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.