الشهيد القسامي / محمد رفيق العرعير
صاحب شخصية عسكرية مقدام في الجهاد
Meet The Chicken and The Professors
Mohammed Rafiq Alareer Prof. Cynthia Franklin Prof. Refaat Alareer
(Hamada)
The Chicken
This is a story about an infamous Hamas terrorist. While the notorious character he really played on Hamas TV, Al-Aqsa TV, was extensively reported by the international media, little if anything is known about his identity, his secret exploits in Gaza, and his death during the 2014 Gaza Operation, until now.
This is largely attributable to a widespread disinformation campaign portraying him as Karkour, The Chicken, an alleged “mischievous” chicken character who appeared on the Al-Aqsa TV program, 'Tomorrow’s Pioneers.'
On May 25, 2016, “Aussie Dave” wrote about this on his webpage, Israellycool.
The success of The Chicken story was leveraged by Palestinian advocates who brought it to Washington DC, believing that it would be useful in their campaign to lobby the U.S. Congress by generating an emotional response that would translate into feelings of compassion for the Palestinian agenda.
Prof. Cynthia Franklin, the University of Hawaii at Manoa
Cynthia Franklin is a member of the faculty, English Department, University of Hawaii at Manoa and teaches Life Writing. She and the University of Hawaii at Manoa, possibly unwittingly, advanced the story of The Chicken. They promoted the narrative that Mohammed Rafiq Alareer played the part of The Chicken on the Hamas-run TV station, and that he was an innocent civilian, murdered by Israel ‘in his own house’. Prof. Franklin dedicated a special issue of the journal Biography, published by the University of Hawaii Press, to him. The Chicken was included in a lecture she gave in foreign country.
Prof. Refaat Alareer, the Islamic University of Gaza
Refaat Alareer was one of The Chicken’s brothers. He is a professor of English Literature at the Islamic University of Gaza. In addition to teaching English Literature, he teaches Creative Writing. In 2011 he gave a lecture, “Creative Writing In English”, at the Centre for Political and Development Studies (CPDS) in Gaza. CPDS is an NGO. The subject of his lecture was how to exploit creative writing arts for the benefit of the Palestinian Arabs:
Centre For Political and Development Studies
In 2013, Refaat Alareer was a member of the CPDS Board of Directors:
"The Kuala Lumpur Palestine Film Festival … kicked off on Friday 18 May, 2013 with remarkable Palestinian participation… Mr Refaat Alareer, member of CPDS Board of Directors is attending the festival this year and represents the center."
The CPDS is a Hamas venue located in the Gaza Strip:
CPDS Event, Commodore Hotel, Gaza City, 5/10/17: Mahmoud Zahar, co-founder, Hamas, political wing
“We’re two hours away from the interview with Dr. Mahmoud Zahar, be close to our dear fans..”
Political wing of Hamas, military wing of Hamas = same thing:
Mahmoud Zahar, Hamas, military wing
These tweets are from Refaat Alareer’s suspended Twitter account, refaatesque:
Ahmed Yassin was one of the founders of Hamas. “Palestinians have a right to armed struggle ….”
Refaat Alareer’s Daughter
Below, a screen grab of Shymaa Refaat Alareer’s Facebook page. She is Refaat Alareer’s 15/16 year old daughter:
In the screen grab above, Refaat Alareer, her father, is seen standing in front of a cannon in the page’s cover photo. Her Facebook page’s profile picture depicts a person wearing an Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades headband. Izz al-Din is the murderous military wing of Hamas.
The picture below, taken from Shymaa’s Facebook page above, is The Chicken, Mohammed Rafiq Alareer, her deceased uncle:
YouTube Video
The screen grabs below of Refaat and Shymaa were taken from a YouTube video produced when Shymaa was five years old:
She asked “Dad, who created the Jews?” I could not answer her question. Unfortunately I did not have answer to it.
In April 2014, Rafaat Alareer was on a book tour in the United States, promoting a book he edited, “Gaza Writes Back”. While he was in Washington DC, he was part of a group that met with Rep. Lujan-Grisham (D-NM) in her Washington, DC office.
