{"id":792,"date":"2013-04-11T00:34:31","date_gmt":"2013-04-11T00:34:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ramallahcafe.com\/?p=792"},"modified":"2013-06-18T14:20:00","modified_gmt":"2013-06-18T21:20:00","slug":"792","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ramallahcafe.com\/?p=792","title":{"rendered":"Oday Khatib, awaiting Israeli military trial, sings from his cell"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Oday Khatib at age 15, in 2005, with Ramzi Aburedwan, founder of Al Kamandjati music school. Photo by Celine Dagher.<\/p><\/div>\n

By Sandy Tolan, Anan Abu-Shanab, and Eman Musleh — <\/strong><\/em>On Wednesday, April 10, Oday Khatib\u2019s stone-throwing trial was postponed.\u00a0\u00a0Again.\u00a0The Palestinian singer\u00a0walked into Israeli military court and stood ready, for the third time, to face his accuser at Ofer prison near Ramallah.\u00a0\u00a0But the accuser, an Israeli soldier, didn\u2019t show up.\u00a0\u00a0So says Oday\u2019s father, Jihad Khatib, according to my colleague, Anan Abu-Shanab. \u00a0Oday, 22, the rising star singer<\/a> whose arrest and incarceration<\/a> by the Israeli occupying authorities has set off waves of worry and musical witness in Europe and Palestine, stands accused of throwing stones <\/a>at Israeli soldiers, who arrested him while chasing a group of kids on March 19.\u00a0\u00a0The penalty for such an offense, under Section 212 of Israeli Military Order 1651, is ten years in prison.<\/p>\n

The law is so sweeping that Oday could have received the same sentence had he thrown a single stone at a road sign.<\/p>\n

Interviews with Oday\u2019s parents by Anan and our colleague Eman Musleh indicate their son is in good spirits, enjoying camaraderie with his fellow prisoners, if not the prison food and cold nights.\u00a0\u00a0He has requested long underwear from his family.\u00a0\u00a0Oday\u2019s father, in his conversation with Anan, described Oday as generally \u201chappy, comfortable, and not worried at all.\u201d Anan reports: \u201cOday’s father says that everyone in the prison is happy with Oday, he is friendly with everyone, even the soldiers are very respectful and treat him well, because of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

One reason for Oday to be optimistic could be that, according to Oday\u2019s father, the judge said that if the prosecution does not produce evidence by the next court date \u2013 April 17th<\/sup> \u2013 Oday will be set free.\u00a0\u00a0This would be an exception; 399 of every 400 cases in Israeli military courts results in conviction.\u00a0\u00a0For that reason, the optimism is muted.<\/p>\n

Oday\u2019s mother, for her part, remains worried \u2013 so worried that she cannot bring herself to go to the court.\u00a0\u00a0Oday is the youngest of her five sons; the one who was always the smallest; the one whose powerful high child\u2019s soprano voice captivated the entire refugee camp, and later, throngs of astonished concert-goers in France, Belgium, Italy, Austria, Norway, Lebanon, Dubai, Jerusalem and Ramallah.\u00a0\u00a0She admits that Oday is the favorite of her sons.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cHe is the closest to me,” she said.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cHe\u2019s so soulful and compassionate.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Oday was arrested, his mother was about to embark on the Umrah Muslim pilgramage in Saudi Arabia.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cI was praying for him, asking God to release him,\u201d she said.\u00a0\u00a0She only got a chance to speak to Oday a few days ago, and when she heard his voice on a cell phone from the prison, she burst into tears.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cBut after he started talking to me, and telling me to calm down and saying everything is fine with him, I stopped crying just because of his great spirits.\u201d<\/p>\n

A few days ago, Oday\u2019s former voice teacher, the British mezzo-soprano Julia Katarina, wrote that she hoped Oday was singing in prison to keep himself sane.\u00a0\u00a0The interviews with Oday\u2019s parents reveal this is precisely what he\u2019s doing \u2013 so much so that other prisoners are competing to be his cellmate.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe sings in the prison, and everyone listens to him,\u201d says Oday\u2019s mom. Added his father: \u201cHe is singing the songs he first sang, the songs that he sang for his brothers when they were in prison and when he first started singing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among those songs is Oday\u2019s signature ballad, Ghareeb, or The Stranger.\u00a0\u00a0Another, roughly translated, is called \u201cDarkness of the Prison.\u201d \u00a0(Listen to a Youtube version\u00a0here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

Oh, darkness of the prison,<\/em><\/p>\n

Settle down<\/em><\/p>\n

We relish the darkness<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

For nothing comes after night <\/em><\/p>\n

Except a\u00a0transcendent, glorious dawn<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Oday is only one of more than 4,700 Palestinians in Israeli military detention.\u00a0\u00a0Many of their families go through precisely what Oday\u2019s family is facing.\u00a0\u00a0But for Oday, whose voice has transported thousands of people who can\u2019t even understand his words, there are many more people watching and waiting to see what will happen in the military court on April 17.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Sandy Tolan, Anan Abu-Shanab, and Eman Musleh — On Wednesday, April 10, Oday Khatib\u2019s stone-throwing trial was postponed.\u00a0\u00a0Again.\u00a0The Palestinian singer\u00a0walked into Israeli military court and stood ready, for the third time, to face his accuser at Ofer prison near Ramallah.\u00a0\u00a0But the accuser, an Israeli soldier, didn\u2019t show up.\u00a0\u00a0So says Oday\u2019s father, Jihad Khatib, according more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ramallahcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ramallahcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ramallahcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ramallahcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ramallahcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=792"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"https:\/\/ramallahcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":795,"href":"https:\/\/ramallahcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792\/revisions\/795"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ramallahcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ramallahcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ramallahcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}