had an additional 1000, and British Member of Parliament Colin Breed brought a measure to the Parliament House Assembly, calling on an official criticism of Israel’s torture of Omer, and for Israel to compensate him for his medical costs.

But despite the efforts, Omer is not optimistic. They have committed one crime after another that they have not had to explain or pay for, he says, and he doesn’t believe his case will be any different.

In his article for the Guardian, John Pilger quoted former Dutch ambassador Jan Wijenberg, who said: "This is by no means an isolated incident, but part of a long-term strategy to demolish Palestinian social, economic and cultural life ... I am aware of the possibility that Mohammed Omer might be murdered by Israeli snipers or bomb attack in the near future."

Omer has no doubt that could happen, but is not letting it deter him.

"The Israelis were trying to punish me for the work I am doing and getting the message out," he told IPS from his hospital bed. "But they won't break me. As soon as I am better, and my limbs are working properly, I will be back on the beat and reporting what is happening. They have made me more determined than ever."

Mother Teresa once said, “I know God will not give me anything I can't handle. I just wish that He didn’t trust me so much.” It would not be surprising if the same thought crossed Mohammed Omer’s mind once in a while. With his astonishing rise from poverty and tragedy to success and acclaim in his short 24 years, he may very well be Gaza’s best hope. Not merely because of his success, but because of what it took to get it – diligence, hard work, and a daily show of courage that most will never be forced to display; but above all, a belief in his fellow human beings that keeps him going – through the imprisonment of his father, the murder and maiming of his brothers, the demolition of his home and the loss of everything he had, and the brutal attempts to silence him. Gaza’s best hope is that there is still hope.

Barely out of the hospital, still on a liquid diet and unable to breathe comfortably yet, Mohammed is already hard at work, writing again.

Gaza Protest - February 2008

In Anaheim, Hundreds Protest Gaza Siege

The Independent Monitor, February 2008

On Saturday, January 26, as 2000 Arabs and Jews made their pilgrimage across Israel to bring three tons of humanitarian relief to the Gaza Strip, their efforts were supported by dozens of protests in cities around the world, including London, New York, Paris, Glasgow, Washington, DC, Melbourne, Toronto, Montreal, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Anaheim, CA, as part of the End the Siege on the People of Gaza International Day of Action.

The protests were held in response to the Israeli siege in Gaza, which has killed 76 Palestinians and injured 293 – at least 80% of whom are civilians – since January 1; and to the blockade of the borders, which has prevented food, fuel, medicines and other humanitarian needs to pass through, causing long outages of electricity in the strip, affecting hospitals, sewage systems, and heating.

In Anaheim, the number of protesters grew quickly to over 500 in the first hour of the demonstration. Police surrounded and closely monitored the situation, as a counter-protest of Israel supporters gathered across the street. The two dozen demonstrators carried signs that read, “Israel Wants Peace;” “Stop the Qassam Rockets;” and “How many people have your pals car bombed this week?” Some waved large Israeli and American flags, the street dividing the two protests like the border separating the two worlds.

Asked why she was there to support Gaza, one Muslim American woman who asked to remain anonymous said, “I usually don’t like this type of protest, because it has a negative energy to it, especially since today we have counter-protesters across the street – we have two groups shouting at each other. I prefer to follow Mother Theresa and go to something positive. But sometimes it becomes necessary – when mothers are being clubbed for trying to break into Egypt to get food for their children. It’s wrong and our voices have to be heard.”

Some of the voices heard that day came from various activist groups, who had come together to hold the protest; others were demonstrators with microphones and bullhorns, leading chants for the crowd, whose voices were often drowned out by the sound of supportive car horns.

“We’re all Palestinian until we have a free Palestine,” said Sana Ibrahim of the Palestinian American Women Association. “But in this country, we are also Americans. It is our right and responsibility to speak out against injustices.”

Shakeel Syed, of the Islamic Shura Council, announced to the crowd: “I have 3 messages today – to George Bush: Shame on you for kneeling and still massacring people all over the Middle East; to Ehud Olmert: It doesn’t matter if it has been sixty years or six hundred years, we will continue to fight for our land; and to the leaders of the Middle East: Shame on you for dancing with Bush [during his January 2008 Middle East tour] while he murdered your people! May we continue to fight for our rights!”

