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GUEST: Mohammed Omer, correspondent for the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs Gaza

The United Nations and its partners this week launched their largest ever appeal for emergency aid to the occupied Palestinian territory. More than $453 million is needed after Israel cut off tax and customs funds to the Palestinian Authority when Hamas won elections earlier this year. According to the UN, two-thirds of Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip are now living in poverty. Meanwhile, a shaky truce continues between Palestinians in the Gaza strip and the Israeli government. Under the truce, Israel is supposed to halt offensive operations in Gaza while Palestinian groups are to suspend cross-border rocket launches and arms smuggling. But Israeli troops wounded two Palestinians who approached the Gaza border wall on Thursday, the second such shooting this week. And Palestinian militants have continued sporadic rocket fire into Israel that have caused no casualties. The Middle East Conflict is central to US interests, says the report by the Iraq Study Group released this week. According to the report, US goals in the Middle East cannot be achieved “unless the United States deals directly with the Arab-Israeli conflict.” It urges “renewed and sustained commitment by the United States on all fronts: Lebanon, Syria….and a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine.” The report comes on the heels of the publication of former US president Jimmy Carter’s book, “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid.”

Mohammed Omer will discuss recent events in Gaza from the perspective of a Palestinian journalist, complete with photos and videos.

Dec. 9th @ 4pm
Sponsored by Women in Black & American Friends Service Committee
Glendale Library
222 E. Harvard St., Los Angeles 91205
For more info: womeninblackla@gmail.com or WShami@afsc.org

For more info about the entire speaking tour email communications@wrmea.com

Read Mohammed Omer’s blog at www.rafahtoday.org.

About Mohammed Omer

Washington Report on Middle East Affairs Gaza correspondent Mohammed Omer will be embarking on his first U.S. speaking tour on Nov. 26. In the 15-city tour, sponsored by the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, Omer will provide eyewitness accounts of the deteriorating situation in the Gaza Strip to the magazine’s readers and the general public. As a photographer for Agence France-Presse (AFP), writer (for the Vermont Guardian, ArtVoice Weekly , Swedish dailies Dagen Nyheter and Aftonbladet, Norwegian dailies Dagbladet and Morgenbladet, the German daily junge Welt, the Basque daily Berria, and the Swedish magazine Arbetaren), radio/television correspondent (Free Speech Radio News, BBC and BBC Scotland radio, BBC News 24 TV, Norwegian national NRK TV), and widely read blogger (RafahToday.org ), Omer will use his many talents to describe life as a Palestinian journalist under occupation. The youngest member of the Gazan press corps, Omer was recently named winner of the New America Media’s “Best Youth Voice” Award. He has experienced more pain, death, fear, destruction, hatred and despair in his 22 years than most people will experience in a lifetime. “Words are my weapon against injustice, hate, starvation and oppression,” he explains. With his bulletproof vest and Cannon D20 in hand, Mohammed is on the front lines.