Latest news with #dabke
The National
07-08-2025
- Health
- The National
From stage to hospital bed: Gaza dabke dancer shot in head while collecting food
Performing on stage brought Ahmed Abo El Khair immense joy. Ever since he was 10, he had been passionate about dabke, the Palestinian folk dance recognised by Unesco as an intangible cultural heritage. Ahmed was a proud and active member of a dabke troupe in Gaza, performing regularly in public. But after being shot in the head while collecting aid at a distribution centre, he was forced off the stage and into a hospital bed. The university student, 20, who was known and loved for his bubbly personality, now lies helpless and frail, staring into the ceiling, almost in disbelief at his current state. The smile on his face and spark in his eyes have vanished. His visible ribs are a testament to his malnutrition. Without proper food and medical treatment, Ahmed cannot recover, his family says. After weeks of near-total starvation, all that remains of him is skin and bones. 'Doctors tell us Ahmed needs proper nutrition to recover, and for his memory to get better, as he has some memory loss, but what can I feed him when there's no food?", his mother, Rana Abo El Khair, told The National. The young Gazan had ventured to an aid centre run by the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation in Netzarim to secure food for his family, when he was shot in the head. With deteriorating health centres, the bullet remains lodged in his skull, causing a fracture and internal bleeding. The GHF has faced global criticism and condemnation for its food delivery system. Since May, at least 1,373 Palestinians have been killed while seeking food; 859 in the vicinity of the GHF sites and 514 along the routes of food convoys, the UN said last week. He had made the perilous trip in desperation, amid severe food shortages in the enclave. Aid organisations, human rights groups and a global hunger monitor have warned of mass starvation and famine spreading in Gaza, forcing Palestinians to risk their lives for the smallest amounts of food. Although Ahmed miraculously survived, his condition has deteriorated under Israel's blockade of Gaza. His life has been turned upside down. 'Every passing day, his situation gets worse,' his father, Iyad Abo El Khair, told The National. At least 193 people have now died of starvation – 96 of them children – under Israel 's blockade of the coastal territory, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. International efforts have included food being dropped from the air and aid supplies from the UAE and Jordan, but starvation is increasingly being used as a weapon of war in Gaza, according to the UN. The agency's secretary general Antonio Guterres has described the search for food in the enclave as a ' death sentence '. 'He loved food the most, he loved kaak and maftoul [Palestinian food], and he told me to prepare these foods for him once he got back from the aid centre,' Ahmed's mother said. Instead, his mother received a call at 3am to say her son had been injured. Ahmed was immediately admitted into the intensive care unit and later taken into surgery. Gaza's health sector has been significantly crippled by Israeli attacks and bombardment. UN reports have detailed Israel's deliberate and widespread attacking of Gaza's medical sector and medical staff. 'It was shocking to see my son like this, I have no words to describe it,' his mother said. Despite his circumstances, Ahmed has one word on his lips at all times: 'Alhamdulillah', or thank God, his sister, Doha Abo El Khair, told The National. 'Ahmed loved his life, he was happy, he was content, but he also had plans to travel and study abroad after working hard in school,' his sister said. 'But now his future has gone to waste because of his situation,' she added.
The Guardian
03-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
‘A plea for connection': Gaza musicians bring the Levant to Sydney Opera House
As long as you can hear a beat or someone singing, you can dabke. 'The official definition, if there is one for dabke, is when a group of people dance together, usually in a synchronised way,' Tareq Halawa says. Unofficially, the musician continues, the dabke is when a group of people jump in no particular order, prompted by the sound of music. Sometimes the only beat is the sound of feet hitting the floor, without a drum. 'All the beat and rhythm that you need actually comes from the stomping,' he says. 'It's an expression of our culture. It can be an expression of our joy, frustration – a show of power.' A celebration of the Levantine folk dance forms part of Dabke and Tatreez, an Artists for Peace event showing at the Sydney Opera House on Sunday. There, Halawa will play the riq – one of the world's oldest instruments. It is 'like a tambourine but it's especially for Arabic music,' Palestinian musician Seraj Jelda says. Jelda, who played with the Edward Said National Conservatory of Music in Gaza before fleeing Israel's bombardment for Australia a year ago, will play the riq and oud on Sunday. He's one of an ensemble of 10 artists performing at the event, which brings together musicians and dancers with Palestinian, Lebanese, Turkish, Indonesian and Cypriot heritage. 'It means a lot because we are delivering our culture, our songs,' Jelda says. From the routine of harvest, joys of weddings and honouring of family matriarchs to being forced to leave a homeland, the event's repertoire is 'a journey through people's lives', Halawa says. Most pieces come from before the 1948 Nakba – 'how our grandfathers, and our ancient people, [were] singing their songs,' Jelda says. 'Once they want to collect vegetables and fruits and olives … they start singing these songs. Once they want to get married, they sing these songs for the groom and for the bride. 'Some songs will talk about the Nakba and how songs are transferred from cultural and happy songs to songs that talk about Palestine and how it was occupied and our land was stolen.' Halawa says Sunday's show is 'a window of understanding' into the Levant culture. 'What this means to me … is that I am seen and heard and accepted here in Australia, with the background and the culture that I bring with me,' the Palestinian, Syrian and Turkish musician says. He has lived in Australia for 12 years. 'The language of storytelling and music is so universal that it's compelling, and having that as our medium of conversing with Australia is important.' As Israel continues its bombardment of Gaza – which has destroyed cultural heritage sites across the strip – Halawa says the performance becomes 'more than just sharing of culture and understanding and music'. 'It's a plea for connection,' he says. 'It also means that it's part of our contribution as performers to lifting the injustice.' It has made Halawa reflect on 'what these songs actually mean'. A song telling the story of a person leaving home, for example, wields the meaning 'that it's not about the taste of the food as much as the togetherness, the caring and connection with the land and with one another, endurance as a collective thing'. 'Now that I need to convey its content and its spirit, it led me to really rethink these stories and what they mean and what the original authors were thinking and experiencing that potentially led to them writing these stories.' The Opera House event is a work of cultural preservation, Ayşe Göknur Shanal says. Music is 'one of the most important mediums in expressing culture and identity and heritage and tradition'. 'There are songs for celebration, for grief, lamenting,' the Turkish-Cypriot Australian curator and opera singer says. 'You dance in anger, and you dance in love and passion and celebration.' Shanal felt a sense of urgency to perform. 'I feel like the complacency of the arts industry and sector has propelled the urgency in me,' she says. 'The silence has propelled the urgency in me. We are proponents of arts and culture and heritage and history … and to see Palestinian music being absent from the musical vernacular and landscape frustrated me. 'So many mosques and churches [are] being bombed in Gaza and elsewhere – that's destroying heritage and history and culture. We are trying to protect and preserve, as opposed to what's happening, which is destroy, erase.' Jelda says: 'Sometimes it is sad for us to play music and do happy things [when] our families and friends [are] in Gaza facing a difficult time. 'But it is [also] like a happy moment, because we are delivering something for them, making people know what's happening in Palestine and Gaza.' Dabke and Tatreez is showing Sunday 6 July at 8pm at the Sydney Opera House
