Editor,
Reporter, photographer and Palestinian propagandist Mohammed Omer Saleh Al-Moghayer, who uses the professional name Mohammed Omer, will speak at UNM this week, following on the heels of fellow propagandist Ziad Abbas.
The Lannan Foundation, located in Santa Fe, donated $500,000 to cover expenses. For that price they could have gotten Jimmy Carter, Ahmadinejad, Abu Mazen or Khaled Meshaal to inspire them.
Haymarket Publishing Co. of Chicago was in charge of getting Al-Moghayer from the Netherlands to the U.S. The U.S. consulate in the Netherlands initially refused to grant Al-Moghayer a visa to re-enter the U.S., following the “panty bomber” fiasco in December 2009, where a Nigerian student terrorist was granted a visa and allowed to fly into the U.S. despite his terrorist ties.
Anti-Israel groups in the U.S. mounted an e-mail and phone barrage on the consulate and state department, with the help of several anti-Israel congressmen and EU officials. Finally Al Moghayer was granted a visa to enter the U.S. in spite of the misgivings of the U.S. consulate in the Netherlands.
Why was Al-Moghayer, an Arab from Rafah in Gaza, residing in the Netherlands? According to the various and changing renditions of Al-Moghayer’s story in 2008, he was detained, beaten up and tortured by Shin Bet while crossing the Allenby into Israel from Jordan, under the escort of a Dutch envoy, after receiving a prize for excellent propaganda in Great Britain.
CAMERA (Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America), the well-known truth in journalism group, has compiled his many accounts of this event and found several contradictions and some logical impossibilities. The account has grown and changed considerably with time. Al Moghayer moved to the Netherlands shortly after this event, ostensibly to receive medical and psychological treatment.
Al Moghayer and Al Moghayer’s Dutch friend said that the bigger reason for his move to the Netherlands was that he would be killed if he remained in Rafah.
Maybe he was keeping the funds he collected on his speaking tours to himself instead of turning it over to the bosses, and they roughed him up, which is common among criminals and Arab leadership. Maybe that’s how he ended up hiding out in the Netherlands. It sure makes a lot more sense than his stories do.
Last week in his talk at UNM, Ziad Abbas used the undeath of an Arab teenager named Mohammed to launch his tear jerkingly inaccurate talk here at UNM. The young dead man and his “wounded” schoolmates showed up healthy at home four days later.
Likewise Mohammed Omer Saleh Al Moghayer is well loved for his propaganda, and is bound to tell many stories about Israel and Palestinians. If you are a fantasy fan, go hear him.
Lynn Provencio
UNM staff
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