Democratic Palestine : 15 (ص 34)
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- Democratic Palestine : 15 (ص 34)
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Development of the PFLP’s Posters
The following article, written by the responsible for PFLP’s art sec-
tion, appeared in the anniversary edition of «Al Hadaf», the Front’s
Arabic weekly.
We cannot be sure when the art of
the poster began to take shape in the
Palestinian society. We do find an early
form of this art in the twenties, but it was
not up to the standard in other parts of
the world. Rather, there were posters
advertising theater groups or commer-
cial goods. Later, as Zionist colonization
escalated, there were agitational post-
ers, Calling the people to take up arms
and defend the country. However, the
poster as a cultural and informational
material did not assume its current form
until the late fifties and early sixties. At
this time, it began to assume a con-
scious and artistic form. One kind was
the posters issued by UNRWA. These
were educational, aiming at increasing
public awareness about health. Another
kind of poster emerged with the estab-
lishment of the PLO in 1964. This
developed and engendered an under-
standing for the political poster in the
Palestinian society.
The development of the poster in
the PFLP intersects at many points with
the same process in other Palestinian
organizations. All were affected by the
same political events and shared many
national occasions, such as the anniver-
sary of the revolution (Jan. ist), the
Black September massacres in Jordan
1970, the Day of the Land, the Day of the
Prisoner, the Day of the Martyr, etc.
There are, however, differences in the
content of the posters of the various
organizations, due to differing political
lines and ideologies; there are also dif-
fering artistic views, depending on the
personnel working in this field in each
organization.
The armed resistance from
1967 and its effect on the
poster
The early posters of the PFLP have
a special impact, because they convey
the memories of the early years of mili-
tancy. We find great artistic value,
simplicity and clarity in the early posters,
making them easily understandable to
all. The early period witnessed militant
armed uprising in two main arenas:
32
occupied Palestine and Jordan. The dis-
tinctive features of the posters of that
time were as follows:
One: The early posters conveyed a
definition of the political and ideological
identity of the PFLP. There were text
posters, displaying only written slogans.
while other posters combined slogans
with drawings or artistic symbols. One
early poster depicted the Palestinian
flag and two hands carrying a weapon; it
read: «The road of armed struggle...the
road to a free Palestine.» On another,
there is a hand holding a weapon and
the slogan: «Liberating Palestine is the
battle of the Arab masses...and the
cause of progressive forces in the
world.» A third poster carries lines by the
Palestinian poet, Mahmoud Darwish:
«My home is not a suitcase and | am not
a traveler.» Still another poster reads:
«Armed struggle is the response of the
toiling masses to the June
defeat...People’s war - our path to libera-
tion...Our enemies Israel, Zionism,
imperialism and reaction...Leading the
revolution - the working class.»
Two: The early posters were
affected by the youthfulness of armed
struggle which created a state of upris-
ing among our people who had spent 19
years wandering, dispersed and dep-
rived. Almost always we find pictures of
weapons - the rifle, molotov, hand gre-
nade - on the PFLP’s posters at that
time.
Three: The early posters often
expressed and paid tribute to the exten-
sive military operations of the Palesti-
nian resistance at that time: The com-
mando units crossing the Jordan River
and the actions of military units active in
occupied Palestine. In addition, there
was the battle of Al Karama which
created a tremendous mood of militancy
among the masses. On an undated
poster, we find a drawing of Al Maghazi
battle in the Gaza Strip. Another one
shows a Palestinian fighter, wearing the
kofia and holding a grenade, atop a Jor-
danian army tank. The slogan on this
poster reads: «Glory to the fighters who
destroyed the fascists’ tanks at Al
Wihdat» (refugee camp in Jordan). A
poster entitled «Greetings to the rebels
in Gaza in their heroic struggle» con-
tains a drawing of a hand holding a
molotov. In the background is a collage
of military communiques announcing
operations staged by militants of the
Front in the Gaza Strip.
Four: At this stage, Palestinian
symbols began appearing and became
widely used in political posters and other
art work - the rifle, the kuffiyah, the
horse, the map of Palestine, etc.
Five: From the artistic aspect, the
painted posters were the most success-
ful, followed by posters using photo-
graphs. Use of the collage was not so
successful. Realism was the dominant
style, portraying events and persons as
they are, with the beginning use of
clearly defined symbols. On one poster
there are no slogans, but rather the
statement: No need for clarification. This
poster shows a picture of a hat made of
the US flag with Zionist stars. It is placed
ona skull with open jaws holding two vic-
tims of the Black September massacre.
In one of the eye sockets of the skull is
the head of Jordan’s King Hussein, with
one eye covered by a patch, like Moshe
Dayan.
The posters of this time employed
many symbols and clear, direct ideas.
One poster, that is more of a cartoon
drawing, shows a person wearing a milit-
ary uniform and a helmet covered with
the US flag, holding in his huge hand a
club with the Star of David on it. One of
the most famous posters of Ghassan
Kanafani shows a woman drawn in the - هو جزء من
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