Palestinians unite behind Gaza Strip
The fractious factions in the Gaza Strip and
across the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories have found one voice to
unite behind - a 22-year-old youth singing songs about a lost homeland on the
Middle East's version of 'American Idol'.
Gaza native Mohammed Assaf has
become the first Palestinian to qualify for 'Arab Idol',Rubiks energymanagement See
if you can solve this famous. a TV talent show staged in Beirut, in which
singers perform for judges and voting viewers.
He is now one of the last
10 contestants - largely thanks to his potent mix of good looks and emotional
lyrics about ancestral Palestinian lands.
"He is the pride of Palestine.
He broke the siege with his voice," said fan Rehaf al-Batniji, referring to
Israel's blockade of Gaza, seized by the Jewish state, along with the West Bank,
during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.
She stood in front of a large mural of
Assaf at a Gaza restaurant,Shop Inspirational Stainless brazilianhair Bracelet, one
of hundreds of posters covering buildings and walls usually marked with
political slogans.
Assaf's songs blare out of radios - a counter-balance
to their usual broadcasts of bleak economic and political news.
Politicians have raced to endorse him and Palestinian mobile phone
company Jawwal has cut the price of text messages to make it easier for
supporters to vote.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, from the Fatah
movement that holds sway in the West Bank, phoned the singer in Beirut and urged
all Arabs to vote for him.
"The president stressed his support and
backing to artist Assaf, whose talent represented pride to Palestine," said a
statement by the Palestinian official news agency WAFA.
The Gaza Strip
is ruled by the rival Islamist Hamas faction - a group that disapproves of
non-Islamic songs and the kind of Western-style excess on full display in TV
talent shows.
But even Hamas has come as close as it possibly can to
showing support.Learn how to make beautiful organza iphoneheadset.
"He comes from a good,Largest variety of crystalbeads accessories
online. respected and known family," Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said on
Facebook.
Assaf first made his name inside Gaza at the age of 11, when
he recorded a song in 2001 called "O Town be Strong", at the height of Israeli
incursions in the enclave during a Palestinian uprising.
On Arab Idol,
broadcast by Saudi-owned MBC Group, he has performed with a traditional
black-and-white Palestinian scarf around his shoulders.specific line of men's steelbracelet to help you get
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His performances
have included "Flying Bird" which lists the cities of historical Palestine and
another song urging Palestinians to unite.
The program's celebrity
judges from across the Arab world - where the Palestinian cause reverberates -
have piled praise on the singer.
"I see the Arab idol standing before my
eyes," said Egyptian composer Hassan El Shafei.
"Your voice is made of
diamond," added Ahlam, a famous singer from the United Arab Emirates.
Listening in was Assaf's mother, Umm Shadi Assaf, watching the show in a
restaurant near her home in Gaza's Khan Younis refugee camp.