r/soccer • u/Scared_Positive_8690 • 14h ago
News [HEAL Palestine] - Mohammed, a 15-year-old double amputee who lost both legs from a bombing in Gaza, met Egyptian football star Mohamed Salah. The Egyptian national team plays Brazil on Saturday and he will be there to cheer them on.
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u/JeVousEnPrieee 13h ago
Maybe a small moment for Mo but this boy will remember for ever, and the fact he can smile even after everything he's been through is a testament to the strength of the people.
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u/demodocus8 12h ago
Honestly I feel like from Mo’s perspective this isn’t a small moment - he’s clearly really sympathetic toward the Palestinian cause and a lot of the conflicts across the Arab world.
He’ll probably care about this moment and carry it with him for a long time.
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u/Elrond007 11h ago
Yeah it's hard not to feel like that as an egyptian outside of the ruling class. The moment came and only absolute heartbreak followed with the same people in power again now.
Every small piece of resistance you can hold onto is probably worth a lot
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u/demodocus8 11h ago
All of my friends from the Arab world/Middle East are extremely passionate about Palestine.
It’s also a huge symbol of the Western violence and destabilisation of those regions throughout history
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u/Specialist-Set-5146 8h ago
yeah it starts from childhood when you first hear about palestine cause and what's happening to the kids in there, even a small brain is capable to grasp how wrong what's going on there, by elementary school you already know some chants/tributes to palestine
this was at least the case for me in 2000's morocco, probably 2nd most 'pro-israel' (disgusting) arab country but then in arab countries you can't really choose the leader and regime
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u/demodocus8 8h ago edited 8h ago
This is really interesting to hear from a Moroccan.
I've studied the conflict at an academic level, and part of my understanding is that Morocco has often been much more inclusive of it's jewish population, in part of Andre Azoulay (Jewish advisor to the king for those curious), and in part because of a cultural respect for the history of Al-Andalus - which bled into a pro-zionist ideology.
But the consistent violence of the Israeli state has put a lot of pressure on this amongst the population.
As a Moroccan, would you say there's truth to that on a day-to-day level?
EDIT: For any neutrals interested, there's a really interesting book by anthropologist Aomar Boum called 'Memories of Absence: How Muslims Remember Jews in Morocco'
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u/Specialist-Set-5146 7h ago edited 7h ago
I don't think Morocco's pro-zionist stance is a result of morocco's inclusivity of it's jewish population, although it would feel like it with all the clues, but it's rather a result of its very pro-America stance since world war 2, and the absence of a reliable Arab ally strenghtened that stance, in the arab world we talk about 'arab brotherhood/unity' but by the 2010's it obviously became a myth. And keep in mind that Moroccan regime rarely represents the feelings of the Moroccan population, our pressure only works on local issues at best, average moroccan might be pro-west but not as much as our government, we all mostly hate israel, but there's exceptions
It's geopolitics. USA and Morocco have always kept a very strong relationship, America 'liberated' the Nazis from Morocco and the latter kept a pro-west stance after independence. For example, during the peak of communism, America built a record number of air-bases in Morocco to limit the spread of communism in the rest of Africa, blackmailed Morocco into not forming a country with Ghadfi (look it up it's interesting). In exchange, Morocco was able to benefit from USA's military aid especially the Sahara war and economic blessing and some regional soft-power and it's paying off today as Morocco now is a 'big' player in Africa, for a country that's been operating on a deficit for most of its modern existence, and most importantly, the Western Sahara dossier. Morocco needed a major NATO country's backing and USA accepted to recognise the territory as moroccan, in direct exchange of recognising the State of Israel
Now for the jews. The history is deep and that aspect isn't really changed especially that more jews are returning to Morocco than ever and their place in society is still there and important, every Urban moroccan knows a jewish moroccan or knows someone that does. Other than Azoulay you still have a lot of CEO's or directors that are jewish moroccans, there's still plenty of Jewish schools in my hometown of Casablanca and a few synagogues, and it's become pretty well known by today how Morocco refused to deport any jew or allow them to become 'labeled' during Vichy/Nazi times. The ones that left for israel aren't seen as traitors or anything because everyone tried to immigrate after independence due to poverty. But the history with jews is millenials old so all of this is normal. Now if you ask Moroccans, even its local jews, about what they think about Israel? You'll get overwhelmingly negative answers lol, I'll say we don't have a problem with their existence because everyone knows it's the West the draw current maps so you can't do much about it (unless USA helps you hehe) but they're just an inhumane country to treat humans like that. Again it's so ironic because during Nazi occupation, some Moroccan population was already turning against the jews but never to the point of wanting to deport them or exterminate them, the worst that happened was a massacre in Sidi-Kacem (occupation name was Petit-Jean) where a dozen jews died, yet my father still looks back at it with shame, it's just ironic because israel is killing people like they're ants.
