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This project was conceptualized as a way
to pay tribute to the fallen of the Aqsa
Intifada, the uprising that began in Jerusalem
on September 29th, 2000. The idea was to
shine a Beacon of light onto the death surrounding
us, to break the mind-numbing anonymity
of daily death counts, and to honor the
families who must live the absence of their
loved ones and the injustice of their parting.
It seemed that the most humane way to honor
the shuhada is to celebrate their lives,
with love and dignity. To try to see them
as human beings - a boy, a teenager, a young
man, a father, a grandfather, a grandmother.
To try to feel what their lives encompassed,
understanding their reality and dreams through
an anecdote, a toy, or a photograph. The
banality and fragility of each object helps
us retrace a life, intact.
Etymologically, a Shaheed is also a "faithful
witness". Thus, the reading of each life
compellingly bears witness to a whole greater
than the sum of the 100 biographies: An
eloquent testimony to what it means to be
a Palestinian. A condition transcending
and determining the course of each life.
The Shuhada, regardless of age, background
or geographic origin, shared the reality
of lives shackled by occupation. This starts
with a family's loss and uprooting in the
Nakba. It continues with the subsequent
denied opportunities, and miseries of the
refugee's condition. It progresses with
a litany of deprivation, servitude, interrupted
childhoods, Odyssean like exiles, house
demolitions, killings, injuries, and imprisonment.
Even those whose lives appear removed from
the yoke of occupation, succumbed to its
reach with the timing and circumstances
of their deaths.
Yet, these lives also portray the irrepressible
human longing for freedom, and the indomitable
spirit of struggle. We hope that one day
we can go beyond honoring our dead , to
live, as they should have been able to:
free.
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