“Creating icons isn’t enough to show solidarity,” respond al-Kurd for being named among 100 most influential in world
Commenting on the TIME’s naming of him and his sister among the 100 most influential people in the world, Palestinian activist and journalist from the occupied Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah Mohammad el-Kurd said “creating icons is not enough to show solidarity” with Palestinian people, urging the mainstream media to “end its bias towards Zionism.”
In a statement he posted on his social media accounts, Mohammad el-Kurd said the TIME’s choosing of him and his sister among the 100 most influential people in the world “maybe a positive sign for the Palestinian cause amongst the public global space.”
El-Kurd added, “However, creating icons, which reduce the struggle of an entire people to one face, is not enough to show solidarity with us. What we want is a radical and significant change in the mainstream media, including the TIME, to end the bias towards Zionism and push it to be more bolder when covering issues about the liberation movements and Palestinian resistance in all its forms.”
El-Kurd also noted that “the new era, which Palestinians live now, is a result of the accumulation of struggle by hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, who fought against colonization for seven decades without any international gratitude or recognition.”
The TIME revealed its list of 100 most influential people on Wednesday, and the activist twins of Sheikh Jarrah have made it to the list.
The list is broken into six categories: Icons, Pioneers, Titans, Artists, Leaders, and Innovators.
The Sheikh Jarrah activists made the list in the “Icons” category.
“Through online posts and media appearances, sibling activists Mohammed and Muna El-Kurd provided the world with a window into living under occupation in East Jerusalem this spring—helping to prompt an international shift in rhetoric in regard to Israel and Palestine”, Time wrote about the El-Kurds.
“Mohammed and Muna El-Kurd—who were temporarily detained by Israeli authorities this summer—challenged existing narratives about Palestinian resistance through viral posts and interviews, humanizing the experiences of their neighbors and pushing back against suggestions that violence was being predominantly carried out by Palestinians.”
The twin, who has been described as charismatic and bold by the Time, had been leading a fierce campaign against the forced displacement of their family, as well as other residents of the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood. They were arrested by Israeli occupation authorities several times as part of the Israeli attempts to silence them.
Half of the al-Kurd family home was taken over by Israeli settlers in 2009. Mohammed and Muna were only 11 years old when the settlers forced their way in.
