The Israeli football world continues to stir in the wake of the latest chain of attacks, when in recent hours many Jewish footballers condemned the attacks and after the criticism of Eran Zehavi in the team’s WhatsApp team, Arab footballers such as Ramzi Spouri, Case Gans and Iyad Abu Abid also joined them.
Now they were joined by Hatem ‘Abd al-Hamid, also a footballer from Hapoel Beer Sheva and the Israeli national team, who told his story and also sent an indirect message to Zahavi. Alhamid shared with his followers when he wrote: “After everything that happened this week I decided to share with you my personal life story. In 2008 I only started playing football as part of Bnei Sakhnin’s first boys. My little brother Muhammad would come with me to all the training. After one training we stopped “On the side of the road and he went down to buy us something to eat from the grocery store. On the way back at the crossing a car came quickly and hit him.”
“Muhammad flew many meters forward and fell on his head. It all happened in front of my eyes. I ran to him, I put him on my feet and he just closed his eyes and died in my arms. This incident shattered me, my parents and the whole family to pieces. “That and re-gaining my parents was a challenge of my life. The task I set before my eyes was to rehabilitate my family.”
Hatem added: “My mother said at the time a sentence that is in my head. For me this is the essence of humanity and the education I grew up with at home. ‘The pain over my son’s death is enormous. And we still do not digest that he was killed. “So many people. After we decided in the family to donate my brother’s organs, people approached us at the hospital and implicitly said that the organs should only be donated to Arabs.”
“My parents vehemently refused and asked the hospital to donate the organs urgently without distinction between Arabs, Jews or others because it is a human act of saving lives. Today 7 people live thanks to the organs of my brother Muhammad. 5 of them are Jews we sometimes meet and it warms “We have the heart. This is my and my family’s story.”
“I grew up on humanity and values from home and that is how I educate my child,” Hatem added, “I firmly refuse to be cataloged, solely because I am an Arab, with terrorist attacks and terrorism. I am not willing to be asked to condemn it solely for being an Arab.”
Al-Hamid conveyed a message following Zehavi’s criticism that the Arab actors did not condemn the attacks and added: “No one will preach morality to me and my family, no matter how big, famous or powerful. But certainly, and out of complete faith in it as a person and not as an Arab “I condemn terrorism of all kinds, share in the grief of the families of those killed and wish a speedy recovery to the wounded. I pray that we all know quieter days.”