Israel Arrests Singer, Video-Producers Praising Killer for Inciting Violence

Israeli security forces have arrested Mohammed Al-Barghouti, a Palestinian wedding singer, his keyboard player and the technical team that produced as a video his song praising a terrorist who recently stabbed three members of an Israeli family to death. Omar Al-Abed entered the home of the Salamon family during the Sabbath meal and killed the grandfather and two of his adult children while five other kids were hidden by their mother in another room. Authorities learned of the song after it was uploaded onto social media after debuting at a wedding. The Ma’an news agency provided translation of the song, a portion of which declares, “Hey you, who asks about real men, you will find them in Kobar… Omar al-Abed is an earthquake who took revenge on behalf of Al-Aqsa… he came from above the mountains carrying a knife on his side, and when he announced the clash, he made the Zionists lie on the ground… even if they detain my mother and my father, and demolish our home, we will never wear clothes of disgrace.” Kobar is Al-Abed’s home village and the reference to Al-Aqsa is the mosque on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount (Haram al-Sharif to Muslims) that Palestinians claim is under siege by the Israelis. Israeli arrests in response to alleged incitement to violence are increasing.