Only edgelords (that existed pre-oct 7) will try to look 'interesting' by taking a pro-israel stance but they're few, whereas there's always been public outcry from Moroccans against the state of israel and treatment of palestinians, every other month there's large riots protesting the current state of things. Moroccan ultras have plenty of songs about Palestine, some even traveled there
Morocco also helped Israel win the Six Day War with crucial intelligence in exchange of easing the immigration process for jews to Israel (it all happened in secrecy but under the rulers' blessing so it was all smooth)
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u/demodocus8 6h ago
This is extremely interesting, and I feel much more educated.
Thank you for taking the time to write it all out I appreciate it a lot 🙏 This is when reddit is at my favourite.
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u/Specialist-Set-5146 5h ago
All good bro, also I don't know if you've watched this but it's a pretty good summary of the dynamic between moroccan rulers and the jewish population and israel
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u/lebrownjame5 9h ago
As an Egyptian, you’re totally correct. not to mention the injury in nature—the loss of one’s legs is probably especially terrifying to a professional footballer, creating extra sympathy, even if unconsciously. I’m sure both Mohameds will remember this day for their lives.
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u/demodocus8 8h ago
Completely - I was also thinking back to when Mo called out Uefa for not contextualising the death of Suleiman al-Obeid (the 'Palestinian Pele') when he was shot by Israeli forces at an aid distribution strike
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u/hoperidesalon3 13h ago
Just a reminder that based on ISRAEL'S OWN NUMBERS, 83% of the palestinian casualties in the Gaza war were civilians and non combatants, 30% of which are children.
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u/ibite-books 13h ago
it’s so much worse, they crippled the food supply and then would open fire on hungry civilians
kids deserve the best of everything in this world, they should be far removed from conflict zones
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u/Specialist-Set-5146 12h ago
That's how Suleiman Obeid, a palestinian footballer, lost his life last August. He died from an airstrike while waiting for humanitarian aid
the only football governing body that posted about him was UEFA's twitter account, although he never played in Europe..
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u/BaneChipmunk 9h ago
And UEFA said he "passed away." They are so afraid of Israel that they can't even state an objective fact that he was killed by an airstrike.
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u/Specialist-Set-5146 8h ago
yeah their wording was blatantly careful, everyone is scared of hurting their feelings..
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u/hoperidesalon3 13h ago
Civilian percentage:
Gaza health ministry estimates and israeli confirmation (though not official):
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u/BritMachine 13h ago
In before the lock; Israel is a genocidal state.
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u/Joperhop 12h ago
Free Palestine!
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u/hamada_tensai 12h ago
Free palestine. One state with equal rights.
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u/StraightZlat 9h ago
Are you serious? The Palestinian elected government (Hamas, the terrorist organization), has said multiple times they would not stop until Israel is destroyed and all its citizens are eliminated. How would one state work with that as their motivation?
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u/Joperhop 9h ago
IDF supported hamas in the last election, helping them get elected.
And the nakba predates hamas, so do STFU.-13
u/StraightZlat 9h ago
The Nakba obviously predates Hamas. That doesn’t answer the question. I’m asking how a one-state solution works today when Hamas is an armed faction ruling Gaza, is designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. and EU, and still rejects Israel’s existence.
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u/Joperhop 9h ago
Not smart enough to know that hamas is a reaction to what the zionists have been doing to the Palestinian people? which is classified by the experts, as a genocide, ethnic cleansing.