Lobbying the U.S. Congress
On September 22, 2014, a Palestinian advocacy group met with Congresswoman Michelle Lujan-Grisham in her Albuquerque, New Mexico office. This was after the IDF Gaza Operation Protective Edge ended and after the death of Mohammed Rafiq Alareer, The Chicken. One of the Congresswoman’s constituents from New Mexico, had previously introduced Refaat Alareer to her at an April 2014 meeting in her DC office:
Refaat Alareer and Rawan Yaghi meet with Congresswoman Lujan-Grisham (D-NM)April 2014
The constituent stated that during the September 22, 2014 meeting, when she informed Rep. Lujan-Grisham that Refaat’s brother [The Chicken] had been killed and his home destroyed, she was speechless. The constituent wrote:
"Even for a strong, articulate politician, there are no words. I hope the news gave her pause to think more deeply about U.S. policy in the Middle East."
On September 7, 2018, the same New Mexico constituent wrote about meeting again with her Congresswoman from New Mexico. She considered the meeting with her an honor because Rep. Lujan-Grisham had a very busy schedule at the time, she was campaigning for Governor. [Michelle Lujan-Grisham is currently the Governor of the State of New Mexico]
When meeting with Rep. Lujan-Grisham, the constituent reported that she will remind her that “Israel killed Refaat’s brother in its military assault ….”. She would then go on to ask her Congresswoman to support H.R 4391 (Ending Detention of Palestinian Children), H.R. 6451 (UNRWA Reform & Refugee Support), and not support any future Anti-BDS legislation if it comes to her desk as Governor.
This New Mexico constituent, an advocate for the Palestinian agenda, wrote the following:
"My friend’s brother lost his life that day, killed in his home. The story of his life and death still bring me to tears."
The statement above (“bring me to tears”) contains an embedded URL that links to an Electronic Intifada article, “The Story of My Brother, Martyr Mohammed Alareer”:
It was this Electronic Intifada article written by Refaat Alareer that was the genesis of The Chicken story, the story seen throughout the internet, the story referenced by the University of Hawaii at Manoa. It not only concealed Mohammed Rafiq Alareer’s true role on Al-Aqsa TV, the role that made him famous in Gaza, it also concealed his real work, his “day job”, as an employee of the Hamas run Gaza government.
The Electronic Intifada, Genesis of The Chicken Story
On July 28, 2014, The Electronic Intifada (EI) published “The Story of My Brother, Martyr Mohammed Alareer”, written by Refaat Alareer, the professor of English Literature that teaches how to exploit creative writing arts in English for the benefit of the Palestinians.
The Electronic Intifada or as it is known to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, “The EI Project”, is a “Program Service” of a U.S. 501(c)(3) Tax Exempt Organization, the Middle East Cultural and Charitable Society, Inc., Ali Abunimah, President.
The picture below was taken during the same book tour, April 2014, that brought Refaat Alareer into the office of Rep. Lujan-Grisham, Alareer (Left) is seen with Abunimah (Center):
The EI article begins with the following statement:
“My brother Mohammed Alareer, 31, a father of two, was killed by an Israeli airstrike while he was at home. While he was at home.”
Refaat Alareer writes:
“…acting skills won him the role of Karkour, the most famous television character in the Gaza Strip. Karkour, a mischievous chicken, was the star of Al-Aqsa TV’s program Tomorrow’s Pioneers, which hosted children from all over the Gaza Strip.”
“Hamada’s character attracted an audience from all over Palestine and even the Arab world where kids would call to protest Karkour’s … annoying behaviors, and suggest to him more well-behaved alternatives.”
“The death of my brother will come as a shock to the large numbers of children whose favorite part of Friday was watching Karkour misbehave and helping him change into a better Karkour, thanks to their advice, only for him to relapse at the start of the next episode into another anti-social behavior.”
“Raneem and Hamza [his children] will live to be witnesses to Israel’s war on civilians. They will live and grow in an unjust world where their father can be killed because he is in his own house"
Concealment by the Electronic Intifada
Mohammed Rafiq Alareer was not a civilian. Mohammed Rafiq Alareer may or may not have played the role of a chicken at some point, but he was not the most famous television character in the Gaza Strip for playing the role of Karkour on the Al-Aqsa TV program, Tomorrow’s Pioneers. And Mohammed Rafiq Alareer was not killed because he was just simply at home in his own house, “…while he was at home. While he was at home.”
