The image portrays an armed fighter wielding a Palestinian flag. In the background is a large bright, full moon and a cloudy, foggy dark sky. In the top left appears the date 15 May 2011 in bright orange.
The moon plays a pivotal role within the Islamic symbolic system. It is laden with religious, astrological and spiritual significance and it governs all daily life, as the Islamic calendar is a lunar one. In the narrower context of Islamic jihadi ideology, the moon is typically combined with images that signal notions of afterlife and martyrdom, like the mountain, clouds and rays of light on the horizon shown here, in order to suggest the martyr’s righteous character and heavenly reward.
Images of mountains can evoke divine omnipotence, eternity and grandeur. The caption at the bottom refers to the date specified in the top left corner and reads: “tamma tahrir al-aradi al-falastiniyya min al-nahr ila al-bahr wa-lam yabqa ayy sahyuniyy ‘ala wajh al-ard” (“the liberation of Palestinian lands from the river [Jordan] to the sea [Mediterranean] has been completed, and there is no Zionist left on the face of the earth”). The image is given the form of a “breaking news” piece as the caption was placed against a red background at bottom accompanied by the word “‘ajil” (“urgent,” or the equivalent to the English “just in”).
