Singing about the death of Muhammad al-Durrah and the emotional mobilization for protest

This article examines a couple of Arabic-language songs about the death of the young Muhammad al-Durrah on the second day of the Second Intifada, September 2000. The songs as well as the videos that have been uploaded confirm the iconic status of al-Durrah and demonstrate the significance of the incident as a means for emotional mobilization in anti-Israeli protest. Following the World War I studies by historian George Mosse, I propose in this article to identify the central motif of the songs as a nationalistic myth of the fallen martyr.