It was The Chicken story by Refaat Alareer that concealed the true identity of his brother, Mohammed Rafiq Alareer. The Chicken Story would then be the center-piece of an international PR campaign to garner sympathy for the Palestinian cause.
Prof. Franklin, the University and the Chicken Story
The Chicken story was disseminated globally by Prof. Franklin and the University of Hawaii. Pictured below, is Cynthia Franklin, PhD (L), giving a lecture at SOAS University of London, 2/18/15, “Life in Occupied Palestine”: Accounts of Existence and Other Acts of Resistance”.
Pictured on the projection screen behind her is The Chicken:
Obviously, The Chicken was included in her London lecture.
The Center for Biographical Research (CBR) at the University of Hawaii at Manoa is dedicated to the interdisciplinary and multicultural study of life writing. Life Writing is the term used to describe all written non-fiction recordings of memories such as biographies, autobiographies, memoirs, diaries and blogs. It does what it says, life writing is writing about life.
The CBR publishes the journal Biography: An Interdisciplinary Quarterly. They state that the journal has explored for four decades the theoretical, generic, historical, cultural, and practical dimensions of life writing. In addition, they further state that once a year, a formal, guest-edited special issue explores a topic of emerging critical interest - BIOGRAPHY: LIFE IN OCCUPIED PALESTINE, co-edited by Prof. Franklin, was one of their guest-edited special issues. It was made available globally on the Project Muse web platform.
Project Muse, a Johns Hopkins University project, is an online database of peer-reviewed academic journals and electronic books. It provides digital humanities and social science content for the scholarly community around the world on a subscription basis, to academic, public, special, and school libraries.
This is the DEDICATION section of the journal Biography, BIOGRAPHY: LIFE IN OCCUPIED PALESTINE, co-edited by Prof. Franklin, as seen on the Project Muse web-platform:
DEDICATION
In memory of Mohammed Alareer, and every Palestinian whose life was cut short in the summer of 2014, and in the decades before, struggling against Israeli colonization.
This is the POSTSCRIPT AND DEDICATION section of Three Cafes and a Special Issue, the introduction to “Life in Occupied Palestine”, as seen on Project Muse:
POSTSCRIPT AND DEDICATION
As July 2014 comes to its bloody close, those killed include Mohammed Alareer, brother to Refaat Alareer, along with four other members of Refaat’s family, all of them found dead in the wreckage of their own home during a “humanitarian ceasefire.” Only hours after hearing this, Refaat writes, “A house of four floors but thousands of stories is no more. The stories, however, will live to bear witness to the most brutally wild occupation the world has ever known” (“The Story of My Brother”). We dedicate this volume, in which Refaat and the other contributors bear witness and tell their stories, to the memory of Mohammed Alareer and to all the others who died while trying to live life in occupied Palestine. We offer it as a small yet insistent intervention in the greater struggle for justice in Palestine.
—Ramallah and Honolulu. August 1, 2014
“The Story of My Brother”, cited in the narrative above, is the Electronic Intifada article written by Refaat Alareer that initially created The Chicken story. By choosing to place the special issue of the journal Biography on the Project Muse web-plattform, the University of Hawaii at Manoa has made the above narrative available to students attending academic institutions, globally. They will never know or suspect who The Chicken factually was, the role he actually played on Al-Aqsa TV, and what his “day job” was with the Hamas run Gaza government.
The narrative in the DEDICATION above is substantively false. Mohammed Rafiq Alareer, The Chicken, was not killed in his house along with four other members of [his] family. All members of his family left at the urging of The Chicken before it was destroyed. The Chicken was killed in his house on 7/22/14 together with one other individual, Musab Nafez Mohammed Al Ajlah. And The Chicken didn’t die while trying to live life in occupied Palestine, he died when his house was specifically targeted in the 2014 Gaza war by the Israeli Air Force.
The Course
In 2017, Prof. Franklin taught a course at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, “Seminar in Life Writing: Human Lives, Uncivil States”. Her course description included the following:
“we will consider how Israel’s human rights abuses against Palestinians, and US support for them, depend upon casting Palestinians … as terrorists … and we will read life narratives … that counter this…
Key texts for this section … the special 2014 issue of Biography, “Life in Occupied Palestine” … the 2014 web-based projects Humanize Palestine, The Gaza Names Project ….”
