King Khaled Airport video

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In the history of media, there are images that went beyond the moment in which they were taken, and turned into documents that summarize entire wars and reveal what propaganda is trying to hide. The photo of the Vietnamese girl, Kim Phuc, taken by photographer Nick Ut in 1972 as she was escaping the effects of a napalm attack, remains one of the most prominent images that embody the tragedy of civilians in the war, and she played a prominent role in accelerating the end of the Vietnam War. Decades later, images of torture in Abu Ghraib prison revealed a dark side of American practices in Iraq, and became a symbol of the contradiction with the values ​​that Washington promoted in its political discourse.

The common denominator between these images is that they transferred the facts from the scope of statements and justifications to a visual scene that is difficult to ignore. The documented image has the ability to penetrate political discourse, because it exposes the public to what happened, and not what those in power want to convince them happened.

From this perspective, the video that Al Arabiya alone published from surveillance cameras at King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh gains importance beyond simply documenting the attack. The painful scene of pilgrims wearing Ihram clothing being targeted by missiles as they prepare to perform their rituals reveals the dangerous criminal dimension of this group, an aspect that is often ignored by Iranian-backed Houthi military statements and covered up by ideological slogans.

The scene appears even more painful considering that these pilgrims came to the Kingdom from various parts of the earth, intending to the Holy House of God, without any connection to political or military conflicts. They are part of a human faith movement that Saudi Arabia receives daily through all its airports and specializes in the highest levels of care and organization based on its historical responsibility towards the guests of God.

Here the paradox appears that is difficult for the Houthi discourse to overcome, as the group repeats the slogan “We are facing America and Israel,” and presents its operations as part of confronting external forces. But the presence of the pilgrims at the scene of the attack puts this claim to a direct test: How can we continue to market this act as resistance while civilians pay the price for it, and Muslims who go to worship find themselves in danger?

Slogans, no matter how loud they are, do not grant their owners immunity from accountability for the results. Raising slogans against America and Israel does not legitimize their military operations, nor does it absolve those who carry them out from responsibility for the harm caused to civilians.

The Houthis are an ideological group with an expansionist project, and its practices have shown that its rhetoric cannot be separated from its quest to impose its influence by force. They have built their media presence on a phrase they repeat, which is confronting America and Israel. The sentence is easy on the ear, and attracts an audience in the region and around the world who embraces this discourse. But when men and women in Ihram clothes appear on the screen under bombardment, the credibility of this slogan collapses, and it is difficult to convince the viewer that what he sees is an operation of resistance, because the image displays a completely different reality, and here lies the strength of the published image and video.

Historical image memory, as in the moment of the napalm girl or the Abu Ghraib scenes, tells us that the image may not overthrow political discourse overnight, but it makes it difficult to continue promoting it. This is exactly what the video circulating after the King Khalid Airport attack does. It puts the Houthis in front of a scene that undermines their attempts to present themselves as a party waging a battle against external forces, and instead shows them in a frank confrontation with a state that embraces the Two Holy Mosques and Muslim civilians on their way to the Sacred House of God.

The impact of this video is very great, and it will be able to change the way the global public understands the terrorist group, weaken its propaganda discourse, and transform the documented image into an ever-evocative reference that is difficult to overcome in media coverage and public debate. I believe that one documented scene could be enough to expose years of misleading rhetoric and slogans. I find in the King Khalid Airport video nothing but a milestone that reveals to the Islamic world and the world the truth about this terrorist group, which is no less dangerous than the Al-Qaeda and ISIS groups.