The Beginnings of Martyrdom

How the Palestinian calendar was created

During the Nabi Musa festival in April 1919, the Palestinian scholar Khalil Sakakini reflected on the difference between Jewish and Muslim holy days. The former, he said, were “created as memorial days for tragedies” and resulted in “pain and sadness,” but Muslim holy days were exciting and left participants “full of enthusiasm and energy.” “A nation whose holidays include only crying has no future,” he concluded.

Just over two years later, this picture would begin to change. On the second anniversary of the May 1921 Jaffa riots, when Arabs murdered 47 Jews (48 Arabs were subsequently killed, the majority by the police; a small number were murdered in Jewish reprisal attacks), the leading Palestinian newspaper, Filastin, ran a front-page editorial headlined “Martyrs Day”:

It has been two years since the day pure blood flowed from us…We were distracted until then, but that day we were awakened by the roar of bullets…Since that day, [our revival] has become rich in martyrs, abundant with memorial days. One hundred brave sons of Palestine became martyrs (istashhadu)—and they were not the aggressors—and now Palestine sees them as having died for the sake of salvation. Martyrs are an inevitable component of the revival of nations…for they provoke nations to action and renew their determination.

And if days start to look alike…,we have one guiding day that we will not forget, one day that is stained with blood, crowned with blackness. The memory of that day awakens in us all that went dormant; it restores…our enthusiasm and pushes us forward. That day is 1 May—Martyrs Day.

In his autumn 2013 article in the Journal of Palestine Studies, ‘Calendars, Martyrs, and Palestinian Particularism under British Rule,’ Tamir Sorek writes of the editorialist: ““In his attempt to establish 1 May 1921 as a historic turning point in the Palestinian collective consciousness, he knew that he was actively nurturing a Palestinian Arab national identity under British rule.” He continues:

the Arab inhabitants of Palestine did not share the same religion, and their language and daily culture did not differ much from the Greater Syria region in general. Pre-modern elements of Palestinian collective memory, such as the shadow of the crusades and the glory of Saladin’s victory, constituted only useful “raw material” for the production of a national identity. In order to transform Palestine from a regional category into a political category requiring commitment and mutual solidarity, a more elaborated imaginative process was needed.

According to Sorek’s analysis, the modern Palestinian calendar was born out of two main categories: dates that resulted from the politicization and nationalization of holy days, and those commemorating major events, which included the memorialization of martyrs.

To discover how these commemorative strategies pioneered in the 1920—from martyrdom imagery to media tactics—directly connect to contemporary Palestinian political symbolism and policies, you’ll need to become a premium subscriber. For just $50 a year or $5 a month, you get access to two premium articles each month, as well as a monthly recommendations email. I realise just about every website, newsletter and podcast etc is asking for your money these days, but I do think Love of the Land is a) a little different from everything else out there and b) worth the money?