A young actor trying to look old and frail, his head covered gently with a white scarf and his beard painted silver, was blown from a wheelchair in a reenactment of Hamas spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin’s assassination. The dramatization was the highlight of a rally in Khan Yunis, one of several gatherings that drew tens of thousands across the Gaza Strip on Wednesday night to mark the end of three days of morning for Yassin.
In Wednesday’s carefully choreographed skit, a young man in a wheelchair was pushed onto a stage in one of the town’s main streets. Like Yassin, the unidentified actor had a brown blanket covering his lap and legs. The man’s beard was stiff with silver paint and he was enveloped in a white scarf. Flanking his wheelchair, two armed guards, straining to look tough and wearing ball caps and keffiyehs, scanned the sky and swiveled apprehensively left and right to keep watch. Suddenly, a small fire ignited on the stage and Yassin tumbled from his wheelchair. With a yell, the man writhed on the ground and then fell still. The guards dropped over his body. Medics in reflective orange vests rushed the stage, loaded Yassin onto a stretcher and carried him above the surging audience. Alongside the stretcher, men pumped their fists in the air.
If they need to re-enact, then they are clearly not getting enough of the real thing. |
