Location: Ramallah West Bank
Portrait of the Next Arab Idol
“A revolution is not just the one carrying the rifle, it is the paintbrush of an artist, the scalpel of a surgeon, the axe of the farmer.” Mohammad Assef, Palestinian winner of Arab Idol
In Ramallah, two days before the finals for Arab Idol, the program on which the handsome Palestinian Mohammad Assaf from Gaza had wowed the Arab world in general and the Palestinian community in particular, we were sitting upstairs at Zeit and Zaatar, a delicious 50 seat café. Assaf’s story of sneaking out of Gaza, arriving in Egypt too late to sign up for auditions, being given a place by another contestant who realized Mohammad was probably the real deal, and then making it all the way to the finals had captured the attention of, well, the Middle East. Nasser Abdulhadi , a story in his own right as the Guinness Book of World Records ‘ creator of the world’s largest tabbouleh and the world’s largest musakhen (see http://electronicintifada.net/content/palestinians-break-records-reclaim-culture/8940), owns and manages Zeit and Zaatar as well as the Al Yasmeen Hotel in Nablus. We had just taken our first bites of manakish when we heard some wonderful singing coming from the ground floor where the orders are taken.
Soon, Sulieman Khattib ascended the winding metal stair and began serenading a table across the room from me and my two companions, Nedal and Tasneem. When Sulieman finished his song, Nedal invited him to join us. None of us had met the young man before but that never matters in Palestine. Nedal and Sulieman chatted, sharing stories about where they lived (Nedal in the Al- Faraa Refugee camp and Sulieman in the town of Saffa). Sulieman is a graphic designer and was a local TV station’s coordinator for the campaign of advertising and activities that supported Mohammad Assaf ‘s appearance on a giant monitor in Ramallah’s Manara Square.
Sulieman himself had auditioned in Ramallah for Arab Idol and also “The Voice” another Palestinian program.
From Sulieman’s house in Saffa, he can literally see over the separation wall to the village of Alburj, now in green line Israel, where his family had lived before fleeing to the West Bank. Sulieman often sings- Haddy ya bahar - to his family’s village as he looks over the wall. He proudly showed us his one day permission slip from Israeli government to go to Jaffa and swim in the sea. Later that afternoon Sulieman took us to his TV station and then sang for us in Manara Sqare.
Please see the video of Sulieman singing in Zeit and Zatur and later that same afternoon in Manara Square.
Here is a loose translation of Sulieman’s song which you can listen to in the video below:
Because we are a long time away from our homeland
Please pass our peace to the land where we grew up
Please say hello to the olive tree and to my own family where I grew up
Until this moment my loving mother still smelling our cushions.
Also, don’t miss this You Tube of Arab Idol Mohammad Assaf!