Mothers of martyred Palestinians gathered together in Nablus, occupied West Bank, Palestine, in 2021. (Photographer: Sakir Khader)
Losing a child must be the deepest and most crushing of all griefs. Yet here is a wall of so many mothers whose hearts bear these scars. Sakir Khader titles this photograph “Mothers of the Martyrs” and provides the only context we have. But it is enough to recognize that these losses affected entire communities in the city of Nablus and its surrounding towns and villages which, at one point or another, were likely defended by these martyrs.
Khader, a Dutch-Palestinian photojournalist and film director, is from the community he documents, and it is from his intimite vantage point that he is able to share both the strength and the burden Palestinians bear.