Palestine’s only Paralympian out to honour late brother

[Pelican Press 0]

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Palestine’s only Paralympian out to honour late brother

Palestine’s sole representative at the Paralympics had no hesitation when he was asked to compete in Paris at 28 days notice – and in a sport he hadn’t practised in three years.

Fadi Deeb was left a paraplegic when he was shot in the back by an ******** ******* in 2001.

Deeb lost his brother Alaa as a result of an ******** ***** ******* in Gaza last December and has lost 14 other extended family members in the last year.

The 39-year-old has had little time to prepare for the F55 shotput and last competed in track events in 2021 as a result of a shoulder injury.

Asked why he answered his federation’s request to take up a place at the Paralympics at such short notice, Deeb told AAP: “I have a voice to talk about my country, and 11 million Palestinians.

“There is a responsibility on my shoulders, I’m not doing it for my career or for my name, this is for the 45,000 people ******* in Palestine (in the last 11 months) and the 100,000 people who have been injured.

“The world must understand our story … Our people are a target and what is happening didn’t start on October 7, it started 76 years ago.

“The world must also understand that we are not animals in a cage, we are human beings.”

Deeb plays professional wheelchair basketball in France and has yet to hold a shotput ahead of his event.

Unlike athletes from the leading Paralympic nations, Deeb has to navigate Paris’s public transport network in his wheelchair, taking two buses and one metro to a gym in the French capital’s lesser-visited northern suburbs.

The ************ has prepared himself by thrusting a 10kg dumbbell above his head.

“I’m using normal dumbbells to practise the technique of the shotput,” Deeb said.

“There are a lot of sad feelings when you are ************ from the Gaza Strip.

“I hope I can bring a medal and I will push myself for my brother, who was ******* in December.

“My job is to raise my country’s flag here in Paris and to show the world that as a ************ people, we are not finished and we will not give up.”

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