Zahi Damuni, of Al-Awda, added, “There has been total silence since the siege, which started after Hamas was democratically elected. We have the right to elect who we want. Mahmoud Abbas must go!”

“We cannot wait while the occupiers give us crumbs off the table of justice,” announced Muna Coobtee, a representative of the ANSWER Coalition, one of the organizers of the Anaheim protest.

At the New York rally in front of the Israeli consulate, representatives of Neturei Karta International, an Orthodox Jewish, anti-Zionist organization stated in a speech to demonstrators, “We of Neturei Karta International have been in the forefront of the battle against Zionism for over a century. Our presence here today is to refute the base lie that the evil which is Zionism in some way represents the Jewish people. The reverse is true. We are saddened day in and day out at the terrible toll of death emanating from the Holy Land. Most of these deaths have been Palestinian. Not one of them would have occurred if Zionism would never have unleashed its evil energies upon the world.”

In Israel, the convoy brought to Erez Crossing was stopped at the gate by the army, despite Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s promise that the goods would be allowed to pass through. Representatives at Erez said they would be allowed in the following Monday. As of a week later, they remain stored in a nearby kibbutz.

Representatives of Gush Shalom – one of 26 Israeli peace groups to join the convoy – have said they “have prepared an appeal to the Supreme Court, but still hope to save the money it would cost and instead buy more water filters and add these to the convoy. But if all other means would fail we are prepared to go to court.”

(Note: the goods were allowed through the crossing about two weeks later - SP)

Obituary - Riad Hamad - May 2008

In Memoriam
Riad Hamad: 1952-2008

The Independent Monitor, May 2008

To answer the call to Palestine – to stand up against the injustice inflicted upon the region and to give your life to helping its people live a dignified, peaceful, prosperous life – is to accept heartbreak into your own life, often and in great magnitude. For some, the mission ends far too early, because the fight and the heartbreak are just too much to withstand any longer.

Riad Elsohl Hamad died on April 14, 2008, of an apparent suicide. He was reported missing by his family after he had gone out to pick up a prescription and never returned. His body was found floating in Lady Bird Lake in Austin, TX, on Wednesday, April 16. When his body was fished out of the lake, he was found to be gagged with duct tape, and his hands tied. Police investigators said the positioning of the tape were consistent with him “having done it to himself.”

Hamad was well known to many activists in Palestine and the United States, as well as amongst Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, and Lebanon. His work was tireless and for the benefit of the families suffering under the effects of occupation: poverty, sanctions, and a lack of health care and education. But mostly, a sense of imprisonment in this life that leads to despair and sometimes self-destructive behavior, especially amongst the children.

His fight was as much about stopping this result of occupation as it was about stopping the occupation itself. His organization, the Palestine Children’s Welfare Fund (PCWF), helped kids by sponsoring them and their families with monthly donations, microfinancing programs, food and medicine, and gifts during Muslim celebrations, when they would otherwise have nothing. He also helped the communities by donating books, computers and money to programs meant to enrich the children’s lives and education.

One such program is the Afaq Jadeeda (New Horizons) Cultural Center in central Gaza, which was started mainly to help kids have something to go to, to keep them in touch with their cultural roots and continued education, and to keep them from following a dangerous and increasingly common path: turning to violence. Education was of utmost important to him, as someone who had earned several degrees, and was a teacher by trade. He donated computers and used English school books so they could have classes for the kids who attended the center from the Nuseirat refugee camp in which it was founded. Since his passing, the English and Computer Center has been named in his honor.

But such involvement and activity for people who are generally regarded as terrorists by one’s government will often attract unwanted attention. After years of surveillance, Hamad had been expecting government intervention, and in February 2008, it came bounding through his door. On February 28, agents from the FBI and IRS raided his home in Austin, TX, “leaving with more than 40 boxes of tax returns, forms, documents, books, flags, cds etc. The special agent said that they have a probable cause for money laundering, wire fraud, bank fraud, etc and I think that all of it stems from more than 35 years of watching me,” he wrote in an e-mail to friends. The investigation failed to find any wrongdoing on the part of Hamad or PCWF, but he knew he continued to be watched. In the months before and after the raid, e-mails from friends would disappear from his computer, even as he was reading them.

