PA security forces detained DJ Sama Abdul Hadi and several others at Saturday’s party at Nabi Musa, where Moses is believed to be buried in the West Bank, between Jerusalem and Jericho.
Videos were posted on social media of the event, provoking anger from local Palestinians. This video, along with reports of partygoers drinking and using drugs at the shrine, prompted hundreds of people to come down to the party to separate. Many were also angry with the AP for allowing it to move forward.
AP Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said an investigation was under way and that those responsible for the event would be brought to justice.
Hadi Mashal, a lawyer representing Abdul Hadi, told CNN that she is accused of violating Article 275 of the Palestinian Penal Code, which criminalizes the “desecration” of holy places or symbols made with the intention of insulting a particular religion or group.
“Still violating the article so far? All I can tell you is; I don’t see how,” Mashal said. “But the investigation is not over yet. We hope it will be completed in a few days.”
The DJ’s father, Saad Abdul Hadi, told CNN that he was very upset by his daughter’s detention and rejected claims that he had desecrated a holy place, saying the party took place in another part of the complex.
“It’s not true that people were drunk or on drugs,” he said. “It’s also not true that she played techno music at the mosque – in fact no one entered the mosque. Everything took place in the bazaar, where visitors come to buy and stay at the boarding house.”
Saad Abdul Hadi said that his daughter was selected by the AP to hide her embarrassment due to the public reaction to the party.
“It seems that the Palestinian Authority did not know how to control the anger of the street, so they used Sama as a scapegoat for something that the street saw as a mistake.”
Saad Abdul Hadi added that his daughter was commissioned by a Paris-based production company to perform at a number of Palestinian historical sites and received permission from the Palestinian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, which is responsible for the Nabi bazaar. Musa, unlike the site mosque which is managed by the Ministry of Religious Affairs.
CNN obtained a letter from the Ministry of Tourism, giving DJ Sama and the production company permission to film Nabi Musa, as long as they “respect the necessary security measures” and “respect the religious and cultural significance and privacy of the site.” acquis “.
Abdul Hadi was also charged with violating Covid-19 proceedings, according to her lawyer.
CNN contacted the Ministry of Tourism for comments. AP Prime Minister Shtayyeh is also the Minister of Religious Affairs.
But prominent religious figures rushed to denounce the technological party, indicating how busy the episode became.
Mahmoud Al-Habbash, the AP’s supreme judge and adviser to its president on religious affairs and Islamic relations, said in a tweet: “I am disgusted and angry at what happened at the Nabi Musa Mosque … and I still don’t know who is responsible for this sin, but who is responsible must receive a discouraging punishment commensurate with the atrocity of what happened, because the Mosque is the House of God, and its holiness is the sanctity of our religion. ”
In an interview with Palestinian radio station NAS Radio, Hussam Abu-Alrub, the deputy minister of religious affairs, said his ministry was responsible for the mosque and yet no permission had been taken to hold any events inside it.
“The act that was committed was unacceptable and outside all our religious principles,” Abu-Alrub added. “We, at the Awqaf Ministry, will not sit still and follow the investigation.”
DJ Sama is one of the most popular DJs in the region and one of the first Palestinian women to gain major importance in the electronic music community.
Her lawyer urged people to look at the facts. “If he hadn’t been granted a license, the event wouldn’t have happened. The period,” Mashal said. “So who is responsible for not thinking about what the reaction would be? I don’t know. Is it Sama’s fault? That remains to be seen.”
Zeena Saifi reported from Amman, Jordan. Abeer Salman and Andrew Carey reported from Jerusalem.