Award winning journalist beaten and harassed

Yesterday it became very clear why no news are good news. Whenever news arrived they were everything but good. The most shocking one was reading about Mohammed Omer being beaten and harassed at the Allenby bridge checkpoint returning from Europe to Gaza a few days ago.

Mohammed Omer is quite an impressive guy, 24 years old and has worked as an independent journalist since he was 17. He writes for Washington Report, among others. He was just awarded one of the most prestigious awards for war correspondence and he is the first non-Ango-Saxon person to get it. He managed to get out of Gaza with the help of the Dutch embassy, so he could collect the award in the UK but also do a small speaking tour, in Sweden, and other countries. He spoke in the Swedish parliament, as well as in a few other places.

When he got back to Palestine last week, from Jordan, the border police strip searched him interrogated him for several hours. When he left custody he was taken straight to hospital, since he was in quite a bad shape. Apparently he had a few broken ribs and besides being dragged on the floor completely naked in front of other people he had also vomited and fainted.

The Dutch diplomates took him straight to a hospital after he was released and he was interviewed about his injuries. The border polices replied that he was searched because they suspected that he had been in contact with "hostile elements" while abroad, and concerning the injuries, he got that from losing his balance and falling on the floor. An internal investigation will take place, according to them.

How the hell do you vomit and break ribs from losing your balance?

The only positive thing I can see in all this, is that Mohammed has enough foreign friends that this will get at least some attention abroad.

(Writing this in English since I'm in Jerusalem and don't have a Swedish keyboard.)