118: Wartime Diaries - Faiz Abu Sabehan
Israel Story
Israel Story
4.8 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 12 November 2023
⏱️ 18 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Over the last five weeks we’ve spoken to many families of hostages. That’s how we met Faiz Abu Sabehan, whose 53-year-old brother-in-law, Farhan al-Qadi – a father of eleven – has been kidnapped into Gaza. Faiz is a Bedouin politician, and has twice served as mayor of Rahat, the largest Arab city in Israel. He’s also an educator – a teacher, a principal and an administrator. Much like his political patron, Mansour Abbas, Faiz holds a complex position – he’s in favor of fully integrating into Israeli society on the one hand, but remains steadfast and uncompromising when it comes to central tenets of Islam on the other.
Being the mayor of Rahat is one of the most difficult jobs in the country – the city is poor, under-policed and sees more than its share of violence. In fact, Faiz himself has survived multiple assassination attempts. Some of what he says is challenging and might make certain listeners feel uncomfortable. But nevertheless we felt that it’s important to bring his voice too, as an Israeli, as a Bedouin leader and as a family member of a hostage.
The end song is Shir Ahava Bedoui (“Bedouin Love Song”) by Tzlil Mechuvan.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Attention at all passengers. You can now book your train tickets on Uber and get 10% back in Uber credits to spend on your next train journey. |
| 0:11.0 | So no excuses not to visit your in-laws this Christmas. |
| 0:16.5 | Trains now on Uber. T's and C's apply check the Uber app. You're listening to this podcast, so I know you care about the war in Israel right now. |
| 0:30.0 | And you've been reading the headlines, Massacre and Gaza, genocide perpetrated by Hamas, no by Israel. |
| 0:38.0 | But if you've been listening to this podcast long enough, you know one thing. This stuff seems complicated and honestly |
| 0:46.1 | you shouldn't just pick aside or decide your opinion without really learning, |
| 0:50.3 | without really knowing what you're talking about. |
| 0:54.0 | And that's where this podcast comes in. |
| 0:57.0 | Check out unpacking Israeli history. |
| 1:00.0 | They have episodes with topics ranging from what is Hamas anyway to whether Israel should ransom |
| 1:06.5 | captured soldiers and the history of Israel and its disengagement from Gaza in 2005. Unpacking Israeli history cuts through the noise |
| 1:16.9 | and helps you understand Israel's present through understanding Israel's |
| 1:20.5 | history. So educate yourself. Learn the history behind the headlines. |
| 1:27.0 | Find unpacking Israeli history wherever you get your podcasts. Ishameen, but all Muslim immin, yeah, |
| 1:43.0 | I'm with myhadei machekara, |
| 1:45.0 | Ihata, so as a believer, as a devout Muslim, |
| 1:49.0 | how do you deal with what happened on October 7th? |
| 1:51.0 | How do you see it? |
| 1:52.0 | Machene is a negative idea. what happened is something that goes against our |
| 1:53.4 | the way I see it what happened is something that goes against our religion it's |
| 2:01.8 | infuriating. We all obviously condemn the acts of |
| 2:06.7 | Hamas which are horrible criminal acts. When you see people slaughtering other |
... |
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