The Gazan winner of Arab Idol, Mohammed Assaf, performed in front of some 40,000 fans in the West Bank town of Ramallah on Monday.
Crowds thronged a square near the tomb of the Palestinian president Yasser Arafat with a heavy security detail present, along with ambulances.
Assaf was greeted with cheers as he came on stage, surrounded by policemen holding back hundreds of fans who wanted a photograph with the singer.
Before beginning his performance, Assaf spoke to the crowds. “I am very pleased to be here with you and with the help of God, I have done you proud,” he said before launching into Raise the Keffiyeh, a Palestinian nationalist song which refers to the traditional chequered headscarf made famous by Arafat.
Assaf arrived in the West Bank, which is governed by president Mahmud Abbas’s Palestinian authority, on Monday afternoon, entering from Jordan over the Allenby Bridge. In Ramallah, Assaf laid a wreath on Arafat’s tomb before meeting Abbas.
The singer is due to visit the other West Bank towns Bethlehem, Hebron and Nablus.
On his return to Gaza on June 25, Assaf called for an end to the “division” with the West Bank, and urged “unity” between Palestinians.
The Israeli legal rights group Gisha stressed that the singer’s arrival was “exceptional not just because Palestinians consider him a national hero, but also because it is an exception to Israel’s consistent policy of blocking access between Gaza and the West Bank”.
“If Assaf had been anything less than a superstar, he would have had little chance of setting foot in the West Bank because of the Israeli policy of restricting the voyage to ‘exceptional humanitarian circumstances’,” Gisha said in a statement.
Born to Palestinian parents in Misurata, Libya, Assaf, 23, grew up in the Khan Yunis refugee camp in southern Gaza before winning the 2013 edition of Arab Idol in Beirut.
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F1 drivers' standings
1. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes 281
2. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari 247
3. Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes 222
4. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull 177
5. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari 138
6. Max Verstappen, Red Bull 93
7. Sergio Perez, Force India 86
8. Esteban Ocon, Force India 56
THE%20JERSEYS
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1st ODI Zimbabwe won by 6 wickets
2nd ODI Sri Lanka won by 7 wickets
3rd ODI Sri Lanka won by 8 wickets
4th ODI Zimbabwe won by 4 wickets
5th ODI Zimbabwe won by 3 wickets
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
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- The UAE government announced a retirement savings plan for private and free zone sector employees in 2023.
- Dubai’s savings retirement scheme for foreign employees working in the emirate’s government and public sector came into effect in 2022.
- National Bonds unveiled a Golden Pension Scheme in 2022 to help private-sector foreign employees with their financial planning.
- In April 2021, Hayah Insurance unveiled a workplace savings plan to help UAE employees save for their retirement.
- Lunate, an Abu Dhabi-based investment manager, has launched a fund that will allow UAE private companies to offer employees investment returns on end-of-service benefits.
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KILLING OF QASSEM SULEIMANI
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New schools in Dubai
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"They see their tomorrows slipping out of their reach. And though it seems to them that everything outside this reality is heaven, yet they do not want to go to that heaven. They stay, because they are afflicted with hope." - Mahmoud Darwish, to attendees of the Palestine Festival of Literature, 2008
His life in brief: Born in a village near Galilee, he lived in exile for most of his life and started writing poetry after high school. He was arrested several times by Israel for what were deemed to be inciteful poems. Most of his work focused on the love and yearning for his homeland, and he was regarded the Palestinian poet of resistance. Over the course of his life, he published more than 30 poetry collections and books of prose, with his work translated into more than 20 languages. Many of his poems were set to music by Arab composers, most significantly Marcel Khalife. Darwish died on August 9, 2008 after undergoing heart surgery in the United States. He was later buried in Ramallah where a shrine was erected in his honour.
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Liverpool 2
Mane 51', Salah 53'
Chelsea 0
Man of the Match: Mohamed Salah (Liverpool)
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Nigel Farage told Reform's annual conference that the party will proscribe the Muslim Brotherhood if he becomes Prime Minister.
"We will stop dangerous organisations with links to terrorism operating in our country," he said. "Quite why we've been so gutless about this – both Labour and Conservative – I don't know.
“All across the Middle East, countries have banned and proscribed the Muslim Brotherhood as a dangerous organisation. We will do the very same.”
It is 10 years since a ground-breaking report into the Muslim Brotherhood by Sir John Jenkins.
Among the former diplomat's findings was an assessment that “the use of extreme violence in the pursuit of the perfect Islamic society” has “never been institutionally disowned” by the movement.
The prime minister at the time, David Cameron, who commissioned the report, said membership or association with the Muslim Brotherhood was a "possible indicator of extremism" but it would not be banned.
