Aline Manoukian (photo): A Palestinian fighter holds a kitten in the refugee camp of Burj Al Barajneh near Beirut. It was taken on July 8, 1988.
It’s a unique photo. I’d say it’s also beautiful, and it’s not the only one of combatants with kittens. The relationship between fighters and little animals is more than just a trope to be reproduced for art or captured as a fragment of a vibrant reality in photojournalism.
We have the words of Ernesto “Che” Guevara speaking of the need for his men in charge to have a kitten to feed and protect so as not to forget their humanity or why they were fighting: for the defenseless. Of course, it’s an impractical idea that comes from a romantic rather than a career officer, but it’s not a stupid idea, or at least it’s not stupid to consider that such reminders are necessary for combatants. When the enemy is degraded, blurred, and dehumanized… My Lai, Vietnam.
