Mohammad Az Zanoun and the Spirit of Nonviolent Resistance

Nigel Parry The Electronic Intifada 8 July 2006

The Electronic Intifada’s coverage of “Operation Summer Rain” — the code name for Israel’s massive destruction of Gaza’s civilian infrastructure — continues. EI is currently being updated several times daily from around the world.

For those not familiar with EI, our 17 main news feeds are organized into meta sections, each of which have a page associated with them. For example, our News & Analysis page can be accessed at http://electronicintifada.net/newsandanalysis.shtml

The page contains the latest items from our Opinion/Editorial, Diaries, Human Rights, Development, Israel Lobby Watch, Internet & Tech, and Business & Economy feeds.

Similarly, there are meta sections for The Media, Action & Activism, and EI Extra. These are a good way of getting an overview of what is on the site and can be accessed by clicking on these titles in the right navigation bar or from the top of EI’s homepage.

The multimedia panel on EI’s News & Analysis metasection, showing one of the many incredible images from the Maan News Agency. (EI)

Each section contains a unique multimedia panel. During the Gaza invasion, we are using all of these panels to point to the special BY TOPIC section of Key Events, “Israel invades Gaza (27 June 2006)”, and to showcase some of the incredible photographs from on the ground put out by the Ma’an News Agency.

EI was saddened to learn this morning of the serious injury of 20-year-old Ma’an photographer Mohammad Az Zanoun in Gaza. A new employee of Ma’an, Mohammad has been taking some incredible photographs of the Israeli invasion. On Thursday, he miraculously escaped injury when an Israeli shell landed among a group of Palestinians.

This morning, he was photographing in the Zaitoun area of Gaza, where he lives, when Israeli tanks entered the area. He was injured by shrapnel in his mouth, hand and body, but continued to work believing, in the words of Ma’an, that “his honest photos might move the hearts and conscience of the world”.

Ma’an photographer Mohammad Az Zanoun at the office in Gaza. Mohammad was hit several times by Israeli fire when covering the incursion east of Gaza City, July 8, 2006. (Ma’anImages/Stringer)

When he continued to work, Israeli soldiers aimed at him directly, and shot him in the stomach. Eyewitnesses reported that he fell to the ground shouting “Where is the camera? There are many photos in it which are witness to the killing of Palestinians; there are many photos of the Palestinians who have been killed.”

He is currently undergoing a serious operation in Gaza’s Shifa hospital.

Palestinians like Mohammad exemplify the spirit of nonviolent resistance shared by the majority of the Palestinian people, who only wish to live their lives in peace but face an unimaginable situation of daily violent colonization of their land, as Israel scrambles to change as many facts on the ground in its favor before the world wakes from its slumber.

Mohammad’s unswerving belief that, if the Palestinian narrative could only be communicated to the world, that the consciences and hearts of the people will be moved to say to Israel, “Enough is enough”, is a belief that literally gave birth to the Electronic Intifada.

For Ma’an’s report on Mohammed Az Zanoun, see: http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article4927.shtml

For continuing EI coverage of Israel’s invasion of Gaza, see: http://electronicintifada.net/bytopic/442.shtml

Nigel Parry, for EI
8 July 2006

Nigel Parry is one of the co-founders of EI.

Related Links

  • Photostory: Mohammed Az Zanoun’s Images of Gaza Under Siege, Ma’an Images (8 July 2006)
  • BY TOPIC: Israel invades Gaza (27 June 2006)