Naji al-Ali
ناجي العلي
Political cartoonist, creator of Handala
The Arab world's most beloved political cartoonist, whose barefoot child Handala became the conscience of Palestine.
Naji al-Ali was born around 1938 in the village of al-Shajara in the Galilee. In 1948 his family fled to the Ain al-Hilweh refugee camp in Lebanon, and he grew up between the camp, prisons, and odd jobs. He moved to Kuwait in the early 1960s and began publishing cartoons, eventually producing more than 40,000 drawings for newspapers including Al-Siyasa, Al-Safir, and Al-Qabas. His targets were Israel and the United States, but also Arab regimes, and at times the Palestinian leadership itself — an independence that made him powerful enemies on every side.
In 1969 he created Handala: a barefoot, ragged ten-year-old, his back turned to the viewer, hands clasped behind him — the age al-Ali was when he was driven from Palestine, and the age Handala will remain until return. On 22 July 1987 al-Ali was shot in the head outside the London offices of Al-Qabas; he died five weeks later, on 29 August. Handala is still drawn on walls across Palestine.
Selected contributions
- Creation of Handala (1969)
- Cartoons for Al-Siyasa, Al-Safir, and Al-Qabas over three decades
- More than 40,000 published drawings
Sources
Further reading
An external biography or archive holding more on this life than the entry above.
Connected in the archive
11 connected records11 records elsewhere in the archive are linked to this one, each by a piece of evidence you can read below.
named in this record — 2 records
One record names the other. A pointer for reading, not a claim that they belong to each other.
- Handala
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: In 1969 he created Handala: a barefoot, ragged ten-year-old, his back turned to the viewer, hands clasped behind him — the age al-Ali was when he was driven from Palestine, and the age Handala will remain until return.
- Al-Shajaraالشجرة، طبرياmapped, not yet written up
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: Naji al-Ali was born around 1938 in the village of al-Shajara in the Galilee.
names this person — 1 record
One record names the other. A pointer for reading, not a claim that they belong to each other.
- The Shooting of Naji al-Ali
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: On 22 July 1987, outside the London offices of the Kuwaiti newspaper al-Qabas on Ives Street, an unidentified gunman shot the Palestinian cartoonist Naji al-Ali in the neck.
on a related subject — 8 records
Filed near each other — the same Mandate district, or the same uncommon subject tags.
- Ghassan Kanafaniغسان كنفاني
Evidence — From a recorded field in this archive: Shared tags: "assassination", "exile".
- A Long Walk from Gaza
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: Shared tag: "exile".
- Abdel Aziz al-Rantisiعبد العزيز الرنتيسي
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: Shared tag: "assassination".
- After the Last Sky: Palestinian Lives
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: Shared tag: "exile".
- Fathi Shaqaqiفتحي الشقاقي
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: Shared tag: "assassination".
- I Saw Ramallah
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: Shared tag: "exile".
- and 2 more
Cite this page
Every claim above carries its sources — citation is the point.
- Chicago
“Naji al-Ali.” Figures, FALASTEEN.AI. Accessed 22 August 2026. https://falasteen.ai/figures/naji-al-ali.- MLA
“Naji al-Ali.” Figures, FALASTEEN.AI, 2026, https://falasteen.ai/figures/naji-al-ali. Accessed 22 August 2026.- BibTeX
@misc{falasteen-naji-al-ali, title = {Naji al-Ali}, howpublished = {\url{https://falasteen.ai/figures/naji-al-ali}}, organization = {FALASTEEN.AI — A Living Archive for Palestine}, year = {2026}, note = {Accessed 2026-08-22} }