Hiyam Noir
On Friday in Gaza City,a group of Palestinian artists and cartoonists celebrated the memory of the world renowned Palestinian cartoonist, Naji Al-Ali. Al-Ali is known for his signature mark, portraying a young Palestinian refugee,Handalah. A young boy in torn clothes, turning his back against the viewer, a victim symbolizing the poverty of his people and his occupied country, Palestine.
Naji Al-Ali has published more than 40.000 cartoons during his lifetime,the cartoons were deeply critical of Israel, the Palestinians and the Arab world.Al-Ali was assassinated in June 1987 outside the London-based Kuwaiti newspaper where he published his art work, he died later in August in a London hospital.
Al-Ali was born 1936 or 1937 in Al-Shajara village between Nazareth and Tiberias in Galile.In the 1948 Al Nakba,at the age of 11 the young boy,as hundreds of thousands of other Palestinians, was forced out of Palestine.Naji settled down with his family in Ain-al-Helwe refugee camp in Sidon in Southern Lebanon.In the late 1950 the Palestinian journalist and poet Ghassan El-Kanafani discovered the talented young man,Naji Al-Ali, while Al-Kanafani visited the Ain-al-Helwe refuge camp.
In the beginning of the sixties, the young man Naji,left to Kuwait to work in Al-Taliah magazine. In the early 1970's Al- Ali returned to Beirut from Kuwait and became a member of the Editorial Board of the prominent Lebanese newspaper Al-Safir:"Working for al-Safir newspaper in Beirut in 1971 was the best part of my life, and the most productive. There, surrounded by the violence of many army, and finally by the Israeli invasion, I stood facing it all with my pen every day. I never felt fear, failure or despair, and I didn't surrender.I faced armies with cartoons and drawings of flowers, hope and bullets. Yes, hope is essential, always. My work in Beirut made me once again closer to the refugees in the camps, the poor, and the harassed." - During this period Naji Al-Ali contributed with his drawings to the Al-Khalij newspaper in the United Arab Emirates.
In 1982 during Israeli invasion of Lebanon, Naji al-Ali was an eyewitness to the terrifying massacre that took place in the Palestinian refugee camp of Sabra and Shatila.With those devastating experience Al-Ali left the country he grew up in to settle in Kuwait. During this period, he worked for both Al-Qabas (‘The Light ") – the largest Independent daily newspaper in the Middle East - and Al-Khalij newspapers.In 1985,the artist was expelled from Kuwait, because of political reasons.He received asylum in England and settled in London,he continued to work for the Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Qabas.where he stayed until his death in 1987.
Naji Al-Ali had no political affiliation, which rendered him both success and criticism.His work was published daily in Cairo, Beirut, Kuwait, Tunis, Abu Dhabi, London and Paris in publications ranging from far right to the far left. Naji Al-Ali is believed to be the highest paid cartoonist in the Arab world.
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