The PLO Arabs are desolate after one of their own lost in the finals of a popular televised song contest.
Palestinian singer Ammar Hassan on Sunday lost to a Libyan in a televised contest that captivated the Arab world for months.
Hassan, 27, from the town of Salfit in the West Bank, became the darling of the Palestinian people as he made his way through the stages of the 13-week “Superstar 2” competition on the Lebanese TV channel “al-Mustaqbal,” competing in the finals last week.—-About 5,000 people crowded into the park in the center of Salfit to watch the TV broadcast from Beirut by satellite, They stood stunned and silent when it was announced that Libyan singer Eyman Al-Atar outpolled Hassan by a wide margin.Since the voting was unstructured – multiple ballots were cast freely – some in the park saw the result as fair, while others looked for someone to blame.—-18-year-old Said Madi said he heard the Libyans provided free telephone lines for voting, and Libyan ruler Moammar Gadhafi banned his people from voting for the Palestinian.“‘These two things obviously gave Eyman a push,” he said.There was no evidence that the allegations were true, but such rumors are often accepted as fact.Bitterly disappointed, Mahmoud Yassin, 20, lashed out at fellow Arabs who did not vote for the Palestinian singer. “They sold Jerusalem,” he said, referring to a perceived lack of Arab support for the Palestinian cause. “It’s no surprise they now sold out Ammar.”
Let’s see…we have hopelessness, powerlessness, desperation, and injustice over this result. Watch out.
