On 30 September 2000, the world watched as Jamal al-Durrah tried to shield his 12 year old son, Muhammad, from Israeli occupation forces. Muhammad al-Durrah was killed that day, a child whose final moments, caught on camera, became one of the most searing images of the Second Intifada and of Palestinian history.
For Palestinians, this is not just footage preserved in history. It is a wound carried across generations. We recognize Jamal’s outstretched arm because it is every parent’s instinct, to shield, to sacrifice, to stand between their child and harm. We remember Muhammad not as an image, but as a boy with a name, a family, and a future that was stolen. His killing was not something we merely saw; it was something we absorbed, something that settled into our collective memory and never left.