When his mother died, Jihad and his siblings stole her body from the hospital after staff said they couldn’t release it to the family.
When the coronavirus swept through the West Bank in July, 73-year-old Rasmiye Al Suwaiti was admitted to the hospital. Despite being in isolation, she had a daily visitor.
Her son, Jihad Al Suwaiti, 32, scaled the hospital building each day to sit outside her window and check that she was wearing her oxygen mask — an act that unwittingly catapulted him into the global spotlight after a picture of him sitting outside his mother’s window that his brother posted on Facebook went viral.
Before long, Jihad’s story had traveled the world, and a video even emerged of an imam in Sudan during prayers referencing him as an example of how all Muslims should treat their mothers.
