In Focus
On Three Posters 2004 by Rabih Mroué

ISBN 978-1-84976-390-5

Jamal Sati: Transcript of the Third Take of his ‘Martyr Video’

I, the martyr comrade Jamal Sati, was born in 1962, in the small village of Kamed El-Lawz, in Western Bekaa, into a poor hardworking family. I became a member of the Lebanese Communist Party in 1978. After the aggressive occupation of the Israeli Armed Forces in 1982, my village, like the other villages and towns in South Lebanon and Western Bekaa and Rashayyah, suffered a great deal from the aggressive and terrifying treatment. When that great and mighty creature named the Lebanese National Resistance Front appeared on the battlefield, the lost hope for a free land and national dignity again nourished our desperate souls. Then I found myself among the legions of this Front, for it was my sacred duty toward my party as a communist and my country to become a member of this Front. And that’s how I joined this front early 1983. With modestly, I announce that I have participated in many successful operations in my village, Kamed El-Lawz and other neighbouring villages. I am not boasting when I am saying this as everyone knows that we work silently, but for martyrdom, I see that it is my duty to say that for all new generations and heroes.
My happiness was so great when the enemy Israeli forces were forced to retreat and withdraw from my district under the heavy blows of the Resistance ... But my happiness was even greater when the leadership of the Front agreed that I could continue participating in its operations ... and it is much more exciting that I have to perform this suicide operation. Following the example of the great Farajallah El-Helou and the other heroic martyrs of the Party, those who chose the most noble death, the death for the sake of the survival of the nation; martyrs such as Nazeeh, Bilal, Wajdi, Sanaa', Ibtisam, Khaled , Hisham , Lola Abboud, Wafaa' Noureddine.
Now, I am departing my country, in body only; I will still exist in the souls of all the honest patriots. I take this opportunity to greet the National Allied Front, the new promising offspring; I am most confident that its leaders will make it their duty to support this resistance first, with all available means. In this occasion, I greet most respectfully the Arabic liberation movement and to all Palestinian movements. I tell them, together to free our land. I also would like to use this occasion to send my greatest greetings to the Syrian people and military forces under the leadership of President Hafez El-Assad. As well as greetings to all the freedom-seeking and struggling people throughout the world.
As for you, mom and dad, the dearest and finest mother and father in existence, my beloved brothers and sisters: my wish for you is not to mourn and wail, but rejoice and dance as you would do at my wedding, for I am the proud groom of martyrdom, and that is the happiest wedding I could hope for. You are the ones who taught me how one sacrifices silently for others and dies for goodness and morals, and I was keen to keep your morals. And as hero Ernesto Che Guevara said:
I don't care where, how, and when I die, but I care to keep the flame of revolution burning all over the world so that the world does not press its burden over the bodies of poor people.

How to cite

‘Jamal Sati: Transcript of the Third Take of his ‘Martyr Video’’, in Chad Elias (ed.), In Focus: 'On Three Posters' 2004 by Rabih Mroué, Tate Research Publication, February 2014, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/rabih-mroue-on-three-posters/jamal-sati-transcript-of-the-third-take-of-his-martyr-video-r1144498, accessed 25 April 2024.