Always a faceHiggins describes multi-dimensional identities in Palestinian memorial posters
News · W&M News · 2005 archive · Higgins on Palestinian posters
Author: Meghan Williams ('05), Source: W&M News
http://web.wm.edu/news/archive/index.php?id=4344
Date: Mar 04, 2005
Higgins talked about the "faces" of Palestinian memorial posters. Photo by Meghan Williams.
Usually there are easily recognized symbols and icons, often there is a flag border, sometimes a religious saying—but there is always a face. Whether centered and dominating, or looking out from a corner, there is always a face.
The faces adorn memorial posters spread throughout the Palestinian diaspora, ephemeral reminders of deceased friends and relatives, local heroes and national leaders. Professor Annie Higgins, who teaches Arabic in the Modern Languages department, researched the memorial poster phenomenon primarily in refugee camps in Syria and Lebanon with a 2003-2004 Fulbright grant. She began studying the posters the year before when she went to Jenin as a volunteer. She shared her conclusions recently with a group of students and faculty members. Higgins used a series of photographs to present the memorials, but the discussion seemed to have a deeper theme: identity.
Higgins described the subjects of the posters as martyrs, and explained that they are often identified as such. The label is applied post-mortem, and for the most part without many restrictions. A Palestinian soldier who is killed by a soldier from the other side is considered a martyr; so is an old man who has actively worked for statehood his entire life but dies of natural causes. Even the desire to be a martyr—many consider it “the best way to die,” according to Higgins—is enough to qualify as one.
Almost as common as the names on posters of deceased adults are small logos of political groups, who are usually responsible for creating and distributing posters when one of their members dies. For the most part the logos are minimized, tucked into a corner or incorporated in the border. The individual's identity supercedes the group's identity. But Higgins pointed out one poster, which memorialized eight fallen members of Hamas, one of the more infamous Palestinian groups. The Hamas logo is at the center of the poster, larger than the photographs of the eight men—some holding a copy of the Koran, a weapon, or both—which encircle it. The design sends a clear message: the group is larger than any of its members. It effectively usurps their identity.
On the other hand, there are posters without logos. They feature people no group has a right to claim, whose identity is not defined by their association. National heroes are perhaps the most obvious inclusions in this category. Higgins returned to the area briefly, shortly after the death of Yasser Arafat. Even though he was affiliated with a specific political party, there were few posters featuring him with its logo; he is everyone's to honor. The same goes for foreigners. The death of a person who came from abroad to devote his or her life to working with and for Palestinians is a powerful uniting factor. Iain Hook, who worked with the United Nations in the area, was killed by Israeli soldiers in Jenin. The poster marking his death called it “murder” and the perpetrators “criminals.” Higgins said such strong language usually doesn't make its way onto posters made to relieve grief more than assign blame. Similar emotion is seen in posters for children. “Why was Riham killed?!” screams one poster, using English to reach a larger audience. Riham's poster shows a picture of her lying dead, establishing her identity as a victim. The large picture is framed by smaller ones presented as a filmstrip, showing the story of her life.
Many of those remembered in the posters have a strong religious identity. Many posters juxtapose the photos of the dead in front of a photo of the Dome of the Rock or Al-Aksa Mosque, holy sites. Christians are often identified with a photo of the Church of the Nativity—as was Iain Hook. Sometimes verses from the Koran replace political logos; they are rarely seen on the same poster, in a variation on the principle of separation between church and state. Higgins showed one version of a poster memorializing two brothers who died within a week of each other. The large photographs are side-by-side, under the red star logo which indicates alliance with the Democratic Front. After their deaths their family made the hajj, the Muslim holy pilgrimage to Mecca, in their names; a later poster replaces the red star with a verse from the Koran and adds the Dome of the Rock behind the brothers, who are now identified as pilgrims.
Remaking posters shifts the individual identities of the dead, much as the transitory nature of the posters shifts their collective identities. The group becomes more than its individual members. Old posters fade and are covered by new posters—fresh faces on the walls every day. Occasionally they are torn down by someone looking for a photograph of a friend or relative, but that is the closest to archival treatment they get. It is only very rarely, Higgins said, that a parent or sibling will reclaim the identity of a lost loved one, taking a poster home and tucking it away. But plenty of posters are left all over the walls of the Palestinian diaspora, each face contributing its individual identity, merging with the others to create a national identity.
comment
http://flathat.wm.edu/2005-03-18/story.php?type=2&aid=16
The Flat Hat, College of William and Mary
Professor's lecture one-sided, hate-filled
To the Editor:Feb. 26 I went to see Dr. Anne Higgins talk about Middle Eastern art, especially as it relates to the Palestinians. America is mostly pro-Israel, and I was genuinely interested in hearing a new perspective. But what I heard was a manipulation of facts, attributing righteousness to suicide bombers. Higgins spoke for the better part of an hour and a half about Palestinian 'martyrs' and the artistic posters put up in the streets by their families. Almost all of the people she talked about were people who "did a martyrdom operation ... killing a number of Israeli solders." That's when I realized that this professor was talking about and extolling the virtues of the Palestinian suicide bombers, one of which struck a Tel Aviv nightclub, killing four, the very day of her speech. She went on to talk about the various elements of symbolism on the posters, including one man whose poster contained the "golden sunlight of truth." That sunlight was a tribute to his murderous aiding of what Dr. Higgins called "the resistance." By resistance she meant the Palestinians, the people who were a "community in the grip of military occupation."I did some research and that "military occupation" was a legal transference of power. Britain previously had control over the land we now call Israel. In February 1947, after multiple failed attempts at reaching a compromise between the Jews and the Arabs, Britain turned the issue over to the United Nations. U.N. General Assembly Resolution 181, approved Nov. 29, 1947, advocated the partition of British Palestine into two states, one Jewish and one Arab. The resolution was accepted by the Jews but rejected by the Palestinians, leading to Israel's establishment in May 1948 and President Truman's official recognition of the State of Israel. Why was I not surprised when Professor Higgins called the land Palestine, refusing to acknowledge rightful sovereignty and the country's rightful name? Professor Higgins spent about 90 minutes talking about how noble the suicide bombers are, and demonizing Israeli troops, falsely accusing them of maliciously slaughtering children. I'm not politically correct, by any means, but I am appalled and disappointed at such spreading of falsities and hate.-- David Klimple, '08
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