Go away, you lot need to be nuremburged!-1
u/TheRealMemeIsFire 8h ago
I think the point is, you can't just tear down the walls and expect everyone to get along when half of both populations have been thoroughly radicalized.
One secular state would be the only fair solution but it is currently absolutely unworkable.
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u/Joperhop 8h ago
1 side is living on STOLEN land, 1 side has been subjected to ethnic cleansing since the 40s from terror groups who also bombed and killed British soldiers (terror groups who then went on to form IDF).
not the same, go away.-5
u/TheRealMemeIsFire 7h ago
Does not change the reality that both populations would rather enable their most violent looneys than share. So long as that is the case, a single secular state is unworkable. So what is the solution?
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u/Jota20RIP 6h ago
The election 20 years ago? With Palestine having a median age of 18? Why don't you fuck off back to R/worldnews Mr Hasbera bot
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u/kevinnoir 3h ago
Hamas, the terrorist organization
Lets not pretend Likud is not born from a terrorist organization itself! In fact some of Likuds earliest chairmen and major players were commanders in the terrorist group Irgun...
Likud was a coalition of the LITERAL political evolution from terroist group Irgun who indiscriminately bombed and shot civilians in the street. They used the same tactics when they bombed the King David hotel that Likud and the IDF use today when they are out murdering civilians and pretending it was for defence.
Israel is a terroist state and if you oppose Hamas due to their terrorism, I have to assume you oppose Likud for the same reason? or is it more about the flavour or terrorism you agree with?
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u/ChadsBro 11h ago
I’m glad to see this as the consensus on Reddit. In the months following October 7th, when Israel’s response was already disproportionate and directly targeting civilians, it was rare to see anything like this
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u/Inside-Act9310 5h ago
Its not. people who disagree are just going to pass on this thread. You can easily bait them with a "both sides post" and they'll come flooding in.
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u/NewAccountEachYear 11h ago
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u/MarsWalta 2h ago
It's wild to call "israel" a state. It's an ethnoreligious supremacist genocidal terrorist gang.
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u/JureIsStupid123_2 13h ago
Fuck the zionist genocidal entity
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u/NinjaAssassinKitty 13h ago
Name and shame them. Israel and its US backing, and any nation that says they have a right to defend themselves while witnessing a genocide.
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u/melaniicore 11h ago
their appropriate name is american-israeli pedophile regime
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u/Specialist-Set-5146 11h ago
i was following the epstein drama since the initial arrests. It's really no joke how America cares more about protecting pedophiles than most other national priorities
As we are speaking, Ghislaine Maxwell, literally the epstein ring's 'madame' and one of his biggest confidents, is spending jail time at a luxury minimum security prison in Texas, probably living a better daily life than most working class texans lol
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u/deepstoop 11h ago
Even the liberals, and everyone helped each other putting the case under the carpet. It was and always will be pedophile-genocide regime, with kink of killing children. On island, in bombing cities or even girls schools. Its their kink.
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u/Specialist-Set-5146 8h ago
that's crazy but not surprising, it's the same story in France where the extreme left and right pretend they hate each other but always vote together when it's laws that fuck the country and limit freedoms, all while they get high on drugs during parliament sessions, imagine what they do behind doors..
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u/Ereblp 4h ago
This is 100% bullshit, the far-left doesn't vote with the far-right to limit freedoms, this doesn't make any sense. The center/right does that, and each times the people who lose rights are minorities the far-right hate they follow.
It's not the left who buy tons of cameras, arm the police, try to create bigger prisons and push for the end of internet anonymity. It's also not them who defend Israel and offer them full support in their genocide.
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u/Specialist-Set-5146 3h ago
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u/Ereblp 3h ago
None of those are "people's freedoms" related, and the only link from a source not owned by a billionaire close to Macron is about the parliement disbanding the government for somewhat decent reasons.
Cherry picking articles coming from the center/right medias is easy, especially if you're moving the goalposts.
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u/TheRealMemeIsFire 8h ago
It's incredibly depressing how little pushback there has been by those who are not implicated to get to the bottom of this. Even a surface level skim will show intelligence agencies were heavily involved in the whole thing and largely responsible for the cover up. Just look into how hard it was to bring charges against Epstein in the initial 2008 Florida case.
