Fadi Aldeeb, who lost his brother in an Israeli attack in Gaza, raises the Palestinian flag in Paris as a sign of resistance.
Nine months ago, Fadi Aldeeb was unable to answer several calls from his brother in Gaza. The next day, he learned that he had been killed in an Israeli attack on his home.
Aldeeb, the only Palestinian athlete at the Paris Paralympics, left the Gaza Strip a decade ago for a wheelchair basketball career that took him to Turkey and Greece before finally arriving in France.
“On December 6, I had a French league match and when I finished, I found out that my brother had called me several times. I tried to call back, but there was no connection,” Aldeeb told Reuters news agency.
“On December 7, I received (the news from Gaza) saying, ‘OK, your brother was killed in an attack on our building,'” Aldeeb said, adding that he often wonders what his brother’s last message was.
In Paris, Aldeeb, who competed in the shot put event at the Paralympics, feels the pressure to be what he says is the voice of his people at the Paralympics.
“It’s too much feeling, too much responsibility, because I’m not talking about myself, I’m not playing for myself. I’m here for 11 million people, for everyone who says I’m Palestinian, for everyone who talks about humanity and freedom for Palestine,” he said.
“When we raise the flag here in Paris, we show that we are still alive, that we still need our human rights, that we still need our freedom,” he said.
Paralympic athletes convey ‘sense of humanity’
Aldeeb, 40, said he was left paraplegic after being shot in the back by an Israeli soldier in 2001 during the second intifada, or uprising, against Israeli occupation.
He raises his voice when he talks about life in Gaza, where the Health Ministry says more than 40,000 people have been killed in the Israeli war since Hamas launched attacks on southern Israel on October 7.
In Israel, 1,139 people were killed and about 250 were captured.
Aldeeb, who will return to wheelchair basketball in Gennevilliers, a suburb of Paris, after the Paralympics, considers the Israeli army a “killing machine”.
“There is no difference (for the Israeli army) between athletes, disabled or not, children or women, big or small houses, hospitals, hotels, universities or schools,” he said.
Aldeeb said he felt uncomfortable with the presence of Israeli athletes in Paris, where a ceremony was held before the Games to honor members of the Israeli Olympic team killed by Palestinian gunmen at the 1972 Munich Olympics.
But he praised the support he received from fellow competitors, saying: “I don’t feel like I’m alone or not alone. These people – really, it’s incredible and extraordinary – give me a sense of humanity.”
The Olympic Charter states that competitors at the Olympic Games must enjoy freedom of expression but that no “political propaganda” is allowed in Olympic venues or other areas. Aldeeb was speaking outside the Olympic Village.