This is what her students saw when they read the The Chicken’s life narrative on the Humanize Palestine website:
The above image is from an archived file of the website. In 2017, shortly after the University of Hawaii Chancellor was informed of its content, the Humanize Palestine website was disabled.
The Humanize Palestine Facebook page below, still on the internet, displays a portion of the narrative, written by Refaat Alareer, that students would have read:
“Mohammed was timid but humorous and adventurous. His public speaking and acting skills won him the role of Karkour. The most famous television character in the Gaza Strip”
These are close-up screen grabs of the Humanize Palestine Facebook profile picture taken from the Mohammed Alareer post above:
This is a better image of the Humanize Palestine Facebook profile picture:
Humanize Palestine - Hamas Nexus
This is the original photograph used to produce the Humanize Palestine Facebook profile picture:
The photo has a watermark:
“Moaz Jabari”
The photograph above is attributable to Moaz Jabari, this is Moaz with his father, Ahmed Jabari:
When Moaz was asked about how his father spent the last moments of his life before he was martyred in 2012, this was his response:
'How he was spending his time. I don't know how he ran all that big load. He was a leader of the al-Qassam Brigades, a political bureau member of Hamas, the Palestinian resistance chief of staff and the President of the Al-Nour Association, which manages the sons of martyrs and prisoners. , many miss a lot about the house and when he came home we feel that Eid has come, his presence was not only for comfort and reassurance but he was practicing jihadist work while at home."
Moaz’s grandmother and father:
Moaz’s social networking site, ASKfm:
The Alareer Family - Hamas Nexus
Students taking Prof. Franklin’s course were required to read life narratives from Humanize Palestine, it was designated a “key text”. Refaat Alareer’s narrative appearing in the Facebook post above, would have been read by students. Prof. Franklin wrote that Section 1 of her course would counter the perception that all Palestinians are terrorists by presenting life narratives from web-based projects such as Humanize Palestine.
The Chicken’s True Identity
The Mohammed Rafiq Alareer narrative CAN NOT counter the perception that all Palestinians are terrorists - whether or not they are - when in fact, Mohammed Rafiq Alareer WAS a terrorist, a member of the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas. He was a “Qassami”, an al-Qassam Brigades soldier.
Mohammed Rafiq Alareer was not just simply one of many, one of the hundreds of Hamas terror operatives killed in Operation Protective Edge, and he was not famous in Gaza because he was an al-Qassam Brigades operative. This was unknown outside of his immediate family. He was not famous because he played the role of Karkour the chicken on Hamas TV. In Gaza, he was famous because he played the part of Narhoul the Bee on the Al-Aqsa TV program, Tomorrows Pioneers. Beyond Gaza, his name was not widely known, his character’s name Narhoul was known, infamous, nefarious.
After his death, Mohammed Rafiq Alareer was memorialized in Gaza, the children who watched him perform as Narhoul, mourned his death. They fondly remember his character encouraging young Palestinian children to shoot the Jews, “all of them”.
Transcript (courtesy of PalWatch):
Child host: “OK, so what does a policeman do?”
Nahul (adult in giant bee costume): “He catches thieves, and people who make trouble.”
Child host: “And shoots Jews. Right?”
Girl: “Yes.”
Child host: “You want to be like him?”
[Girl nods]
Child host: “Allah willing, when you grow up.”
Girl: “So that I can shoot Jews.”
[Nahul the bee cheers]
Child host: “All of them? All of them?”
Girl: “Yes.”
Child host: “Good.”
The Chicken, His Acting Career
The story of The Chicken begins with his acting career. He was not famous or known in Gaza for his role as Karkour, The Chicken, he was famous for playing the part of the Bee, Narhoul, on the Hamas TV station.
(Image source, MEMRI via YouTube)
Hamas television’s giant bumble bee encourages children to punch Jews and “turn their faces into tomatoes.”
Theblaze.com, on 5/11/14, reported the following:
Another segment of the show had the bee, Nahoul, speaking with a child named Qays by telephone about Jenin, a large Palestinian city. The two discussed the possibility of “Jews” coming to Jenin.
