Mohammed Omar wins the the Ozzietzky-prize - Day of the imprisoned writer
Norwegian PENs "Ossietzky-prize" for "outstanding achievements within the field of free expression" will be awarded Palestinian journalist Mohammed Omer during the commemoration of the Day of the Imprisoned Writer. The prize will be awarded at an evening event at the House of Literature in Oslo on 16. November. Norwegian PEN will also award its first honorary prize to its former president, translator Kjell Olaf Jensen. During this event, the newly arrived "writer of refuge" in the city of Oslo, Kenyan writer Philo Ikonya, will read from her own texts.
The program for the event also includes a short lecture by Mohammed Omer, speeches to the prize recipients by editor Alf van der Hagen (Omer) and Norwegian PEN president Anders Heger (Jensen), as well as an account covering the five writers to be focused on during this commemo-ration, by the chair of the Writers in Prison Committee of Norwegian PEN, Trine Kleven.
Mohammed Omer (25) is a Palestinian journalist who has written for the Norwegian weekly "Morgenbladet" and worked for the "Norwegian People´s Aid" in Gaza. He also writes for international media including the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, Electronic Intifada, The Nation, and Inter Press Service. In 2008, Omer was awarded the 2007 Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism. In the award citation, Omer was honored as "the voice of the voiceless" and his reports were described as a "humane record of the injustice imposed on a community forgotten by much of the world."
While traveling back from the prize ceremony in London to the Gaza Strip, Omer reported that he was stripped to his underwear, humiliated and beaten by Israeli soldiers. He was subsequently hospitalized upon his return to Gaza, where it was discovered that Omer had sustained several broken ribs and various bodily contusions as a result of the ordeal. He is now undergoing medical treatment in the Netherlands.
Prior to the price ceremony in Oslo, Omer has been on a tour of the U.S., lecturing about his experiences and the situation in Gaza at such high-ranking universities as Harvard and MIT.
Kjell Olaf Jensen (63) is a translator and critic and former president of Norwegian PEN for more than ten years. For almost two decades he has been at the forefront in the defence of the free word, both in the media and as a lecturer - in dialogue with the authorities and cooperating with other organizations, local and international. During this period he also contributed effectively to the renewal of International PEN. Jensen has also been member of the boards of the Norwegian Association of Literary Translators and Amnesty International Norway.
Philo Ikonya is an author, human rights activist and President of Kenyan PEN. She was recently arrested and subsequently released for taking part in a peaceful protest about hyperinflation. Philo Ikonya has been treathened and harassed and can no longer live and work in her home country. She is now a "cities of asylum"-writer in Oslo.
Oslo, 12. November 2009. For further information, please call + 47 926 88 023.
October 09
27 October
Mohammed will be on tour in the US.
November 6th at Cambridge at Harvard University 6-7.30 Emerson Hall 305. Please view flyer.[pdf]
Livestreaming Omer's talk at the Palestine Center. See below:
Nov. 6 Friday 6:00 pm to 7:30 pm Emerson Hall 305 Harvard University (Harvard Yard), Cambridge, MA. For more information see <www.gazafreedommarch.org>
Nov. 8 Sunday Pot Luck Brunch (Dunster Dorm) with Harvard students, 1-2 p.m.
4-6 pm, Watertown peace group
St. John’s United Methodist Church, 80 Mt. Auburn St. Watertown
For more information see: <www.justicewithpeace.org/node/701>
Nov. 9 Monday Emerson College to be confirmed
Northeastern University School of Law, 4-5:30 p.m., Dockser 240
Nov 10, 11 Washington, DC interviews (Al-Jazeera English TV to be confirmed)
Nov. 11 6-8 p.m. newest Busboys and Poets, Cullen Room 5th and K, NW Washington, DC 20001 (202) 789-BBAP (2227)
Nov. 12 Columbia University, 7:00-8:30 pm, Hamilton Hall, Room 603 <Facebook Link>
“Democracy Now!” interview to be confirmed
Nov. 13 Rutgers University, Prof. Toby Jones class 12:30-2:00, in the big lecture hall in Hickman Hall on the Douglass campus. Visitors welcomed
8 October
Schoolchildren are stuck for basics as Israel blocks supplies
As the 456,000 schoolchildren in the Gaza Strip start their academic year, they face chronic shortages of everything from paper, textbooks and ink cartridges to school uniforms, school bags and computers, the result of the Israeli blockade. At the same time, severely overcrowded classrooms are having to accommodate students whose schools were destroyed or damaged in the last siege, early this year.
