Palestinians mark martyrs' day

On the occasion of the 40th anniversary of Palestinian Martyrs' Day, celebrated annually on Jan. 7, to honor the Palestinians killed by their enemies.

Ahmed Saleh Moussa, Mohammed's husband and a Palestinian fighter in Fatah, was killed back in 1975 in Downtown Beirut, where his wife says he was "shot by the Lebanese Forces." "He sacrificed himself for the holy land of Palestine, the holy land for all religions. He had a strong personality and he never feared anyone or anything," says Mohammed, who visited her husband's grave along with all the widows and widowers of martyrs to pray for them and leave fresh flowers. It has been now 30 years since Mohammed lost her husband, but she says it is hard to forget him, she just needs to look at his four daughters who all resemble him in some way. "One shouts like him, the other looks like him and the third has his strong personality and so on," says Mohammed, who met her husband in a refugee camp in Lebanon and hopes to one day, go back to Palestine and take her husband's body with her. Martyrs' Day is a central feature of calendars in many Arab countries and revolves around what are perceived as general Arab causes. In Lebanon and Syria, Martyrs' Day is May 6, honoring nationalists executed by the Turks during World War I. But for some Palestinians who haven't lost anyone, martyrs' day becomes a day of reflection, as it is for a group of Palestinian youth who found their own way of celebrating it. "We are showing short documentaries produced by Palestinians who have lived through the pain of losing someone and show the everyday reality and struggles of Palestinian refugees," says Maher Shehada, president of a Palestinian youth cultural club that presented three documentaries over the weekend.

"Lemonade," "Musician Without a Flute" and "Ball and a Box of Coloring Pens," were the films shown for free at a room in the Shatila refugee camp. Lemonade and Musician Without a Flute are films about the struggles of finding a job and meaning for a young refugee, and are "the stories of every young Palestinian across the world who wants to make something out of him or herself," says Shehada. The third film, Ball and a Box of Coloring Pens, Shehada's favorite, is about a martyred youth who died as he was trying to get money to buy a box of coloring pens. "It is just so touching and it is sad to see how there are so many people getting sacrificed for a dream that seems so far away," says Shehada.

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