“Listen, my friend, make a fist, like this,” the giant bumble bee suggested using a high falsetto voice, adding “next time they come, punch them. Turn their faces into tomatoes.”
“In order to liberate Palestine,” the child Qays answered.
“Allah willing,” said the bee.
In another excerpt, Nahoul the bee spoke with Rawan, a girl who appeared to be his co-host.
“Rawan, I want to tell him to pick up a stone, and when the Jews come, to take it and throw it,” the giant bumblebee suggested.
“That’s right, if the neighbors are Jewish,” Rawan interjected.
“He should beat them up,” Nahoul the bee said.
“If his neighbors are Jewish or Zionist, that goes without saying,” the girl Rawan added.
After Mohammed Rafiq Alareer was killed on 7/22/14, the following was broadcast by Al-Aqsa TV, on 8/28/14 (Middle East Media Research Institute TV Monitor Project):
“We are now broadcasting this show from the studios of Al-Aqsa TV, which were destroyed by the enemy. They destroyed every stone and every tree, but they will never destroy our resolute will. … We appear before you today, after having lost our dearest beloved, who was loved by young and old alike – the famous puppet, who angered the enemy for many many years. He is the heroic martyr Muhammad Al-'Ar'ir, who would put a smile on the faces of children through the character of the puppet Nahoul.”
On 10/18/14, Al Jazeera reported the following (English translation):
The martyr of the artist Muhammad al-Arajeer in the form of "Nahool " during the program "Pioneers of Tomorrow"
Saturday, 1435/1423 H - corresponding to 18/10/2014 (last updated) at 12:30 pm (Mecca), 9:30 (Greenwich)
Ahmed Abdel-Al-Gaza
The program "Tomorrow's Pioneers," … shown on the local Al Aqsa TV … the Palestinian artist Mohammed Al-Ar'eer was martyred during the aggression… shown by the figure of a doll in the form of "bee" deliberately make mistakes to correct a group of children guests in the program.
The brother of the late artist Mohamed Rifat al-Arrair said that his brother … began presenting a program for children on Al-Aqsa channel, The children learn the love of their country and educate them to reject the negotiations and to resist the Israeli occupation until the liberation of Palestine.
The program, which was offered by al-Arayer, gained widespread fame in Palestine. He began to represent the role of "Nuhul", who commits certain behavioral errors and participates in a polite manner by a group of children.
Muhammad …drawing his audience from all over Palestine and the Arab world.
The Palestinian artist was martyred in direct Israeli bombardment of his house in Al-Shojaeya neighborhood, east of Gaza City.
Refaat Alareer: His brother, Mohammed Rafiq Alareer, Narhoul, educated the children “to reject the negotiations and to resist the Israeli occupation until the liberation of Palestine.”
The Al-Jazeerastory directly contradicts two Electronic Intifada (EI) statements made by Refaat Alareer, relative to The Chicken’s acting role:
1- Refaat Alareer wrote that his brother was famous for playing the role of Karkour, The Chicken.
Al-Jazeera: The program, which was offered by al-Arayer, gained widespread fame in Palestine. He began to represent the role of “Nuhul"
2- Refaat Alareer wrote that the program was about a mischievous chicken played by his brother, Karkour, that misbehaved and the children were encouraged to correct his bad behavior.
Al-Jazeera: The brother of the late artist Mohamed Rifat al-Arrair said that his brother began presenting a program for children … educate them to reject the negotiations and to resist the Israeli occupation until the liberation of Palestine.
The Al-Jazeera story further contradicted Refaat Alareer’s EI narrative:
Israel intended to bomb people to surrender by randomly destroying houses and killing people in the streets.
Al-Jazeera: The Palestinian artist was martyred in direct Israeli bombardment of his house in Al-Shojaeya neighborhood, east of Gaza City.
The Chicken, His Jihad Career
Mohammed Rafiq Alareer was employed by the Palestinian Interior Ministry in the Gaza Strip. The Interior Minister is the director of Al-Aqsa TV, the Hamas run television station. Alareer was an actor in the Al-Aqsa TV program, Tomorrows Pioneers, where he played the role of Narhoul the Bee.