The only supplies on the market are smuggled in through tunnels from Egypt. Yet even when materials are available, many cannot afford them: 80 per cent of Gaza's 1.5 million people live below the poverty line. The ministry of education has instructed teachers not to expect pupils to have "too many textbooks", but Ahmed Abdelhameed, who has eight school-age children, says that "teachers still ask for the full quota of school supplies, as if we were living in Sweden".
"I can no longer understand why we need to suffer, why textbooks and pencils are not allowed," he says. "Does Israel see these as threatening weapons, too?"
Shared stationery
The paper available is of poor quality. Abdelhameed says one of his daughters is just starting school and he has bought smuggled notebooks for her. But "when she uses an eraser, the paper tears", he says. "This makes a mess of the next page, too." With such quality problems, supplies run out fast, which raises the cost. "What gets through is never enough," he explains. "I will have to continue next week to roam around the Gaza Strip looking for stationery and school bags for the kids.
"I am lucky enough to be able to afford some notebooks, but I hear stories from my daughter about kids in her class having to use pieces of palm leaves as rollers and garbage bags as school bags."
A maths teacher from Khan Younis says that "some of the students share stationery. Others use old notebooks."
The deputy director of the chamber of commerce, Mahmoud al-Yazji, says Gaza faces a grave problem in getting supplies to students. He estimates that 90 per cent of the student population is affected. "Israel is deliberately aiming not to allow stationery into the Gaza Strip," he says. "Occupation forces blocked 1,750 containers of school supplies and stationery worth US$150m."
Merchants in the occupied territory have ordered tens of thousands of school bags from foreign suppliers, but Israel is still blocking all imports. Opening the Israeli-controlled crossings to Gaza, he points out, is the way to secure supplies for the students.
Effects of Israeli assault
A higher education spokesman, Khalid Radi, is adamant that his department has instructed teachers not to pressure students, and in the meantime is in contact with humanitarian groups from the Arab world and beyond to find ways of getting stationery into Gaza. But "all [the] latest attempts from human rights groups have failed", he says. "It makes me wonder if these pupils holding a pencil are viewed as more dangerous than if they were holding a rocket."
In the last assault on Gaza, 18 schools were destroyed and at least 280 damaged. Many are still in need of building materials to complete repairs, say UN sources. Radi says the shortage of materials is affecting students badly. "The weather is getting colder. We don't have replacements for damaged school windows, and students will suffer the effects of the last assault on Gaza throughout the coming year, with destruction in their heads," he says. The ministry of education reports that classes often have to squeeze in up to 55 students.
"The blockade has caused untold suffering to children in Gaza," says Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the occupied Palestinian territories. Dr Fadel Abu Hien, a professor of psychology at al-Aqsa University, says many students stop attending classes due to shortages of books, pens and paper. "Israel is using the control over Gaza's borders to cause psychological destruction among students who want to study and learn."
No relief for refugees
Human rights groups have criticised Israel's restrictions on the Gaza Strip and the limits placed on supplies. Only basic food and rudimentary materials are allowed through. The groups describe these as "inadequate for the needs of over 1.5 million people". UN officials say that instruments and equipment for school science laboratories are also in short supply. The humanitarian co-ordinator representing UN aid agencies in the occupied Palestinian territory (OPT), and the Association of International Development Agencies (Aida), represented by at least 25 NGOs, have demanded full and unfettered access into and out of Gaza in particular to restore the education system.
Maxwell Gaylard, of the UN Special Co-ordinator Office for the Middle East Peace Process (UNSCO), concedes that Gaza needs more school supplies, despite the efforts of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) to bring in basic school stationery. Gaylard says UNSCO has repeatedly asked the government of Israel urgently to facilitate entry of construction materials and schools supplies in the coming weeks, It has also requested that students, teachers and trainers be allowed to move freely in and out of Gaza so that education can progress. Asked if the information about the shortage of essential materials is reaching the higher levels of the Israeli government and the UN, he says: "Yes, but it seems that Israel has a different definition of humanitarian needs from the definition that we use at UN."
