Talk:Death of Hamza Ali Al-Khateeb/Image

Background: In Syria a 13 year old boy was detained and tortured. The media of his death has already inspired tens of thousands on Facebook and in protests, outcry from Hillary Clinton, and tens of RS which address the event and the significance of the media in galvanizing protest.

Inclusion rationale: Multiple RS link content from a video taken by the family and shown on AlJazeera and Syrian Free Press. Stills of the photo have been reproduced extensively in mainstream newspapers confirming the position that the death was from torture and not a gunshot followed by mere decay. The media is discussed in the article and helps illustrate for the reader the visual content involved in the debate between the protesters and the government, which has publicly made claims dismissing the torture allegations. It thus aids the reader's understanding significantly. The family released the original video with the intent to publicize the death. The images are low resolution. Although graphic, they accurately portray the event and they are not gratuitiously violent or intended to shock the reader. They would be placed lower in the article, in the torture section which specifically addresses both the physical signs as well as the public debate which took place over the media of his body.

All of the following sources establish the historical significance of this iconic media.

Extended content

Selected quotes

• "But a video posted on YouTube showing his beaten corpse has sparked international condemnation and become a rallying cry for Syria’s protesters, who shouted this week: “We are all Hamza al-Khateeb.” It is difficult to look at his injuries and not think about what he endured — the boy’s face is purple and swollen; there are bullet and burn marks on his chest. A narrator states that his kneecaps were also shattered and his penis severed." http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/1001070--syria-s-sad-revolutionary-symbol
• "A graphic video of the corpse of a 13-year-old boy who appears to have been sexually and physically tortured by Syrian security officials has sparked international condemnation and riots across the country. The video (see still pic above) shows Hamza Ali al-Khatib, a resident of the southern village of Jiza, and appears to have been filmed by his family after they retrieved his corpse." http://www.fastcompany.com/1756775/syrian-protests-sparked-by-youtube-torture-video
• "A month later, the family received his body. The video was taken at that time by a relative, the family says. Much of the video of the child's corpse is too graphic to broadcast. His face is bloated and purple. His body is covered in bruises. There are gunshot wounds to his torso and his genitals are mutilated...But far from terrorizing people, the video appears to have made them only bolder." http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/meast/05/31/syria.tortured.child/
• "The video shows his bloated body, with bullet wounds to his arms, stomach and chest as well as bruising to his face and legs. Two men, who seem to be medical examiners, then say his genitals were mutilated, though the image is pixilated. 'Look at these reforms that the treacherous Bashar has called for,' one of the examiners is heard saying in the video, apparently taken on 25 May. Hamza disappeared at a protest on 29 April and his body was returned to his family only in the past week. "Uprisings need symbols… These individual cases are symptomatic and represent hundreds of other cases that may go unreported that are just as horrendous," said Human Rights Watch's senior Syria and Lebanon researcher, Nadim Houry." http://news.scotsman.com/world/The-face-of-the-Arab.6778123.jp
• "The video allegedly showing the mutilated, castrated, and bullet-riddled corpse of a 13-year-old boy named Hamza Ali al-Khateeb has galvanized the Syrian protest movement and re-focused world attention on the desperate plight of the anti-government demonstrators." http://www.periscopepost.com/2011/06/syrian-child-martyr-youtube-video-re-ignites-protest-movement/
• "A video showing a 13-year-old boy's mutilated corpse has shocked many Syrians and is turning the victim, Hamza Ali al-Khateeb, into a martyr." http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2011/05/31/136812581/in-syria-the-death-of-13-year-old-hamza-creates-a-child-martyr
• "The graphic footage has engendered a Facebook page in honor of the "child martyr" with over 60,000 supporters and demonstrations in several Syrian cities in solidarity with the boy." http://www.theatlanticwire.com/global/2011/05/syrian-protesters-galvanized-video-childs-corpse/38284/
• "But the remains themselves testify all too clearly to ghastly torture. Video posted online shows his battered, purple face. His skin is scrawled with cuts, gashes, deep burns and bullet wounds that would probably have injured but not killed. His jaw and kneecaps are shattered, according to an unidentified narrator, and his penis chopped off. In Syria and beyond, the youth’s battered body has cast into shocking relief the terrors wielded by the Syrian state against its people. Circulating in various versions, the video has injected new life into a six-week uprising against President Bashar al-Assad that has appeared to settle into a bloody stalemate of protests and violent government responses. In the days since news of the death spread, more than 58,000 people have visited and expressed support for a Facebook page memorializing the boy, Hamza Ali al-Khateeb, as a “child martyr.”"http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/31/world/middleeast/31syria.html?_r=1
• "After retuning his body, the forces had reportedly warned the teenager's family not to speak of this incident to anybody. However, they made a film and posted it on YouTube to convey their pitiful situation to the world." http://www.dailyindia.com/show/442822.php
• "Syrian children carry pictures of 13-year-old Hamza al-Khatib and hold candles during a protest in front of the United Nations building in Beirut. The Syrian boy, who activists say was tortured and killed by security forces, has emerged as a powerful symbol in protests against the rule of Syria's President Bashar al-Assad." http://www.theglobeandmail.com/multimedia/camera-club/in-photos/best-pictures-from-the-past-24-hours/article2044016/