The Interior Ministry is also responsible for security in the Gaza Strip. This function is delegated to the Ministry’s National Security Forces of the Gaza Strip and this was Mohammed Rafiq Alareer’s “day job”. He held the rank of “Senior (First) Assistant” in the National Security Forces, (مساعد أول / محمد رفيق العرعير).
In the ceremony depicted below, the command is seen honoring members of the force killed in the 2014 Gaza war by planting trees, one for each member killed:
This is the tree planted to memorialize The Chicken:
The Chicken was paid a salary as a member of the National Security Forces of the Palestinian Interior Ministry in the Gaza Strip. His position in the security force was a Hamas sham. Mohammed Rafiq Alareer was in reality being paid for his work in the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, he had what Meir Amit referred to as a dual identity.
The Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center explains what a “dual identity” is:
…those serving concurrently in terrorist organizations and in the Palestinian security forces in the Gaza Strip.
Dual identity allows Hamas to employ many military operatives in the security forces, give their activity governmental legitimacy, and pay them salaries intended for members of the security forces in the Gaza Strip.
… dual death notices were published by the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades and by the … Interior Ministry and security forces.
This is from The Chicken’s webpage on the al-Qassam Brigades website:
محمد رفيق العرعير
غزة
مجاهد قسامي
2014-07-22
Mohammed Rafiq Al-Ar'eer
Gaza
Mujahid Qusami
2014-07-22
الشهيد القسامي / محمد رفيق العرعير
صاحب شخصية عسكرية مقدام في الجهاد
Martyr al - Qasami / Mohammed Rafiq al - Araeer
The owner of a military figure in the holy jihad
These are screen grabs taken from his martyr video before YouTube deleted it:
The al-Qassam Brigades screen grabs below, show Alareer, the terror operative, in training:
It is only after an al-Qassam Brigades operative has died, that his identity is revealed. In the two screen grabs above, we see The Chicken’s face (R) and the face of one other deceased terror operative, Mus’ab Nafez al-Ajla (L). Below, two photos of Ajla:
Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades website The Martyrs Network
The Chicken and Mus’ab Nafez al-Ajla trained together and they died together. They were both killed in Alareer’s house when it was targeted by the IAF.
Translation from Mohammed Rafiq Alareer’s Izz al-Din webpage:
on time
… on Tuesday, 22/07/2014 following the targeting of the home of the F16 aircraft, where he was in the company of the martyr Musab al-Ajla, where they were seriously injured and led to their martyrdom.
Translation from Mus’ab Nafez al-Ajla’s Izz al-Din webpage:
on time
… on Tuesday, July 22, 2014, following the targeting of the house of the F16, where he was in the company of the martyr Mohammed Rafiq al-Ar'eer, where they were seriously injured and led to their martyrdom
The Alareer Family
In the Electronic Intifada article written by Refaat Alareer, “The Story of My
Brother, Martyr Mohammed Alareer”, which was the genesis of The Chicken Story, Refaat wrote the following:
Martyr number 26
My brother will be martyr number 26 in my extended family; five of them were killed last week and had their bodies dug out of the rubble during Saturday’s twelve-hour “humanitarian ceasefire.”
When I spoke to my mother, who lost two nephews years ago, she was stronger than I ever imagined.
Refaat’s extended family has a long history with the military wing of Hamas, the al-Qassam Brigades. These may be the two nephews his mother was referring to:
Anan Abdul Aziz al-Arahir
كان يبكي في جوف الليل من أجل الشهادة
عنان عبد العزيز العرعير
غزة
مجاهد قسامي
2007-06-27
He was crying in the dead of night to testify
Anan Abdul Aziz al-Arahir
Gaza
Mujahed Qsamy
2007-06-27
His testimony
On the twenty-seventh of June 2007, our martyr came out to repel an invasion in the Shujaiya area and while he was in a location, a Zionist tank targeted him with a treacherous shell and he was killed immediately.
