PARIS: Nine months ago, Fadi Aldeeb missed several calls from his brother. The next day, he found out 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 France.

“On December 6, I had a French league game and when I was finished I found my brother had called me many times... I tried to call back but there was no connection,” Aldeeb, who took part in the Paralympics shot put, told Reuters.

“The 7th of December at night I received [the news] that ‘Okay, your brother was killed in an attack on our building’,” said Aldeeb, adding that he often wonders what his brother’s last message was.

In Paris, Aldeeb is feeling the pressure of being what he says is the voice of his people at the Paralympics.

“It’s too many feelings, too much responsibility, because I’m not speaking about myself, I’m not playing for myself. I’m here for 11 million, for all who say I’m a Palestinian, for all who talk about humanity, and to talk about the freedom of Palestine,” he said.

“When we are raising the flag here in Paris, we are [showing we are] still alive, we still we need our human rig­hts, we still need our freedom,” he said.

The Palestine Olympic Committee was recognised three decades ago by the International Olympic Committee. Gaza has a population of about 2.3 million people, and millions more Palestinians live elsewhere.

Aldeeb, 40, said he became 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 talking about life in Gaza, where the Health Ministry says over 40,000 people have been killed since Israel unleashed its offensive in response to the Oct 7 attack on Southern Israel by Hamas that killed 1,200 people.

Aldeeb, who will resume playing wheelchair basketball in the Paris suburb of Genevilliers after the Paralympics, sees Israel’s military as a “killing machine”.

“There is no difference [for Israel’s military] between athletes, disabled or non-disabled, children or women, big or small homes, hospitals, hotels, universities or school,” he said.

Aldeeb made clear he felt uncomfortable with the presence of Israeli athletes in Paris, which held a ceremony before the Games to pay tribute to Israeli Olympic team members killed at the 1972 Munich Olympics.

But welcoming support he had received from other competitors, he said: “I’m not feeling that I’m alone or feeling like I’m alone, these people really, it’s amazing and incredible, they give me a feeling of humanity.”

GOLDEN TREBLE

The Games action on Monday saw Brazilian swimmer Gabrielzinho won a remarkable third swimming gold with victory in the 200 metres freestyle S2 final.

Gabrielzinho, who has no arms or hands and whose legs are atrophied, clocked 3min 58.92sec ahead of neutral athlete Vladimir Danilenko.

The third gold for the Brazilian, whose full name is Gabriel Geraldo dos Santos Araujo, follows his successes in the 100m backstroke and 50m backstroke.

In another outstanding swimming feat, Belarusian Ihar Boki won the 20th Paralympic gold of his career by winning the 50m freestyle for the visually impaired.

On the track at the Stade de France, Sherman Guity of Costa Rica left the world’s fastest amputee sprinters in his wake as he won the eagerly awaited men’s T64 100m, while 19-year-old Californian sprinter-jumper Ezra Frech claimed the first of what promises to be many track and field golds.

In the wheelchair rugby final, Japan beat three-time champions the USA 48-41 to claim their first Paralympics title.

Published in Dawn, September 4th, 2024