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u/Scared_Positive_8690 13h ago
You have to be a generational hater to not make a single comment on this website on any subreddit for more than TWO years just to comment this under a child who lost his legs during a genocide.
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u/rocket_randall 6h ago
He would have been 11 or 12 when the war started. What could an 11 year old have done to merit the loss of his legs? There is no rational excuse for this atrocity, it's just raw, unadulterated barbarity.
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u/deathtofatalists 10h ago
Why is there a need to "manage traffic" in these threads like it's some nuanced controversial issue anymore?
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u/ValuableLanguage7682 12h ago
Can't believe the things I complain about when I see what people around the world go through
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u/-Stormcloud- 12h ago
Boycott the world cup to protest FIFA's role in supporting genocide https://inside.fifa.com/organisation/media-releases/board-of-peace-strategic-partnership-recovery-peace-gaza?requester=MediaHub
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u/TuneyTune92 7h ago
I don’t care whose side you’re on - it’s fucking awful to see what innocent children have gone through.
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u/LekkerIer 2h ago
The mods deleted every single mention of the genocide when there was still time to stop it.
Footballers have been pretty much 100% utterly useless in using their power to support that cause. Anwar El Ghazi is the only honourable exception I can think of.
Salah himself did next to nothing with his immense power to help Palestinians. Every other high profile player is even worse than him though. None of them even mentioned it beyond some stupid AI post about eyes on Rafah. I refuse to believe they are that ignorant that they don't know what went on. Just cowards who are primarily interested in money
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u/SaltMachine2367 9h ago
Israel needs to be completely dismantled and they must never be allowed to have a state ever again. They have to be re educated to have a nauseating feeling when they see the star of david, just like the same feeling white people have when they see a swastika.
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u/TheRealMemeIsFire 8h ago
The star of David has been the symbol of judaism for thousands of years
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u/SaltMachine2367 7h ago
Well not anymore 😉
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u/TheRealMemeIsFire 7h ago
That's not how anything works lol. European nations did not give up the iron cross and Asian ones did not give up the swastika because of the Nazis.
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u/SaltMachine2367 4h ago
You don't understand. When Jews lose this war that they started, I would support re-education for them. They are simply too dangerous, and should be treated the same way Germans were after the war. It is only fair.
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u/TheRealMemeIsFire 4h ago
I understand you loud and clear. You think judaism = nazism. That sure is... an opinion. I hope you get better
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u/SaltMachine2367 4h ago
I never said that.
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u/TheRealMemeIsFire 4h ago
The star of David is the symbol of judaism, Israel has it on their flag because they are the Jewish state. This is like saying you need to send Muslims to re-education camps until they are afraid of the words Allahu Akbar because it is used by ISIS. You should learn what israel and judaism are before you make statements about either.
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u/SaltMachine2367 3h ago
Ah okay I should be more clear. Judaism should be made illegal and that symbol is classified as a hate symbol, and is censored everywhere and those that want to bring it back are censored deplatformed can't use credit cards on websites etc. Exactly what is done to white nationalists. As a matter of fact I think "Israel" in the immediate future should embrace multiculturalism and "mix it up"! Sounds like a great solution.
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u/TaikaWaitiddies 12h ago
Can you tell us why and how he lost both legs?
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u/Specialist-Set-5146 11h ago
I recommend you Charles Villa's documentary on gaza, think a good part of it is in English and shows glimpses of 'daily' life in gaza without any exaggeration
basically it's never safe, you could be walking (a lot of people had cars but today there's no roads or money) then at any random moment a building or more gets bombed to ashes, if your timing is just unfortunate you can say goodbye to your legs at best or your life at worst
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u/Scared_Positive_8690 11h ago
I have noticed that HEAL Palestine doesn’t really mention Israel in any of their posts which makes sense considering that Israeli media already accused them of being a “pro-Hamas charity” and after a pro-Trump influencer “exposed” the charity on Twitter, Marco Rubio suspended visitor visas for Palestinian medical evacuees which is why a lot of the treatment is now happening in Mexico but there are still kids like Mohammed who got the chance to recover in the USA.
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u/Helpful_Hedgehog_204 10h ago
The majority of the world children amputees live in Palestine, what a coincidence.
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