The Palestinians had reason to celebrate for a change. The jubilant outbursts in Palestinian cities throughout the West Bank and Gaza after Mohammed Assaf, 23, from Khan Younis, Gaza, won the Arab Idol competition, were unprecedented. For the Palestinians, a new national hero was born, and the masses, who watched him win on huge television screens set up on the streets, were ecstatic. The night skies lit up with fireworks this past Saturday, June 22, right after he won the final round in Beirut. Hundreds of thousands of people sang and danced in the streets, while Assaf’s songs blared from cars stuck in vast traffic jams. 

In some sense, it was reminiscent of the spontaneous celebrations that broke out in Israel when the Maccabi Tel Aviv basketball team (a small team with mostly Israeli players) won the Eurocup basketball championship in 1977. But the latest celebrations were more than that — even bigger than those that erupted when former Palestinian Authority chief Yasser Arafat returned to Gaza in July 1994.

Mohammed Assaf studied at a Gaza university, and dreamed of one day becoming a journalist — once one of Gaza's most in-demand professions, which, until the Arab Spring erupted, was the leading source of news stories throughout the Middle East, if not the world. Then Assaf decided to try his luck on the MBC network's Arab Idol competition. He set out for Beirut, only to be delayed in Egypt. When he finally arrived, he discovered that he had missed his chance to try out. He was just one of 17,000 young men and women from across the Arab world who came pounding on the studio doors hoping to get accepted on this popular reality show, and the tickets were already distributed. But Assaf got lucky. A young Palestinian from the Nahal family, who now lives in Dubai, was impressed by Assaf’s singing and made a very noble gesture. He gave the boy from Khan Younis his own ticket.

The rest is history.