Some may have seen the photograph of a Palestinian boy wearing the helmet of a Swedish journalist and a home-made “flak jacket” made from a trash bag. According to reporter Johan-Matthias Sommarström, the youngster approached him and identified himself as a journalist.
Sommarström tweeted the photo with the caption: “‘Young boy in #Gaza pretending to be a journalist with his home-made flak jacket, had to lend him my helmet.’ Within 15 hours, the photo had been retweeted 5,500 times.
The Swedish journalist interpreted the boy’s action as an expression of resilience and the desire to survive: “I think that in his pretending play he wants to be like us, someone who survives.”
No less an expert than pioneer Soviet psychologist Lev Vygotsky has explained that children’s imaginary play is a means for children to make sense of their social context and to appropriate and practice adult rules and behaviors.
“In play a child is always above his average age, above his daily behavior; in play it is as though he were a head taller than himself. As in the focus of a magnifying glass, play contains all developmental tendencies in a condensed form; in play it is as though the child were trying to jump above the level of his normal behavior.” (Play and its role in the Mental Development of the Child)
The young boy in question is not a journalist per se: he does not file reports to an agency that disseminates the news. However, as he jumps above the level of his normal development through make-believe play, he becomes in actuality a militant journalist in that he took action that created news and contributed to a counter-hegemonic narrative, a narrative of Palestinian humanity and resilience in contrast to the pro-imperialist, mainstream media narrative of “terrorism” and victimization.
May our little journalist and his friends, indeed may all Palestinian children, stay safe and strong, able to develop to their full potential in a free Palestine!
