RAMADAN 'DRUMMER' SHOT DEAD BY ISRAELIS
John Ward Anderson, Washington Post, 11/28/02
washingtonpost.com
NABLUS, West Bank, November 27 -- Raed Faour and Jihad Natour, lifelong friends, were walking through the dark, narrow street and alleys of Nablus' New Asker refugee camp early today, banging their tambourine-like drums and singing a song to wake up the Muslim faithful and announce the approaching sunrise. The drummers, as the pair and others like them are known, are a fixture in Muslim neighborhoods during the holy month of Ramadan, when families arise before daybreak to eat a meal because their religion requires them to fast from sunup to sundown.
Just before 3 a.m., as they were singing a song praising the Prophet Mohammed -- "Oh, the god of Mohammad," it went, "Take the worry from us!" -- several Israeli soldiers emerged from a dark hiding spot behind a taxi, aimed their guns at them and shouted in Arabic, "Stop! Stop!" Faour said in an interview. "They immediately started shooting," he said, and Natour hit the ground, shouting: "My brother Raed, I've been shot!"
Palestinians here said that Natour, 22, an unemployed carpenter, died in the street after Israeli soldiers refused to allow an ambulance to pass through an Army checkpoint to take him to a hospital. Local residents were outraged that such a drummer, who plays an important role in the Islamic culture, was killed while fulfilling a ritual that has been a part of Ramadan observances for generations.
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shooting down innocent young men and not allowing ambulances to come in... over and over and over again...
who has the most power to facilitate peace? it's the ones with the upper hand... and who has the upper hand?? |
