A Palestinian activist and cartoonist whose work was revered throughout the Arab region for its boldness, outspokenness, and humanity, Naji al-Ali was one of the most influential Arab artists in mid-twentieth century. In 1969, al-Ali drew a cartoon of a young boy who has lived on to become Palestine’s pictorial conscience. He was murdered in 1987, but his work survives him until today as symbols to the Palestinian cause. Al-Ali was born in 1938 in al-Sharja village in Palestine, one of the 480 villages later destroyed in the Nakba (catastrophe) that took place in 1948 to create the state of Israel. At ten years old — in 1948 — al-Ali was among the 750,000 Palestinians who were forced to flee their villages and hometowns. His family fled to southern Lebanon to the Ayn al-Hilwa refugee camp, which is where his artistic talent emerged. Today, there are no traces of al-Sharja village, as it was replaced by an Israeli settlement called Ilaniya. In 1960, al-Ali briefly enrolled in the Lebanese Academy of Fine Arts, until he was detained and imprisoned by the Deuxième Bureau (the Lebanese intelligence service) for his…
How Naji al-Ali’s Cartoon ‘Handala’ Became an Emblem of Palestinian Resistance
October 17, 2023
