Naji Al-Ali

Naji Al-Ali (towards 1937, Galileo - August 29th 1987), is a Palestinian caricaturist . Its family took refuge in 1948 with the camp Lebanon board of Ein-el-Helweh.

During its career, it produced approximately 10.000 drawings, although the figure of 40.000 generally appear, the majority describing the situation of the Palestinian people. He was discovered by Ghassan Kanafani and its first drawings preached the hope and the Révolution. He worked in Kuwait for newspaper Al Qabas during three years then he settled in London after he was expelled of Kuwait in 1985. .

The caricatures of Naji Al-Ali express the fight and resistance to the Israeli occupation and criticize the Arab modes. He said that its caricatures were

“the expression of oppressed which pays their lives expensive, bearing on their shoulders the burden of the errors made by the authorities. All that they have was acquired with sorrow, under the constant seat of hardness and cruelty. They fight for their life and die young people, buried in the stripped tombs. They are always on the defensive to be able to live. I live with them in the dungeons, observing and burning with the impulse of their hearts, with the flood of the blood which runs in their veins. ”

It was reached of a ball in the head the July 22nd 1987 with London and succumbed to its wounds one month later, and was the first caricaturist with being assassinated for his drawings.

In 1988, the Worldwide association of the newspapers allots off the price Golden PEN Freedom , received by his Widad wife and her Khaled son. The Worldwide association of the newspapers describes it like one of the largest caricaturists since the end of the 18th century.

Hanthala

Hanthala is a character created by Naji Al-Ali, he appeared for the first time in 1969 in the Kuwaiti newspaper Alsiyassa (the policy). It is a 10 years old little boy, it is the age which Naji had when it had left Palestine, barefeet as all the children who live the Palestinian refugee camps. Hanthala is located in space without ground of support because it is without fatherland. It is the witness of the tragedy of a whole people, he turns his back on the public because he feels betrayed.
Naji known as of Hanthala:

“Handala was born with age the 10 years and since its exile the laws of the Nature do not have any influence on him. It will start again to grow only at the time of its return on its native soil. He is not a quite bearing, happy, serene and brooded child. He goes flip-flop like all the children of the refugee camps. Its hair is those of the hedgehog which uses its spines as arms. Although it is hard, it with the Odeur of the Ambre. Its hands, always behind its back, are the sign of the rejection of the solutions carrying the Idéologie imperialist and Zionist. At the beginning he was a Palestinian child, but its conscience developed to become that of a nation then of the Humanité in its totality. It made the promise never to be betrayed. Handala wants to say bitterness. ”

“Handala is the witness of this era which will never die, it penetrates the life with a force which never leaves it, a legend whose existence is one demolished with eternity. This character that I created will not disappear after me. I do not believe to exaggerate by saying that I will be immortalisé through him. ”

Assassination

Wednesday July 22nd 1987 towards 17:13, Naji parks its car with Eves Street with London, with less than 30 meters of Alqabas Aldawliya , the newspaper where he works. One of his/her colleagues tells that it saw Naji going in the direction of the buildings of the newspaper, followed by a man to the black hair carrying a jacket in. A few seconds later, he hears a shot and sees Naji by ground and the man who followed it to flee. Saturdays August 29th, 38 days later, Naji succumb to its wounds.

According to a spokesperson of the newspaper Al Qabas Al Naji received more than 100 death threats during its career. His/her colleagues with the newspaper reported that a Kuwaiti band had tried to kill it before it left the country and it did not want to live with another country of the Middle East because it feared for its life. A colleague of Naji Al-Ali revealed that a high member of PLO, Yasser Arafat, telephoned the caricaturist in the middle of June and said: “You must correct your attitude. ” “Not to say anything against the honest people, otherwise we will have businesses to sort you”

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