Mennel Ibtissem conquered the judges of “The Voice” contest last Saturday with her rendition of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah in English and Arabic, singing “Ya Ilahi.”
The 22-years-old singer was born in the eastern French town of Besançon to a Syrian-Turkish father and a Moroccan-Algerian mother. She’s very active on social media and supports the Palestinian cause.
After the airing of “The Voice” on Saturday, her internet posts about Palestine and the Nice terror attacks were targeted, due to her popularity online.
“It’s good it became a routine, an attack a week! And to always stay fateful, the ‘terrorist’ had his identity PAPERS with him. It’s true that when preparing a dirty move, one doesn’t forget to take its papers AT ALL” tweeted Mennel on July 16, 2016, just after the police announced they had identified Mohamed Lahouaiej as the man who killed more than 84 with a truck in Nice during the Bastille Day celebrations.
The tweet was heavily criticized on social media, and circulated along with others claims such as “the government is the real terrorist.”
Ibtissem answered to her critics through her Twitter account shortly after the controversy began, saying her posts were taken out of context, expressing ideas that are not hers and don’t reflect her actual point of view.
Today in France an incredible artist #MennelIbtissem is facing cyberbullying campaign juste because she is a Muslim Woman #RaiseOurVoices pic.twitter.com/KOaFdsARyz
— Sarah ZOUAK (@SarahZOUAK) February 5, 2018
“I was born in Besançon; I love France, I love my country. I obviously condemn terrorism firmly. That’s the reason for my anger. How would you defend the indefensible!” tweeted Ibtissem yesterday.
Islamophobic internet sites criticized her for supporting the French Muslim feminist organization Lallab, liking Tariq Ramadan’s writing, condemning Israeli occupation of Palestine and sharing post from the BarakaCity association, claiming they finance terrorist movements.
She is beautiful, sings beautifully, is #Muslim, wears a turban and dared to speak up for the #Palestinian cause. In other words: she's a threat! @MennelIbtissem @TheVoice https://t.co/TaSreuppic
— Peter Speetjens (@PeterBeirut) February 6, 2018
A Pro-Israel European site said Ibtissem had a “biased” view, calling her a radical, anti-France, far-right Muslim who denies Islamic terrorism. “Mennel Ibtissem has a beautiful voice but must review her ideologic foundations before making vibrate the hearts of the people. A minimum of morality is expected from the French public,” wrote the site Europe-Israel.
I preach a message of love, peace, and tolerance. The evidence is my choice of singing Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah,” tweeted Ibtissem, “this song perfectly illustrates the message I hope to transmit as an artist.”
“The Voice” is a singing contest show in which four judges sit with their backs towards the contestants, so they’re not biased by looks and focus only on voice. It originated in the UK, but it was later adapted and mimicked in different countries.
(teleSUR, PC, Social Media)
It’s hilarious how she chose Leonard Cohen’s song – a Jew and a Zionist – for her song. BDS!
What’s hilarious about that? There are many Jewish people who support BDS.
#FreePalestine #BDS
They’re idiots.
I feel great shame in the knowledge that my country, Australia, is persistently “sucking up” to the U.S.; making Australia a “Target” with its ill-considered support of the U.S., with military bases, all around the Globe, and their frequent deposing of democratic Governments, accompanied with the installation of despotic, unelected, undemocratic “regimes”. However the warning bells should sound very loudly, whenever that Nation, calling itself Israel, has any involvement in World affairs. Israel is totally without legitimacy; it has usurped the lands and lives of the whole Nation of Palestinians, and even blind Harry and his dog can see the literal extermination of Palestinians, proceeding exactly as this Jewish Peoples have been advocating over this past century; plus this so called state of Israel is in breach of every United Nations resolution calling upon them to desist. And if you are one of those that trots out the propaganda subterfuge that this is God’s Will, then, I demand that you explain, and justify, all the evils that God’s “chosen” are perpetrating on the “Lives” of millions of God’s children, the Palestinian’s. Taken in isolation, the Jewish Peoples Israel, is but a tiny inconsequential speck of the World’s populations, they should not be a “guiding” or controlling force determining the fate of other Great Nations of peoples; The Jewish State of Israel was conceived and created through bribery (Winston Churchill’s biographer) and the illegal actions of their own terrorist organisations, using terror, murder and destructive force. The names have changed, but the terror processes are still there for all to see. The Jewish state of Israel will never be allowed to bury all this infamy, they will be known as pariahs for ever. Finally,in respect of China; it is the U.S. spending billions on armaments and destructive mayhem around the World; it is China spending/financing billions of development infrastructures, material, concrete and steel, functioning additions to the World’s economies, not randomly bombing and destroying the towns and cities of whole Nations. Which would you rather support?
There are many reasons why any informed person would be justified in their criticism and dislike of “Jews”, among the most prominent is the Jewish control and manipulation of all things financial and banking, practically all of the printed word, dissemination of news and amusements media, their infiltration and control of the U.S. Congress and its members, especially obvious in the “Executive” Branch and office of President, and also particularly obvious in the large element of Israeli passport/citizenship holders in Government positions, which is specifically forbidden in the U.S. Constitution.; BUT for me, and hopefully for every sane level headed individual the most important reason for criticising Jews is their horrific and egregious treatment of Palestinian Arabs; Yes, the Jews suffered horrendous treatments under Herr Hitler during five years of war, BUT the “West” stepped in and stopped it. I for one have great difficulty reconciling records of Jewish populations pre-war, the alleged six million deaths, and the millions of Jews that survived the War, none of these records add up to Holocaust.Even so, if all of that amounts to the “Holocaust”, why then does not the Jewish treatment of Palestinians qualify similarly? In terms of magnitude the Palestinian genocide has arguably been in process for at least fifty years; and continues as we speak. Jews have wrought great loss of life and displacements of The Palestinian populations, millions are suffering because of it; and continues as we speak; Millions are adrift with no homes or means to survive, deprived of water, the means to make a living, hospitals and health care, schools for their children; and those not confined to refugee camps are forced to live in Jewish Prisons and are subjected to the daily presence and invigilation of Jewish soldiers and Jewish Government Pogroms when the sole motivation for them is to “Cut the grass”, meaning kill as many as possible. Palestinians are branded as “terrorists” when they lawfully resist; But, the Jewish people conveniently obfuscate the facts of their own Terrorist organisations used among other causes, to quell the Arab/Palestinian resistance. I refuse to accept that These Jewish crimes are the “Will” of God, my conscience just will not accept that explanation; No these crimes against humanity are just too egregiously “evil”. However, both sides of this equation are human beings, and there is only one solution; all Jewish People residing in the area allocated by the U.N. to be the Palestinian State must leave it, by U.N. peacekeeping “force” if necessary. All displaced Palestinians must be returned home. Then the totally autonomous and Sovereign State of Palestine must be developed and re-built as reparations. The Jewish Peoples removed have but a short distance travel to their “homeland”, we know they can do it, they have previously rehearsed the Exodus. Amen.