As soon as the news of his death started to circulate, so did the rumors. He had been found gagged and bound, and had been under surveillance and investigation for years, so the conclusion that he had been murdered by government operatives came naturally to many who had known him. Also suspicious was the changing reports from the Austin police: when it was announced that an unidentified man had been found in Lady Bird Lake in that condition, murder was the first assumption; but when, the next day, the police announced that they had changed the conclusion to suicide, as the positioning of the duct tape looked like he could have done it himself, the blogosphere came alive with conspiracy theories. Adding to them was the report from Dr. Ibrahim Dremali, who had washed Hamad’s body at the Islamic Center of Greater Austin. He recounted on the Alex Jones Radio Show the condition of the body, and how he had no doubt that something suspicious had happened to him.

But sources close to the family maintain that this was suicide. He had been despondent for some time, had turned over accounts to friends, and had admitted to a few people that he could no longer support himself or pay his legal fees. They say there are other reasons as well, but they are being kept private. In regards to the duct tape, family and friends believe he did do it, to keep himself from changing his mind and swimming to safety, and that his body was probably in the condition it was in, because it had been in the lake for three days before he was found.

However, while he was not physically murdered by the government, there is no doubt that had he not endured years of harassment by government agencies and investigations which, although they never were able to indict him of wrongdoing, were nevertheless very costly to defend himself against, he would still be here.

Friends reacted to Hamad’s death with shock and grief. A message on the PCWF website read, “We cannot begin to express our sorrow at the death of this fine man who has helped so many and asked for so little. Many of you have written to tell us how much he has done and how much he will be missed. We are grateful for the outpouring of affection, and we want to assure everyone who has been a part of PCWF that its mission will continue.”


Dr. Mona El-Farra, a physician and peace activist who lives in Gaza and worked with Hamad and PCWF for many years, in conjunction with the Middle East Children’s Alliance (Gaza) wrote, “I am speechless, shocked and do not know what to write. How can I pass this piece of sad news to thousands of Palestinian children in Gaza that he supported and opened a window of hope and love to them and their families?”

One of his middle school students wrote:

they make him sound so unreal.
like he wasn't really an intellectual man.
a loving man.
like he didn't have thoughts and ideas, different interests and hobbies,
like he's just another headline.
how can they do that?
he is so much more. so much more than that.
he had a family, a story, a life.
he had pets, his cats, and of course, his camels.
he had a sense of humor.
he was an activist.
he wanted to help people, help children.
he was wrongly accused by the government.
multiple times
yet he did nothing wrong.
he's one of the greatest people i've knownand will ever know.
and, i regret not knowing him better. he will be missed.
dearly.

One of the attributes Hamad’s friends remember most was his sense of humor, which often came out in letters to the government in response to the harassment of his family and friends, which he had had to endure so much, he placed a sign on his yard warning his neighbors that he was under surveillance by the US government. One such letter was to then-Attorney General John Ashcroft: “My neighbor came up to me few weeks ago and informed me that an agent from the Federal Bureau of Investigation called him again regarding some information about my activities and other personal matters. (He) specifically told me that the agent inquired about the kind of car that I drive since your agents cannot find any records of car ownership for me in Travis county or the state of Texas. I was surprised to hear that from him since not even my closest friends know that I do not own a car or any property, fixed or mobile in the state of Texas or the United States. It was my choice at the age of forty to give up all material things and devote my life to something meaningful besides racking up dollars in my bank account. For your information I do not own a car, a house, a yacht and my bank accounts have less than one hundred dollars in them. Your agents should know the car that I drive since it has more than 20 bumper stickers in support of the people of Palestine, against the occupation of Palestine, against the war in Iraq and one that states "A village in Texas is missing its idiot," and I think he now lives on 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C.

“Now, you know that piece. Anything else you want to know. Oh yes, I forgot, my personal attire. I own five shirts. One light pink shirt that I have had for over three years. One dark pink shirt that I have had for over three years. I use both often to show my feminine side because I know how much you and the rest of this administration hate gays…”

Perhaps as a final statement of defiance to the government, or as a wink to his friends, when his body was found, he was wearing one of his pink shirts.

The Hamad family planned a memorial on May 10th in Austin, to celebrate his life.

