by SAYID MARCOS TENORIO
Martyrs occupy a special place in the hearts and minds of Palestinians. In the Palestinian Declaration of Independence, written by Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish and proclaimed by Yasser Arafat on 15 November 1988, an oath was taken of unrelenting struggle before and in honour of the sacrifice of thousands of Palestinian martyrs who fell in the struggle. It is a source of inspiration and hope for those struggling to end the occupation and establish Palestinian sovereignty and independence.
Martyrdom is one of the important concepts of Islam and concerns not only the sacrifice and the surrender of one’s life but also the benefit of the collective, the Islamic Ummah (Nation). According to Islam, martyrs (Shahid in Arabic) are those who suffer persecution and die on the battlefield, facing the enemy for a just and legitimate cause – the one who dies to save others, the innocent victims and the non-Muslim who dies fighting for a just cause or for his country.
In this context, the martyr is, above all, a Mujahideen or fida’yyin, a Palestinian resistance fighter; a Muslim fighter willing to sacrifice his life for a cause based on justice and the fight against oppression. In the Qur’an, the holy book of Muslims, it is said: “And do not believe that those who have succumbed for the sake of Allah [God] are dead; on the contrary, they live gracefully by the side of their Lord (3:169).”
Middle East Monitor for more