 |
Arab Idol
winner Palestinian Mohammed Assaf speaks in the southern
Gaza Strip, on June
25, 2013 (Pool/AFP, Khaled Omar)
|
RAFAH,
Palestinian Territories — Thousands of Gazans gave an ecstatic welcome to
Mohammed Assaf on Tuesday as the 23-year-old Palestinian singer returned home
after winning this year's Arab Idol talent competition.
Young and
old waved Palestinian flags and held up posters of Assaf, raising banners
congratulating him on his win in Beirut on Saturday, when he beat off stiff
competition from fellow singers from across the Arab world.
Recordings
of Assaf's songs blasted out from loudspeakers while crowds thronged his
motorcade as it made its way up the Gaza Strip after crossing the Rafah border
from Egypt.
Huge crowds
also gathered outside his home in the southern city of Khan Yunis.
The
meteoric rise of Gaza's Assaf to snatch the top prize in the pan-Arab singing
contest sparked an unprecedented outpouring of joy across the West Bank and the
Gaza Strip, bringing rare unity to the divided territories.
"We
are making him an official welcome," said Gaza's culture ministry director
Fakri Judeh, at the head of a Hamas government delegation to receive him.
"Assaf
is a Palestinian citizen who has made an outstanding achievement... and we
support him," he said.
"We
hope he will use his God-given talent to serve the Palestinian cause."
 |
Fans wait
for the arrival of Palestinian "Arab Idol" Mohammed Assaf on
June 25,
2013 in the Gaza Strtip (AFP, Mahmud Hams)
|
Assaf bent
over and kissed the ground as he crossed the border, an AFP correspondent
reported, before holding a news conference alongside officials from Gaza's
ruling Islamist Hamas movement.
"I
thank you for your wonderful welcome and hope the celebrations won't feature
gunfire," Assaf said, alluding to the shots in the air that sometimes
accompany celebrations in the Middle East.
"I
hope with all my heart that the division can end, and my message to our
Palestinian people is: unity, unity," Assaf said, referring to internal
divisions that have plagued Palestinian politics for years.
Hamas and
Fatah, which dominates the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority, have been
locked in a bitter rivalry which worsened when the Islamists seized the Gaza
Strip in 2007.
Yellow
Fatah flags, which are rarely seen in Gaza, could be seen flying among the
crowds in Rafah ahead of Assaf's arrival.
Assaf left
Gaza for an audition in Egypt in October last year, and made it through each
stage of the competition, eventually staying in Beirut alongside other
contestants for the final rounds.
His victory
in the final, screened live on television across the Arab world, marked the
first success for a Palestinian entrant.
"Mohammed
Assaf is the Arab Idol," declared the presenter of the show which is
modelled on the British hit show Pop Idol, as confetti rained down on the
cheering audience.
 |
People wait
for the arrival of Palestinian
"Arab Idol" Mohammed Assaf at the
Rafah
crossing on June 25, 2013 (AFP, Said
Khatib)
|
The
handsome, tuxedo-clad singer immediately dedicated his win to "the
Palestinian people, who have been suffering for more than 60 years from
(Israeli) occupation".
He won a
professional recording contract and a car, a 2013 Chevrolet Camaro.
Assaf's
competition included singers from as far west as Morocco and Tunisia, from Gulf
countries Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, from war-torn Syria and from Iraqi
Kurdistan.
The victory
of the young man from the besieged Gaza Strip united tens of thousands of
Palestinians in celebration, temporarily overshadowing the political crisis at
home.
The
resignation of West Bank prime minister Rami Hamdallah and internal political
wrangling was largely overshadowed by Assaf's victory.
Palestinian
president Mahmud Abbas crowned the young singer national goodwill ambassador,
and the UN Palestinian refugee agency named him its youth ambassador.
Hamas
disapproves of shows such as Arab Idol, which are considered to be un-Islamic,
but the movement has not clamped down on support for the contest.
Related Article:
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.