Anna Baltzer, author of Witness in Palestine: A Jewish American Woman in the Occupied Territories, wrote: “The last time we met was in Austin, where he hosted my father and me for a luxurious dinner. It struck me, since I knew how frugal he was with himself — sleeping in a car rather than paying for a hotel that would detract from the money he could send to Palestinians — but he was always generous with others. He sent me away with a full belly and 1000 bumper stickers that he'd bought himself to support my work. Soon thereafter he sent me dozens of purses embroidered by Palestinian refugees. Each purse bore the name of a destroyed village. These weren't your typical "Free Palestine" messages; Riad was encouraging the embroiderers to celebrate their history and connection to their villages — a kind of nonviolent resistance to Israel's policies of ongoing ethnic cleansing and denial of the inalienable Right of Return. May you finally find the peace you harvested for so long, Riad.”

In her blog post in his memory, Dr. El-Farra added: “Riad... you will stay alive inside all of us who have known you and share the same vision, working hard to change the world and give the less privileged a chance for a dignified life. Your kindness, your big heart, your strong will and your determination will stay alive in us. We will never surrender to oppression, injustice and occupation. We will never give up our right of return. And one day peace and justice will prevail.”

Setting Sail to Gaza - April 2008

Volunteers Prepare to Set Sail to Gaza
The Independent Monitor, April 2008

In August 2008, 70-100 people from all over the world and from all ages and walks of life will set sail on the Mediterranean Sea. But this is no summer vacation outing; it’s a mission of mercy. Led by activist Greta Berlin, the volunteers will sail the 20-hour journey from Cyprus to Gaza to bring humanitarian and medical aid to Palestinians.

“We’re going to go between Cyprus and Gaza as much as we can,” says Berlin. “We have 4 doctors on board, and some want to stay and work at the clinics and hospitals. Others will stay to help the fishermen and schools.”

This is not their first attempt to make this journey: “We were supposed to go last summer, and then Hamas took over and then all our support was withdrawn. Within two days we lost all our funding, because they didn’t want to be affiliated with Hamas, and thought their support would mean they were.”

Their intent is to set up a ferry service between Cyprus and Gaza, and to go between the two as much as they can, to bring Palestinians what they need and bring more Europeans in to help. But part of why they’re doing it is because Israel says they don’t occupy Gaza anymore, and they want to challenge that.

“So we don’t need [their] permission to come then,” she says. “We have permission from several Palestinian NGOs. We are not going through Israeli or Egyptian waters. We are going straight from international waters to the Port of Gaza. We are challenging Israel to stop us. They have no right to stop us in international waters, and we’re not going to let them board us if they try.”

They are, however, considering what Israel might do.

“We have had a committee for the past year, that does nothing but work on contingencies. Other organizations, like Greenpeace, have been very helpful with it – bringing up problems and solutions we wouldn’t think of.”

They believe they are more likely to use sabotage, like planting bombs or arms on their boats, than an outward attack at sea, so they will have people with them who are solely there to inspect volunteers, equipment and vessels before anyone boards.

Tentative date to set sail is August 5. They want to sail sometime between Aug. 1-21, because that is when Europe is on vacation, there will be a lot of boats on the Mediterranean, and they may be able to get more boats to join them. Also, the weather is more permitting then, than it will be a couple of months later.

“I want it to look like the storm on Normandy!” she says.

The volunteers range in age from 20-85 and come from 13 different countries, including Israel and Palestine, with two survivors of Nakba and the Holocaust. They will also carry 10-12 journalists and documentarians from around the world. They currently have 70 volunteers on the list, most of whom are veterans of human rights activism and have been there before. But a lot will depend on how many boats they can get and how many people the boats can hold. Money is another issue.

“We’ve got about $70,000 raised but we need about $250,000. People can donate through the website (http://www.freegaza.org), and it is set up as a nonprofit organization now, so the donations are a tax write-off.”

Most of the donations have come from human rights grants, which is encouraging to her.

“By receiving these grants, not only are we recognized as being something worthwhile to do, we’re recognized as being credible.

“The majority of the money we’ve gotten has been from the non-Arab community,” she adds. “We think it’s mostly because they don’t really know we’re doing it. Once they do, we think they’ll be very helpful.”

Berlin, who was shot in the leg by Israeli soldiers in 2003, while trying to tear down the apartheid wall near Jenin with the International Solidarity Movement, is not deterred by the crises she knows she could face on this mission.

“People don’t understand that once you feel it, the calling to Palestine doesn’t go away. It haunts you and no circumstance is scary enough to keep you away,” she explains. “I’d rather die in Gaza, doing something that’s important to me, than safe at home in front of my TV, watching Law & Order.”

