Glory to the Martyr Sha’ban al-Dalou

On October 14, amid Israel’s bombardment of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir Al-Balah, Sha’ban al-Dalou and his mother, Ala’a Abdel Nasser al-Dalou, were burned alive, killed by a two-ton bomb Israel dropped on refugee tents. In the video, Sha’ban struggles to beat the flames off of his body before succumbing to the fire.

Sha’ban was 19 years old. He was a hafiz, a memorizer of the Qur’an. Before the genocide began, like many of us, he attended university. Like many of us, he studied computer science. Like many of us, he knew that his future depended on his education. But as the West applauds Israel for the success of its tech industry — much of it built for the express purpose of modernizing its settler-colonial occupation of Gaza and the West Bank — Israel has wiped out generations of scientists and engineers, foreclosing on the possibility of Palestinian innovation.

Despite the horrifying conditions of the ongoing genocide, Sha’ban continued to study from his tent. As the oldest sibling, Sha’ban said in a social media video earlier this year, he was responsible for providing for his parents and younger brother and sister. Sha’ban built the tent that his family lived in, and for months had been organizing a GoFundMe campaign to help them evacuate to Egypt. He should be with us today. Instead, he has been martyred.

In March, he wrote of the genocide: “I used to have big dreams, but the war has ruined them.”

Sha’ban’s blood is on our hands. Yet he is only one martyr of the hundreds of thousands who have perished due to Israel’s genocide. As we study in the imperial core, bearing witness to the inhuman violence our politicians, government, and universities have wrought upon the world, we can always do more — we must always do more.

We must honor our martyrs. We must take action. We must never forget.