The shortage of supplies is just another example of the frustration imposed on Palestinians under Israeli occupation.
To mark two years of the closure Israel has imposed on the Gaza Strip, a new online film was released last Thursday by eight human rights organizations in Israel. During the past two years, Israel has tightened the closure of the Gaza Strip, almost completely preventing passage of goods and people to and from the Strip. Human rights organizations in Israel: It is up to Israel to lift the closure on the Gaza Strip for the betterment of both sides. Watch the film below or at http://www.gisha.org/2years
June 1st
European Aid Workers on Hunger Strike at Rafah Border
Five British, three Belgians and one Greek aid and medical workers have gone on hunger strike at the Rafah border crossing to protest Egypt's decision not to allow them into the Gaza Strip to provide medical help to a besieged Palestine.
"We have been waiting here for 52 days. We keep getting refused entry by the Egyptian authorities" said Dr. Sonia Robbins, a British reconstructive surgeon who works with Mercy Malaysia, a non-profit organization that helps provide medical relief to vulnerable communities around the world.
According to Robbins, she and others spent the last night outside the gate of the Rafah border. Apparently the British, Belgium and Greek embassies are aware of their presence “but we still have not seen any development,” she stated. “Sitting here wasn’t enough so we have decided we would go on a hunger strike.”
This mission, according to Dr. Robbins is not aimed to help any particular political party in Gaza; they merely want to assist in badly needed surgeries. They also want to establish a cardiac surgery unit at Al Shifa hospital located in Gaza City. Training medical students and junior doctors in Gaza’s universities and hospitals is also on their agenda.
Many human rights organizations describe the health situation in Gaza as dire. The equipment and medicine that Israel allows through from countries who have donated it is not adequate for the needs of the 1.5 million besieged Palestinians in Gaza.
"There is a very urgent need for experienced doctors to get into Gaza to help us in operation rooms," said Dr. Iyas Daqqa, doctor at urology department at Shifa hospital, Gaza's main hospital. "There are several cases that are complicated and the number of people who need medical treatment is increasing especially after the last Israeli attack on Gaza" he added.
What is preventing these humanitarians from doing what is in their hearts to do? Apparently officials in high places are aware these volunteers are being prevented from providing badly needed medical services. In an interview with a spokesperson with the British Foreign and Communication office in London stated: "we confirm we are in regular contact with several British nationals at the crossing who have contacted us for assistance with crossing into Gaza."
No comments have been made by the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, however, a a senior security official in Cairo who prefers not to reveal his name disclosed, "Opening the Rafah border will be possible only if we have Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas's forces in the crossing. For this, there should be Palestinian reconciliation between both main parties Fatah and Hamas."
Since the winning of the Palestinian elections by Hamas in 2006, the border crossing, managed by Egypt since EU observers have left, has been mostly closed. Egyptian officials are not averse to reopening the Rafah border, but only under the control of Mahmoud Abbas. This presents a problem: Abbas’ term as president ended last January. Since then there has been no election. Bringing Abbas into the mix has stirred controversy both within Gaza and internationally.
While the higher ups play politics, human beings, including children are dying. Palestinian medical sources revealed this week that a one year old infant died at a local hospital owing to several complications including pneumonia. His transfer to a hospital outside the Gaza strip was not possible due to the ongoing Israeli siege.
"The colleagues waiting on the border should not be doing nothing, they should come and be in operation rooms with us," said Daqqa, a doctor who has donated equipment badly needed but is untrained to use it. He has a patient with kidney stones in need of PCNL surgery but he can’t operate the equipment.
People suffer and die and doctors are hindered from doing the right thing; save lives. One of these doctors is Omar Mangoush, a cardiac surgeon from the London based Hammersmith hospital. He arrived May 4 and he is still waiting for entry. “We are on a hunger strike until they let us through,” he said. “We’ll stay until they let us in.
Mangoush had been told by the British embassy that it had received a letter from the Egyptian Foreign Ministry informing it that the request for entry had been postponed. The spokesperson for the British embassy further stated that they had made requests at high levels to allow the PIMA group entry. PIMA, Palestine International Medical Aid, is based in Britain. It is part of this team seeking to help bring some relief to this war-torn part of the world.