• "And since a video portraying the torture inflicted upon him was broadcast on the al-Jazeera television network Friday, he has rapidly emerged as the new symbol of the protest movement in Syria. His childish features have put a face to the largely faceless and leaderless opposition to President Bashar al-Assad’s regime that has roiled the country for nine weeks, reinvigorating a movement that had seemed in danger of drifting." http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle-east/torture-of-boy-reinvigorates-syrias-protest-movement/2011/05/29/AGPwIREH_story.html
• "This week, a normally pleasant, round-faced 13-year-old boy from the Syrian village of Jiza has joined their iconic ranks — in a most horrific way. It would be good if we can only remember Hamza Ali al-Khateeb by the last image on the YouTube videos the world saw this weekend, the smiling photo his family provided, which aired at the end of the piece first broadcast on the Arabic language network al Jazeera. But once we have seen the entire video, we know that is the image that will stay with us forever. It is the horribly graphic condition of Hamza’s body as it was reportedly delivered to his family the other day, a month after the boy’s father took him out to join in the April 29 protest of the Syrian government’s iron-fisted rule....Thousands of Syrians took to the streets this weekend protesting the torture of young Hamza. They carried placards with the boy’s pleasant-faced photo nailed to sticks and chanted protests of the torture the world saw in the images of his mutilated corpse." http://www.thedickinsonpress.com/event/article/id/48220/group/Opinion/
• "When al-Jazeera broadcast a portion of a narrated video showing Hamza’s mutilated body last week, it set off waves of outrage online and in the streets where for six weeks protesters have been struggling to oust Syrian President Bashar al-Assad." http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/africa-mideast/how-a-13-year-old-became-a-symbol-of-syrian-revolution/article2043699/
• "The video is shockingly graphic. A chubby teenage boy is stretched out naked, wrapped in heavy plastic. The cellphone video documents the wounds that killed him — bullet holes to his arms and to his chest. The unnamed narrator describes each injury and gash, but when he gets to the mutilated genitals, the screen goes white. The images are all the more shocking because it was Hamza's family that documented the evidence of torture and posted those images on YouTube." http://www.npr.org/2011/06/01/136858508/boys-brutal-death-becomes-rallying-cry-for-syrians?ps=cprs
• "The face of a tortured 13-year-old boy is fast emerging as a powerful symbol of Syria's uprising." http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/World-News/Video-Face-Of-Syria-Tortured-Teenager-Hamza-Al-Khatib-Becomes-Symbol-Of-Protests/Article/201106116003801?lpos=World_News_First_Home_Article_Teaser_Region_1&lid=ARTICLE_16003801_Video%3A_Face_Of_Syria_Tortured_Teenager_Hamza_Al_Khatib_Becomes_Symbol_Of_Protests
• "Hamza Al-Khatib, whose picture has been widely distributed since he died 25 May, has become the symbol of the Syrian revolution and further motivation for demonstrators to take to the streets to reject the excessive force used -- in this case, against a 13-year-old boy -- by security forces...On 25 May, his family picked up his body, and pictures and a video of his corpse were uploaded to Facebook, showing extensive disfiguration at the hands of the intelligence agencies. According to the video and statements by his family, he was shot at close range after he was brutally tortured, his sexual organs severed, and his hand broken. The websites of Syrian opposition described the crime as "unprecedented and undocumented even at the peak of fascist measures by Syrian security forces, whether inside or outside detention camps". The video tape of Hamza's corpse shocked the West as much as Syrians themselves. Within hours, Syrian activists changed their Facebook pictures to one of the young boy, in solidarity with his cause. Satellite news channels broadcast details of the sadistic incident and condemned the security forces. Syrians across the country heeded the call by activists to take to the streets on Saturday in protest at the aggressive suppression of demonstrations, calling it "The Saturday Revolution for Martyr Hamza". Protesters put up pictures of Hamza in many Syrian cities, including in barricaded Daraa and several other cities with heavy security and military presence. Demonstrators chanted for the fall of the regime, while children in rural areas in Damascus, brandishing pictures of the child, chanted: "We are all Hamza; we will not be silent." http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2011/1050/re5.htm
• "All through Syria's 10-week uprising, authorities in Damascus have tried to prevent localised demonstrations from linking up and becoming a cohesive, nationwide movement. Those efforts may have been finally undone with the death of a Syrian teenager, Hamza al Khatib, who has quickly become a unifying symbol of the popular revolt. Hamza, a 13-year-old from the southern city of Deraa, was tortured and killed by Syrian security forces, according to activists and human-rights campaigners. His mutilated body was returned to his family last week and, outraged, they allowed a graphic video of his corpse to be posted online before he was buried. The shocking footage has since been widely broadcast on news channels. Activists and political analysts say it has provoked a wave of outrage among ordinary Syrians that has greatly boosted anti-government sentiment and will increase the number of people taking part in demonstrations. "There isn't a single Syrian who doesn't know the name Hamza al Khatib," said one political analyst, on condition of anonymity. "The question now is, will this case be enough to push the silent majority to join demonstrations or will they remain silent?" http://www.thenational.ae/news/worldwide/middle-east/murdered-syrian-teenager-hamza-al-khatib-becomes-focus-of-protests
• "One video showing the mutilated body of 13-year-old Hamza Ali al-Khatib, who was arrested and murdered by security forces, has horrified the world and inspired more protests across Syria. Activists insist he was tortured and killed by security forces, while the latter deny he was tortured. Khatib, like the market-seller Mohamed Bouazizi who set himself alight in Tunisia and Neda Agha Soltan whose dying moments were filmed and distributed in Iran, has become a potent symbol to protesters demanding more freedom." http://uk.ibtimes.com/articles/156270/20110602/the-protests-in-syria-initially-started-after-a-group-of-15-young-boys-all-under-18-were-arrested-in.htm