Palestinian Mother

This poster, made in 1989, is a sequence of photographic images. The Arabic text on the top right of the poster reads “The Palestinian Mother”, with “This is our land” underneath it. The emphasized picture shows the mother pushing against a soldier holding a baton. Despite this image taking up the majority of the composition, the poster’s large size allows the neighboring reels of film to be clearly in view, showing the woman’s altercation in its entirety. She holds steadfast in the face of the armed soldiers as she fights to defend herself, her land, and her family from the occupying army. She’s outnumbered and out-armed, but by no means out-willed.

The choice to center this poster around an older, covered woman, facing against an armed soldier in what appears to be a warzone, elicits a strong emotional response. The definiteness of the title – “the Palestinian mother” rather than “a palestinian mother” – suggests this injustice and risk is the responsibility of every Palestinian mother, part of what every Palestinian family experiences. The subtitle “this is our land” rather than “her land” confirms this interpretation – that all Palestinians, like her, are committed to resistance, to defending themselves from occupation, to their land and their homes. The theme of motherliness is common in other PLO posters, whether stated outright or just hinted at. The wider theme of the innocent or unlikely resistor to armed occupation forces is backed up by other posters in the collection, often portraying the resistance (and martyrdom) of Palestinian children, women, elderly, or the land of Palestine itself, usually trees, plants, and villages.

Find it on JSTOR

Citations:
 McDonald, David A. “My Voice Is My Weapon: Music, Nationalism, and the Poetics of Palestinian Resistance.” 1 ed. Duke University Press, 2013. Project MUSE. https://dx.doi.org/10.1353/book.64121.
 

Salti, Rasha. “The Palestinian Poster: Popularizing National Landmarks and Symbols.”Interactive Encyclopedia of the Palestine Question, ca 2020. https://www.palquest.org/en/highlight/10528/palestinian-poster.