Palestine's martyrs given the simplest of tributes
Sophie Claudet
Special to The Daily Star
March 10, 2001

RAMALLAH: The four ground-floor rooms of the Khalil Sakakini Center, an old two-storey white-stone house typical of Palestinian architecture, have been transformed. An exhibit devoted to the first 100 shaheed (martyrs) to fall for the al-Aqsa intifada recently opened in Ramallah.

On a sunny late-February morning, a dozen young girls still in uniform have just arrived in a school bus. They hardly talk, carefully scrutinizing each of the 100 stands each displaying an object that belonged to those who died during the first months of the uprising.

The shaheed's name and picture are displayed above a clear plastic box displaying an item ­ key-chain, bottle of perfume or hat ­ that was once dear to a man, a boy or woman. The exhibit celebrates life rather than the violent death these 100 shaheed were destined to meet.

Designed by Palestinian artist Samir Salameh, the display's simplicity is overwhelming. Candles light the rooms with subtle warmth. The shaheeds' objects are neatly wrapped in thin threads of straw, telling a compelling story of lives suspended in time.

Seventeen-year-old Sami Balawneh's magnetic card that once allowed him to travel to work to Israel has not expired yet. Twenty-three-year-old Israeli citizen Walid Abu Saleh of Sakhnin is captured with his fiancee standing behind palm trees. A delicately embroidered abaya, a favorite headscarf and a worn green dress all serve as reminders of those killed while they were in the privacy of their homes or as simple bystanders. It was a fate shared by many.

Others did meet their death at checkpoints, going willingly to fight an often trigger-happy army. Some were abducted and killed by Israeli settlers, others were shot trying to rescue the wounded. Most left children and loved ones behind. Omar Abed's wife carries the memory of her husband inside her womb. He was 29 when he died and she is now eight months pregnant. Both the families of the dead and strangers flock to the Khalil Sakakini Center, whose cultural events are usually attended by Ramallah's intellectuals, artists and students. This tribute to the martyrs is different as it is for the rich and the poor, and the daily turnover can reach up to 180 visitors and could be greater, were it not for the Israeli Army's siege of Palestinian cities and villages enforced since October 2000.

Twelve of the 13 shaheed who are Palestinian citizens of Israel are honored. An entire room is reserved to children, 23 in total aged 17 to 12.

The youngest is Mohammed al-Durra whose brutal killing, as his father anxiously tried to protect him from Israeli bullets, was broadcast to the [Image] world last October. One of Mohammed's sneakers is displayed in the glass box that bears his name. The boy's shoe is still covered with sand as if he had just removed it after a soccer game with friends on one of Gaza's beaches.

The families of the dead were asked to give one object and one picture of their loved-one, all but a few turned down the request, reports Adila Laadi, the Center's Director who conceptualized the memorial. Alaa Bani Nimrah's family chose to send a sling which the 15-year-old boy used to hurl stones at Israeli soldiers. On Oct. 20, he went to the checkpoint near his village and was shot dead. But there is no picture of Alaa, his family is so poor that they could not afford to have pictures taken of their son.

The mother of Abdelhamid Kharti, who was a promising painter from Gaza turned first-aid volunteer after the outbreak of the intifada, would not part with her son's belongings. She locked herself in his room and collapsed upon hearing the news of his death. Kharti's body was found riddled with more than 20 bullets although there had not been any report of clashes that day. A family member eventually convinced her to endow the memorial with one of his portraits of his ex-wife, a large painting that attests to the man's undeniable talent. The exhibition's catalogue, distributed free to visitors, relates the story of each shaheed as told by their families. The accounts, transcribed by Adila Laadi, are succinct and devoid of unnecessary detail about the circumstances of their deaths. Again and in the same minimalist spirit of the exhibit, the biographies are all about the shaheeds' lives. Adila Laadi hopes that one day the memorial will become a permanent structure rather than just a temporary exhibit, so that the shaheed may not fall into the oblivion of statistics. It will then stand as a tribute to those killed by the occupier, just as on the other side Israel's famous Holocaust museum honors its dead and is visited by thousands each year. To date only one Israeli is known to have visited the shaheed memorial ­ a journalist.

A web site that has been dedicated to the martyrs exhibition can be found at www.sakakini.org/shaheed.

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