NAJI AL ALI (1938 - 1987)
THE TIMELESS PALESTINIAN CONSCIENCE
“He [Handala] was the age I was when I had left Palestine and, in a sense, I am still that age today... He was the arrow of the compass, pointing steadily towards Palestine. Not just Palestine in geographical terms, but Palestine in its humanitarian sense — the symbol of a just cause…”
Al Ali to Egyptian novelist Radwa Ashour, 1985
Naji Al Ali was a satirist, political cartoonist, and visual journalist. Forcefully displaced from his village of Al-Shajara in 1948, his family fled to Lebanon where they lived in a refugee camp. His drawings, which numbered approximately 40,000 over his lifetime, expressed solidarity with the poor and marginalized, criticizing the Israeli government, Arab regimes, and Palestinian politicians alike for their crimes and failures. “This man draws with human bones,” Time magazine wrote of Al Ali, whose drawings were first published by Ghassan Kanafani in Al Hurriyya magazine. [1]
He developed a cast of characters including Fatima the unyielding, ingenious Palestinian woman, and the Evil Man, a fat, bare-bottomed depiction of oppressive and corrupt forces. His most famous character is the ten-year-old boy named Handala after Handhal, a Palestinian bitter fruit with deep roots that grows back when it is cut. Handala reflects Al Ali’s experience as a child refugee: barefoot, destitute and deprived, but enduring. A representation of Palestinian agony and steadfastness, he appears with his back turned, looking towards his homeland. Handala remains frozen in time: ten years old until all displaced Palestinians are able to return home.
Al Ali lived as a refugee until his assassination in 1987. His unwavering integrity and exceptional work earned him the distinction of being "one of the best cartoonists since the 18th century." [2]
Ancestors of Palestinian Liberation is a collaboration of Anemoia Projects and Palestine Advocacy Project
Learn more about Naji al Ali:
Handala.org- I Am From Ain Al-Helwa by Naji Al Ali
Naji Al Ali personally takes us through his experience fleeing Palestine and settling in the Ain Al-Helwa refugee camp in southern Lebanon. He writes about his evolution as a cartoonist and experience of the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon.
TeleSur- Rear Window - Naji al-Ali Conscience of Palestine (14 minutes)
Thirty years after his assassination, family and friends reflect on the life and work of Naji Al Ali.
Kasim Abid- An Artist with Vision (52 minutes)
This film traces Al Ali’s life and work from his birth in Galilee to his death in London. It examines the forces that shaped Naji as an artist and as a human being, and shows how his experiences mirror that of other exiled Palestinians.