NFL’s Azeez Al-Shaair honours Palestinian children for fifth straight week

Al-Shaair’s eyeblack carried the name of Maryam Ghanem, a girl in Gaza who was forced to watch her mother burn alive.

American football player Azeez Al-Shaair has honoured a Palestinian child for the fifth consecutive week by writing the name of Maryam Ghanem, a girl who was orphaned in Gaza last week, on his eyeblack for his team’s latest National Football League game.

Al-Shaair carried Ghanem’s name on the black tape across his nose during the Houston Texans’ fixture against the Jacksonville Jaguars at Wembley Stadium in London, United Kingdom, on Sunday.

Ghanem is a two-and-a-half-year-old girl in Gaza who was forced to watch her mother burn alive after an Israeli strike hit their home in the Remal neighbourhood of Gaza City on Wednesday.

Local journalists managed to rescue her after hearing her cries as flames engulfed her home in an apartment building that was struck early that morning. Ghanem was later identified as the sole survivor of her family.

She was moved to hospital for treatment. “My hand hurts,” Ghanem said as she lay shell-shocked on a hospital bed, suffering from severe burns, and clutching her doll close to her.

Maryam lost her father at the beginning of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza and has now lost her mother as well.

Israeli air strikes continue to pound Gaza regularly despite a United States-brokered “ceasefire” in the besieged Strip.

Al-Shaair has used his social media accounts and his eyeblack, a tape worn by athletes to reduce glare, to bring attention to the killings of Palestinians in the three years of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza.

The 29-year-old has been fined and has reportedly been threatened with removal from games, but he remains undeterred.

The Black American Muslim player began his current NFL season by wearing the name of Hind Rajab on September 13.

The five-year-old girl was killed in Gaza after Israeli soldiers opened fire on her family’s stranded car on January 29, 2024.

The NFL fined him $11,491 for breaching the league’s code of conduct on players’ clothing and equipment during a match against the Buffalo Bills.

However, basketball player Kyrie Irving stepped in and offered to pay the fine for Al-Shaair, who later confirmed that he had been in touch with the nine-time NBA All-Star.

Al-Shaair brushed off talk of the fine while speaking to reporters last week. “It’s bigger to me; what’s a life worth? Is a life worth $11,000? No, I think it’s priceless,” he said.

He has continued to raise awareness about the slain children by wearing a name, or combination of names, every Sunday.

Prominent American Muslim scholar Omar Suleiman has repeatedly voiced his support for Al-Shaair.

“My brother, who went to Jordan to be with Palestinian refugees this summer, who spends time with Palestinian children with missing limbs in Houston, who is using every week of his Pro Bowl NFL career to honour a Palestinian child despite the fines,” Suleiman wrote about Al-Shaair in a social media post last month.

“In the sports and entertainment arenas run by many of the same types of people who run government, choose to be like Azeez Al-Shaair, Kyrie, and Macklemore.”

The NFL’s fine on Al-Shaair came at a time when Robert Kraft, owner of the Boston-based team, the New England Patriots, confirmed that he pressured pop star Ed Sheeran to drop rapper Macklemore from his tour of the US.