A poster sheet the color of wheat, printed in bold type, reads: “Ayoub Al-Kafarneh (30) was resilient and resourceful. During the siege, he utilized his skills to repair and reconnect broken and damaged Internet wires in Beit Hanoun, ensuring that his fellow residents had access to crucial communication networks.”
An image of a grinning man wearing a soccer jersey accompanies the clipped biography, his face framed by a locket on a chain. Artist Ashley Lukashevsky made and shared to Instagram a file of 185 versions, each with a different name, face, and story for 185 individuals — mothers, elders, daughters, brothers, friends — who were among the 15,000 Palestinians killed in Israeli airstrikes in Gaza and the West Bank since October 7.
The top and bottom of every poster reads “MURDERED” and “CEASEFIRE NOW” with a heart-shaped locket necklace that opens up to reveal a photo of each martyr. Alongside the picture is their name with a short description provided by their loved ones. “I want you to picture the locket around someone’s neck, that frame in the living room of their grandparents’ house,” Lukashevsky told Hyperallergic.
“Creating these posters, and putting them out into the world, is a way of honoring the martyrs with love and tenderness. Each of these people were entire worlds,” said the artist, who posted the image files to their Instagram. “I don’t want them to be forgotten.”
Last week, with 600 downloads as of December 1, organizers have put up hundreds of flyers across Manhattan, and people in other cities have sent Lukashevsky photos of the posters pasted up in their neighborhoods. A QR code on each flyer sends viewers to the poster files so they can access, print, and put up the notices in their area.
Volunteers helped complete each poster with photographs and text supplied by the Instagram account @PalestinianMartyrs, which has been collecting and posting stories directly from families and friends of the victims.
Open-source, printable, and designed for guerilla distribution, the poster is in response to the lack of credible information in mainstream news media about the thousands of Palestinians who have lived under Israeli occupation. “The news might show Palestinian victims sifting through the ruins of their homes, or grieving lost children, but when do they actually focus on Palestinian life, hopes, dreams, and desires?” said Lukashevsky. “These posters are just a small way of insisting on their humanity.”
From recent graduations and engineering degrees to running a neighborhood’s beloved pizza shop, the details supplied by friends and family illuminate lives that were full of love, ambition, and plans for the future. One young Gazan’s dream was to one day visit Jerusalem, not so far away.
As an incomplete archive, the posters of Palestinian martyrs keep a small record of descriptive text written or told to them by the people who knew them best and miss them the most; in that sense, it is an archive of voices. Making them heard and visible is also an effort to hold accountable the United States government for its failure to call for a ceasefire. The Central Archives of Gaza City were reported destroyed this week, burning through hundreds of thousands of documents and making the necessity of a continuing and living register for Palestine even more urgent. Without proof, memories are just stories, while archives stand against the tide of erasure.
“It’s going to take all kinds of cultural and visual interventions to fight alongside Palestinian and Jewish organizers and I encourage all artists and designers to organize and join a local chapter of the folks organizing around them,” said Lukashevsky. “The movement needs visual art and it needs storytelling.”
