World Congress for Middle Eastern Studies

Barcelona, July 19th – 24th 2010

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Martyrdom: A poster of life and concept - NOT_DEFINED activity_field_Cultural Activity
 

· NOT_DEFINED institution: The Oslo National Academy of the Arts

· NOT_DEFINED organizer: Ayman Alazraq

· NOT_DEFINED language: English

· NOT_DEFINED description: Tens of thousands of Palestinians people have been killed during the long Israeli-Palestinian conflict; some had chosen to be martyrized, while the vast majority of them have been killed while practicing their everyday life activities. Martyrdom was and still evokes both sacred and secular meanings. The secular sense suggests ''heroism'' as one of its indispensable conceptual connotations, while the sacred is open to the absolute and the infinite. Both these senses imply the idea of sacrifice either ''in the way of Allah'' or with reference to the homeland. But apart from the political or the religious concept and understanding, the concept of martyrdom is a purely humanistic phenomenon, based on the first hand to the loss of a human being, and on the 'respect' of this human being after he/she passed away throughout how he/she is represented to though culture of the Poster and the use of the event by an organization, whether political or religious.
The posters: Just after a martyr has passed away, the immediate action is the production of 'the Poster'. Posters producers generally use a personal photograph which is taken from a family album, to which some additional touches are added to give the posters the appearance of heroicism. This includes a mixture of religious and political symbols and signs those are then spread around the towns and villages of the West Bank. As the production of a poster always offers an opportunity for the political party to administer another dose of ideology to the public- In the poster used to have no indication about the personal characteristics of the martyr as a human being.