Mohammed Abdul Shakour Al-Ar’eer
على طريق القساميين اختار الشهادة
محمد عبد الشكور العرعير
غزة
مجاهد قسامي
2008-11-20
On the road to the Qassams, choose the certificate
Mohammed Abdul Shakour Al-Ar'eer
Gaza
Mujahid Qusami
2008-11-20
The Perfect Collaboration
Prof. Franklin’s students never saw The Chicken as his children did. Readers of the quarterly journal Biography, BIOGRAPHY: LIFE IN OCCUPIED PALESTINE, saw a different Mohammed Rafiq Alareer, they saw a Palestinian civilian “who died while trying to live life in occupied Palestine”. And people attending Cynthia Franklin’s lecture in London saw “the most famous television character in the Gaza Strip”, Mohammed Rafiq Alareer, “timid but adventurous”, whose “public speaking and acting skills won him the role of Karkour”, THE CHICKEN.
Professor Cynthia Franklin teaches Life Writing. Professor Refaat Alareer teaches creative writing.
Life Writing includes non-fiction such as biographies that record the memories and experiences of individuals, which it has been found, can facilitate the expression of feeling, a shift in personal thinking. Creative Writing is the writing of original composition based on the writer’s imagination or invention. It includes the writing of biographies. Combine Creative Writing with Life Writing and you get The Chicken story.
Refaat Alareer’s Twitter Page
In addition to The Chicken story, this too is an example of Prof. Alareer’s creative writing skills:
So, again, f**k israel and f**k everyone who does not see its occupation and terror as acts of aggression that must be resisted by all means.
Israel is the root cause of evil & terror in the whole area. removing Israel from the scene is the 1st major step to curbing evil in the ME
No action, whatsoever, Palestinians do against Israeli occupation and apartheid is even close to terror. No matter what.
f**k all israelis who complain that trump did not mention israel among nations that suffer from “terror”
Prof. Alareer Shares a Facebook Post With Prof. Franklin
Another example of his creative writing, shared with the authors of the journal Biography:
“Raneem and Hamza will live to be witnesses to Israel’s war on civilians. They will live and grow in an unjust world where their father can be killed because he is in his own house and the killer will not even be brought to justice because he is an Israeli soldier.”
Very creative ! The 2014 Gaza war was not a war on civilians, it was fought against Palestinian terror organizations. “Their father” was not killed because he was in his own house. He was killed because he was engaged in combat while in his house and the house was targeted by the IAF. The statement that his brother’s killer will not be brought to justice because he is an Israeli soldier, is by far the writer’s most creative statement. His brother was killed in combat by the IAF, not by an Israeli soldier, there is no killer to bring to justice in a war.
Gaza Launch of Life in Occupied Palestine
On June 15, 2015, the Centre for Political and Development Studies (CPDS), a Hamas venue in Gaza, held a launch of the special issue of the quarterly journal, Biography, BIOGRAPHY: LIFE IN OCCUPIED PALESTINE. Prof. Franklin addressed the Gaza audience via Skype. She stressed the necessity of being creative when it comes to bringing up ideas in order to win the battle for justice in Palestine. The Chicken story most certainly was creative.
Closing Comments
The Nexus
A nexus is a connection or series of connections linking two or more things. This essay has presented a series of facts that suggests the existence of a nexus at the University of Hawaii. It may or may not consist of the following elements:
1- Hamas / The Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades
2- The Centre for Political and Development Studies in Gaza
3- Ali Abunimah
4- Cynthia Franklin
5- Refaat Alareer
6- Humanize Palestine
8- The GazaNames Project
The Chicken Story
Today, The Chicken story is promoted worldwide in a POSTSCRIPT and DEDICATION section of the journal Biography (“The Story of My Brother”) which is available on the Project Muse web-platform. While the Humanize Palestine website is no longer functional, their Facebook and Twitter pages are. The Humanize Palestine booklet is also available online. All of these sites contain some version of The Chicken Story.
The ‘Cleaner’
After the University of Hawaii at Manoa became aware in 2017, that the Humanize Palestine web site was an on-line memorial to Palestinian terror operatives and that university content was linked to the site, embedded URLs were deleted in the Franklin, Aoude, Cooper website, palestinianlives.net. The Humanize Palestine website was also deactivated and a disclaimer of liability was added to palestinianlives.net. What transpired would suggest that a “cleaner” was employed by the university, but as the facts will reveal, it was all too late. The next essay in this series will be “The ‘Cleaner’: Attempted Coverup by the University of Hawaii”.