| ACTION ALERT May 27, 2008 |
Contact: communications@wrmea.com |
The 2008 Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism has been awarded to Washington Report correspondent Mohammed Omer, author of our monthly feature, “Gaza on the Ground.” He shares the prestigious award with independent American journalist Dahr Jamail, who for several years has been filing unembedded reports from Iraq (and whose articles have also appeared in the Washington Report). As the award announcement explained, “Working alone in extremely difficult and often dangerous circumstances, they have reported unpalatable truths validated by powerful facts that expose establishment propaganda, or ‘official drivel,’ as Martha Gellhorn called it.”
Gellhorn, regarded as one of the most distinguished journalists of the 20th century, traveled the globe and often reported from deep within zones of conflict. The Gellhorn Prize committee—Alexander Matthews, James Fox, Cynthia Kee, John Hatt, Jeremy Harding and John Pilger—chose Omer and Jamail from a record number of entries from the British press and abroad.
Mohammed Omer reports on life in the besieged Gaza Strip, where he maintains the web site Rafah Today, www.rafahtoday.org. A resident of Gaza’s Rafah refugee camp near the border with Egypt, he and his family have been affected by Israeli policies and current events every bit as much as the people about whom he reports. But as he explained in his recent article An Award for the Voiceless in Gaza, “My ambition was to get the truth out, not as pro-Palestinian or anti-Israeli, but as an independent voice and witness.”
In 2006 the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs sponsored a nationwide
tour by Omer. He hopes to be able to leave Gaza this week for speaking engagements
in Scandinavia, Greece and the Netherlands—and to receive the Gellhorn Prize
at the June 16 awards ceremony in London. He previously was named the first recipient
of the New America Media’s Best Youth Voice award. 
In a Typical
Week in Gaza, No News is God News, July 2008, page 10
Dead in the Water: Israel’s Fuel Blockade of Gaza, July 2008, page 18.
Life and Death
at Gaza’s Al Shifa Hospital: A Tale of Two Mothers and Their Sons, May/June 2008, pages 10-11.
60 Years and
Counting, May/June 2008, pages 30-33.
Getting Around
in Gaza: A Testament to The Mother of Invention, April 2008, pages 10-11.
Strawberry Fields—Forever?,
April 2008, pages 19-20
A Father Desperate to Save His Son’s Life Asks Only for a Bit of Mercy, March 2008, page 24.
From Annapolis to Tel Aviv: Preaching, But Not Reaching, Peace, March 2008, pages 8-9.
Gaza’s Christian Community—Serenity, Solidarity and Soulfulness, January-February, 2008, pages 16-17.
"Olmert, I Want My Daddy!", January-February 2008, pages 30-31.
Ramallah Government Pays Gaza’s Civil Servants—If They Promise Not to Work, December 2007, pages 14,17.
“I Want to Live”: Israeli Authorities Deny Dying Young Cancer Patient Access to Care, December 2007, page 15.
Coming to Terms With Reality: Gaza’s Intellectuals Contemplate the Future, November 2007, pages 12-13.
Shalom, Doc—Hang Ten!, November 2008, pages 20-21
Catastrophe at Rafah Crossing: More Than 35 Dead—and Counting, September/October 2007, pages 10-11.
Your Presence Is Requested, Mr. Omer, September/October 2007, pages 38-39.
For a Few Precious Hours, Gazans Try to Live a Normal Life, August 2007, pages 18, 33.
The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, PO Box 53062, Washington DC 20009. Phone: (202) 939-6050, Fax: (202) 265-4574, Toll Free: (800) 368-5788, www.wrmea.com Published by the American Educational Trust, a non-profit foundation incorporated in Washington, DC to provide the American public with balanced and accurate information concerning U.S. relations with Middle Eastern states. Material from the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs may be printed with out charge with attribution to the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs.