BBC Homepage
  • Skip to content
  • Accessibility Help
  • Your account
  • Notifications
  • Home
  • News
  • Sport
  • Weather
  • iPlayer
  • Sounds
  • Bitesize
  • CBBC
  • CBeebies
  • Food
  • More menu
More menu
Search BBC
  • Home
  • News
  • Sport
  • Weather
  • iPlayer
  • Sounds
  • Bitesize
  • CBBC
  • CBeebies
  • Food
Close menu
BBC News
Menu
  • Home
  • InDepth
  • Israel-Gaza war
  • War in Ukraine
  • Climate
  • UK
  • World
  • Business
  • Politics
  • Culture
More
  • Tech
  • Science
  • Health
  • Family & Education
  • In Pictures
  • Newsbeat
  • BBC Verify
  • Disability
  • BBC Trending

Gaza protest image likened to famous Delacroix painting

  • Published
    25 October 2018
Share page
About sharing
Palestinian holding a flag and swinging a slingImage source, Getty Images
Image caption,

A Palestinian - flag in one hand, swinging a sling in the other - pictured in Gaza on Monday

By Chris Bell
BBC News

It's a picture which has spawned thousands of words online.

Captured by photojournalist Mustafa Hassona, a bare-chested Palestinian holding a large flag wields a sling over his head in Gaza on Monday.

It was snapped amid violent protests on a beach close to the border with Israel. Demonstrators burnt tyres and threw stones at Israeli forces, who responded with tear gas and live fire. Gaza's health ministry said 32 Palestinians were wounded.

The image has been shared widely, with many social media users likening it to Eugene Delacroix's famous painting of the 1830 Paris uprising - Liberty Leading the People, external.

Liberty Leading the People, by Eugene DelacroixImage source, Getty Images
Image caption,

Liberty Leading the People, by Eugene Delacroix

Al Jazeera identified the man in the photograph as 20-year-old Aed Abu Amro.

"I was surprised this picture of me went viral," he told the pan-Arab broadcaster, external.

"I participate in protests on a weekly basis, sometimes more. I didn't even know there was a photographer near me.

"The flag I was carrying is the same one I always hold in all the other protests I've attended. My friends make fun of me, saying it is easier to throw rocks without holding a flag in the other hand, but I got used to it."

You might also be interested in:

  • 'Hear our message': Gaza border violence in pictures

  • How I made the Manchester New Year's Eve photo go viral

  • Sports photos that look like Renaissance paintings

Professor Laleh Khalili, a lecturer in Middle Eastern politics at SOAS university in London, shared the image on Twitter on Tuesday.

Her tweet alone has attracted more than 30,000 retweets and 80,000 likes, while the photograph has also garnered tens of thousands of upvotes on Reddit.

But not all of the reaction has been positive.

Where some saw biblical symbolism of a David versus Goliath struggle, others viewed the stylish image as glorification of violence.

This X post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser.View original content on X
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
Skip X post by GadB

Allow X content?

This article contains content provided by X. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read X’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’.

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
End of X post by GadB

Palestinians in Gaza have been protesting weekly along the border with Israel since March. The protests, orchestrated by the territory's militant Hamas rulers, are held in support of the declared right of Palestinian refugees to return to their ancestral homes in what is now Israel.

At least 217 Palestinians - mostly in the demonstrations - have been killed by Israeli troops since the protests began, external, according to the UN and Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza; one Israeli soldier has been shot dead by a Palestinian sniper.

Israel says its forces have only opened fire in self-defence or against would-be attackers trying to infiltrate into Israel under the cover of the protests.

More on this story

  • Palestinian forces 'torturing critics'

    • Published
      23 October 2018
    Palestinian policemen stand opposite demonstrators during a protest against a decision by the Palestinian Authority to grant public land to the Russian church, in the West Bank city of Hebron, on 4 February 2017
  • Gaza: Coding in a conflict zone

    • Published
      1 October 2018
    IT workers at Gaza Sky Geeks

Top stories

  • Officer among four killed in New York City building shooting

    • Published
      2 minutes ago
  • London to celebrate Lionesses with open-top bus parade

    • Published
      2 hours ago
  • Starmer to hold emergency cabinet meeting on Gaza

    • Published
      3 hours ago

More to explore

  • Chris Mason: Trump visit provides Starmer with invaluable access

    Donald Trump, right, stands next to Sir Keir Starmer at Turnberry golf course, with the Prime Minister gesturing with his right hand as he speaks
  • 'The lion ladies' and 'You can't fake that starvation'

    A composite image of the front pages of the Sun and the i Paper on 29 July 2025
  • 'How will we survive?' Lesotho factory that made Trump golf shirts hit hard by US tariffs

    Aletta Seleso, a worker at a garment factory that produces Trump-branded golf shirt
  • India's AI-driven tech firings could derail middle class dreams

    The image shows Indian workers at a software company seated in front of their computer screens. A woman wearing a white kurta is prominently seen, surrounded by male colleagues on either side.
  • 'Kelly is more than the next Beckham' - the Lioness shifting the culture

    • Attribution
      Sport
    Chloe Kelly
  • The rise of Japan's far right was supercharged by Trump - and tourists

    Index pic
  • Rare 4,000-year-old Egyptian handprint found

    Helen Strudwick on the left with the base of an ancient Egyptian soul house. She is side on and only the top of her dark hair and her nose can be seen as she looks a the soul house on the right. She has stretched out her right hand towards the artefact. The base of the house is in lumpy light brown clay. On its base, towards its bottom side, can be seen light ridges of fingers.
  • Who are the winners and losers in US-EU trade deal?

    Donald Trump, dressed in a suit, in a meeting with Ursula Von der Leyen of the EU at Turnberry Golf Club in Scotland
  • News Daily: Our flagship daily newsletter delivered to your inbox first thing, with all the latest headlines

    A promo promoting the News Daily newsletter - a graphic of an orange sphere with two concentric crescent shapes around it in a red-orange gradient, like a sound wave.
loading elsewhere stories

Most read

  1. 1

    Two dead and two injured in attack at business

  2. 2

    'The lion ladies' and 'You can't fake that starvation'

  3. 3

    Maguiresbridge murder victims will be buried together in County Clare

  4. 4

    Chris Mason: Trump visit provides Starmer with invaluable access

  5. 5

    London to celebrate Lionesses with open-top bus parade

  6. 6

    Couple planning 'brutal' sex attacks on children jailed

  7. 7

    Reconsider Gaza family case, court tells Foreign Office

  8. 8

    Starmer to hold emergency cabinet meeting on Gaza

  9. 9

    France and Germany lead downbeat EU response to US trade deal

  10. 10

    US begins preparing Qatari jet to be used as Air Force One

BBC News Services

  • On your mobile
  • On smart speakers
  • Get news alerts
  • Contact BBC News

Best of the BBC

  • Storyville explores how sex scenes in Hollywood are created

    • Attribution
      iPlayer
    Storyville: Sex on Screen
  • Adrian Edmondson's life through music

    • Attribution
      Sounds
    Desert Island Discs: Adrian Edmondson
  • Leonardo DiCaprio as a high-flying, corrupt stockbroker

    • Attribution
      iPlayer
    The Wolf of Wall Street
  • Santana's classic 1990 performance at the Manchester Apollo

    • Attribution
      Sounds
    Radio 2 In Concert: Santana (1990)
  • Home
  • News
  • Sport
  • Weather
  • iPlayer
  • Sounds
  • Bitesize
  • CBBC
  • CBeebies
  • Food
  • Terms of Use
  • About the BBC
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookies
  • Accessibility Help
  • Parental Guidance
  • Contact the BBC
  • Make an editorial complaint
  • BBC emails for you

Copyright © 2025 BBC. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read about our approach to external linking.