The saga of the Israeli "Arab Idol" contestant

Last Saturday, one of the two contestants for "Arab Idol" who have Israeli citizenship lost the competition when she gathered the lowest number of votes:

Manal Mousa, an Israeli contestant on the Arab world's premier singing competition, was eliminated on Saturday's live-performance episodes.

The judges of Arab Idol were shocked by Mousa's elimination, and she thanked them graciously for their support before turning to her political message. "I want to pass a message for the yellow journalism that fought me – I am Palestinian and Palestinian blood flows through me."

She had made a number of anti-Israel statements during her competition:

Mousa, a 27-year-old resident of Deir Al-Assad in northern Israel, set off massive shockwaves with her statements during her time on Arab Idol, as she took to Facebook to demonstrate her pro-Palestinian credentials.

Mousa called Khair Hamdan, the Kafr Kanna who was killed by Israeli police officers, a "martyr" and encouraged protests and demonstrations across the Arab sector. "Palestine is revolting, Israeli Arabs are revolting, Kafr Kanna is revolting," she wrote.

But it seems that one reason she lost is because Arabs were starting rumors that she was pro-Israel!

After Israel's Arabic spokesman Avichai Adraee noted that Israel allowed the two Israeli contestants to travel to Lebanon to compete in the show. This apparent "support" by Israel for the contestants seems to have started a number of rumors, including that she was in the Israeli army, or that her father was in the IDF.

This was the "yellow journalism" she was referring to.

As "evidence" of her family's pro-Israel credentials, a video surfaced of her sister Sabrin auditioning for an Israeli talent show program.



Even though Sabrin sang a classic Arab tune, that fact that she was on the show at all, speaking Hebrew with the judges, and otherwise acting like a person who doesn't hate Israel seems to have turned the Arab voters against Manal by association.

The subtext of many of Manal's critics is that all Arab citizens of Israel as traitors to the Palestinian Arab cause, something which would seem to be a bit contradictory with the idea of "return." Until you realize that "return" is meant to destroy Israel, not to solve any "refugee" problem. As long as Israel exists, Israeli Arabs are considered to be collaborators with the Zionist enemy.

So far, I have not seen the same kind of backlash against the remaining Israeli Arab in the competition, Haitham Khailily.