Others in the group seeking entry into Gaza belong to the British-based Palestine International Medical Aid (PIMA). "It is beyond comprehension that the Egyptian authorities do not allow them entry despite all the talk about humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza," PIMA director Ahmed Almari wrote on the group's website.
Dr. Robbins: "Our aim is to reduce the number of patients getting out of Gaza by helping them inside Gaza" Gaza relies on daily supplies of international aid, which is delivered via Israel and subject to Israeli approval. Many Palestinians still raise the questions, what good is donated equipment if those who volunteer to train the doctors and technicians how to use it are not allowed to enter the country?
Dr. Daqqa puts forth the question to the international community, “How many patients should die in Gaza before a decision is taken to open the border?"
Meanwhile, Egyptian authorities have allowed 66 Europeans carrying aid to the Palestinians in Gaza, according to Egyptian sources.
May 30th
If Only They Could See
AMSTERDAM, Apr 28 (IPS) - Mohammed Al-Sheikh Yousef could save his eyesight if only he could cross the border out of Gaza. He was denied a permit by Israel; he got one from Egypt, but not for someone to accompany him. And he can't go on his own because he cannot see very well.
"If Mohammed does not get out of Gaza for medical treatment within the next 14 days, he may totally lose his eyesight and be blind for life," Dr. Mawia Hasaneen, head of the ambulance and emergency service for Gaza hospitals told IPS in a telephone interview.
"In the past few weeks we have received 150 appeals from people in Gaza who are in need of urgent medical care," says Ran Yaron from Physicians for Human Rights, a human rights group in Israel that campaigns on behalf of Palestinian patients to obtain exit permits for healthcare.
"We submitted 99 applications to the Israeli army on behalf of the patients, but only 15 cases were approved," Yaron told IPS. "Israel as the occupying power has primary responsibility for the health of the civilians of Gaza because it controls the crossings. It should not use the patients as a political tool."
The emergency staff often stand by helpless spectators to suffering. "I just received a call from the mother of a four-year-old child from Jabalyia refugee camp in the north, her son has congestive heart failure and respiratory distress," said Dr. Hasaneen. "As an official I can't stand watch her child dying simply because medical treatment is not available in Gaza and the borders are closed." But he has no option but to do just that.
The Al-Mezan Centre for Human Rights based in Gaza says that at least 41 Gazans died last year of causes that can be attributed to the collapse of the medical referral process. Currently, it says the condition of hundreds of Gazans is deteriorating rapidly.
For Gazans, what happens at the border crossings can make the difference between life and death. Medicines for many easily treated diseases sit across the Rafah crossing with Egypt or the Erez crossing into Israel. Patients cannot get across, and most medicines are not allowed in.
Egypt says it can only reopen the border fully with the co-operation of the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority - which has no control over Gaza. Meanwhile at least 750 patients in urgent need of treatment outside Gaza are unable to leave, according to medical sources in Gaza.
The Rafah crossing has been blocked for much of the time since Hamas took full control of Gaza in June 2007, after winning elections in January 2006. In the interim it had shared rule with the Fatah party which has its government entrenched in the West Bank.
Egypt recently opened the crossing for a few days. Ihab Al-Ghousin from the de facto Palestinian Ministry of Interior said that was "not long enough to allow people to get out and come back in." Some patients from Gaza made it across to hospitals in Egypt, but could not return.
Last week, dozens of Palestinian patients in urgent need of medical treatment made it somehow to the Rafah crossing along with family members to stage a demonstration. They waved flags and held banners saying 'We call on Egypt to save our lives' and 'We call on all parties to exclude the Rafah crossing from political disputes'.
Under a U.S.-brokered deal in 2005, the Fatah-led Palestinian National Authority was given charge of operating the Gaza crossing under EU supervision. Egypt and the EU refuse to deal with the democratically elected Hamas government.
Israel refuses to communicate with the Palestinian Medical Committee set up by the Hamas-led Ministry of Health in Gaza. It wants to negotiate with a committee of the Ramallah-based Fatah government led by Mahmoud Abbas.
"The international community should demand from Israel that more coordination mechanisms are set up in order to enable Palestinian patients to get access to healthcare outside of the Gaza Strip," says Yaron.