Op-Ed - November 2007

OCCUPATION FAR MORE THAN JUST A 'CONFLICT'
South Florida Sun-Sentinel - Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
November 27, 2007

What's happening between Israel and Palestine is most often, and most erroneously, referred to as a conflict.

What's erroneous about the use of this term is that it implies two parties on equal footing who disagree with each other. That there is disagreement is correct. But it is not only that Israel wants to be recognized as a state and Palestine disagrees; it's that Palestinians believe they should be free to live their lives without occupation, sanctions, forced poverty and starvation, lack of health care, and constant fear of snipers and bombings... and Israel disagrees. In its silence and blind eye toward the actions of Israel, so, apparently, does the rest of the world.

Where the effects of the occupation are most concentrated is in the region's hospitals, which are struggling to support and heal their patients. At Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, doctors have had to modify the treatment of their patients in order to give them any treatment at all, because of the depletion of drugs and malfunctioning equipment. They are so low on anesthesia, they recently had to cancel all surgeries, except for the most critical - and even those will not be possible for long.

Their 195 kidney patients have had to go from three dialysis treatments a week to two, because, of the 32 dialysis machines they have, only 25 work. The others need spare parts or to be replaced altogether. Compounding the problem is that they don't have the drugs they need to treat the patients for anemia in between visits, so even the dialysis they are able to get cannot do enough for them.

"We have to give the patients less treatment, which is a medical mistake, but we have no alternative," Dr. Medhat Abbas, general director of crisis management at Gaza's Ministry of Health, told me. "We have 13 new pieces of equipment and the spare parts we need waiting at the border, but the Israelis won't let them pass through."

Passage to Israel has been an ongoing struggle in Gaza's health crisis. Gaza does not have the money to have fully functioning hospitals and clinics and often needs to send its most dire cases abroad for treatment and surgeries.

Getting the permission, however, is an uphill battle - one often subject to costly fees the patients' families cannot afford; lengthy waiting times for approvals; the chance that even if they are allowed in for one or two treatments, they may not be allowed back for the rest; and the risk of being stuck at a closed border upon their return. If the patient is terminally ill, they are often classified as a security risk and not allowed into Israel at all because, they are told, if the patient has nothing to live for, they can't be sure they are not a suicide bomber. Better to leave them in Gaza to die, they tell them, than to take that risk.

But every day of life in Gaza is a risk. The snipers, the bombings from the F-16s and the infighting between family clans and political factions are only part of it, albeit a dangerous and tragic part of it. There is more to the occupation than the violence. There is what happens in the silence: constant fear, poverty, starvation, demoralized citizens who turn on each other, and forced lack of electricity and water, which can lead to contamination and disease. And the worst side effect of silence: implied consent.

The Gazan spirit is strong, and its citizens take it upon themselves to improve their lives, even with the few resources they have. Microfinancing programs have helped many refugees create work for themselves, ultimately bringing in more of an income than had been previously possible for them, and more importantly, restoring their dignity. Schools and humanitarian programs are also introducing creative outlets for the children, so they will find a way to act out that is productive and non-violent.

It would take so little to make such a marked difference for them. But the first difference that needs to be made is to pay attention and acknowledge what is really happening there.

"It is genocide," said Abbas. "What else do you call it when they attack you to force you out, and then forbid you to leave?"

And what, then, do you call it, when the rest of us stand by as it happens ... and do nothing?

Sarah Price is a freelance journalist based in Los Angeles. She was in Gaza in October.

Building Hope from Rubble - December 2007

Building Hope from Rubble

ElectronicIntifada.net
Sarah Price writing from occupied Gaza Strip
Live from Palestine, 18 December 2007

Today's youth are tomorrow's leaders. They don't make the decisions today but will be shaped by ours and will in their turn shape successor generations. Now is our moment to influence not just the present but also the future. We won't have a second chance. It is an urgent and awesome responsibility with the most profound and far-reaching consequences.

- John Ging, director of United Nations Relief and Works Agency's (UNRWA) Gaza field office, to British parliament members, Nov. 2007

Three young boys from Nuseirat refugee camp say they consider Afaq Jadeeda Center their second home.

