Handala
حنظلة
Naji al-Ali's barefoot refugee child, back turned to the viewer, who has watched over Palestinian political cartoons since 1969.
Handala is the signature character of the Palestinian cartoonist Naji al-Ali: a barefoot, ragged ten-year-old boy with spiky hair, drawn from behind, his hands clasped as he bears silent witness. He first appeared in 1969 and went on to feature in thousands of cartoons published in Arab newspapers until al-Ali’s assassination in London in 1987.
Naji al-Ali explained that Handala was ten years old — the age al-Ali himself was when his family was driven from their village in 1948 — and that the boy would not grow up until he could return home. The turned back signified rejection of the world as it is; Handala, al-Ali said, would only show his face again when Palestinians regained their dignity and their land.
Handala endures as one of the most reproduced images in Palestinian culture — on walls, posters, jewelry, and protest banners. He is named after the handal, the bitter desert colocynth, a plant that survives where little else grows.