In the dirty streets of the Nuseirat refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, the sparse fruit stands carry only rotten fruit, because it is all the market's vendors can afford to sell, and all the refugees can afford to buy.

"It will still be gone in an hour," says Dr. Mona El-Farra, "because they have to eat something."

Of Gaza's 1.5 million residents more than 60 percent are under 18. The effects of malnutrition are seen not only in the kids' hunger, but also in their brain function. They are unable to focus in school, and have become violent. Dr. El-Farra's organization, the Middle East Children's Alliance (Gaza), is the focal point of a network of organizations trying to help Gaza's children. They give food parcels to the families, which are aimed at the nutritional needs of the kids, and try to teach the parents how to feed them better.

"The lack [of food] here is all political, not from famine or drought," says Dr. El-Farra. "The kids are not hopeful. There is no safety or recreation. It's bad for everyone, but it is most profound when the kids are complaining and have no hope."

Humanitarian groups in Gaza are also trying to feed another hunger: keeping the Palestinian culture alive through teaching traditional dancing, music, and art. The Afaq Jadeeda (New Horizons) Center in Nuseirat, established in 1996, provides a creative outlet for more than 50 children daily, and holds summer and winter camps. The center also has a library, a stage for plays, a football team and a growing computer lab, and is in the process of funding English classes for kids ages 14-18. $50,000 would give them what they need for a fully functioning center, but they do what they can with what they have, as they work on bringing in more donations and money.

"The average family in Gaza has seven people," says Afaq Jadeeda vice president and schoolteacher Talal Abu Shawish. "In the refugee camps, families are trying to build up their own areas. That's why it is important to have the cultural centers: to bring the kids off the streets into something more positive."

But the problems are not only on the streets now; they are also in the schools.

"It's not easy for teachers to control the kids," says Abu Shawish. "There is violence at school -- the kids toward each other -- because of the bloody scenes they constantly see."



From left, Talal Abu Shawish, Dr. Mona El-Farra, and Hany El Sharif, who started with the association as a child and now volunteers as an activities guide for the kids. The sign reads "Palestine" in Arabic.

To help the kids channel their anger into a more positive outlet, many of the schools have formed human rights and tolerance committees with elected parliaments made up of students and teachers. The committee at Abu Shawish's school comprises eight teachers and 33 students and they concentrate on how to solve human rights issues with nonviolence. During their meetings, they define what the needs are at school and hold a workshop to come up with solutions, focusing on one human right per week. Students use scientific steps and written reports to present their ideas.

Most recently, he invited the school's human rights team to Afaq Jadeeda, where they held a workshop to discuss how the association could help the students. What resulted, with help from Afaq and the Middle East Children's Alliance headquarters in California, was a water purification system for the school that will provide healthy drinking water for 2,000 students. It is expected to be installed and functional by early December.

"The schools only have them for four hours a day, and the rest of the time they are exposed to their bloody society," says Abu Shawish. "The parents should continue this at home, so we try to coordinate with them, and we bring the parents into the meetings, too, once a month."

To help bring about this successful result, they organize trips to centers for human rights in the Gaza Strip. They also visit parliaments at other schools to discuss issues with them. He talks to other teachers about working human rights issues into their classes, and UNRWA visits him to see his plans.

The committee work is voluntary for him, he says, but necessary. These efforts are important, to combat the psychological effects of the occupation: "The Israelis mean to oppress the students. They form committees to make recommendations to the politicians on how to keep the society down, starting with the kids."

But a shortage of psychological support makes it difficult to fight the damage that is being done.

"At each school, there is one counselor -- a psychologist," he points out. "1,000 students and only one counselor."

So, again, he brings the community together to help, forming committees of teachers who have courses in guidance through UNRWA, and the committee coordinates with the counselor. They penalize problematic students and try to guide them to change their behavior. When they do, they give them awards. He also makes a list of kids who are emotionally and psychologically unhealthy and distributes it to the teachers and asks them to treat them nicer.

The organization tries to bring these practices to other areas of the society, so the nonviolent mindset is one they can carry with them through life: "We need to coordinate with other organizations to continue these practices, so they don't leave and forget what we taught them."

Sarah Price is a freelance journalist based in Los Angeles. She visited Gaza in October 2007, and has written for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel and KNBC Los Angeles, and has appeared on Lighthouse TV in Los Angeles, discussing the humanitarian crises in Gaza. All images by Sarah Price.