Child In Palestine Pa

Throughout history artists have faced the threat of violence when their work offended the state or the political elite. The late Palestinian cartoonist Naji Al-Ali was just such an artist, producing thousands of cartoons satirizing the powers that be in the Middle East, and was ultimately assassinated in Grosvenor Square, London. Emerging from humble beginnings in the refugee camps, for over 30 years he was an uncompromising critic of a regressive Arab political culture and of Western intervention in Arab affairs. Known as the Palestinian Malcolm X, Naji is still the most popular artist in the Arab world, loved for his defense of ordinary people, and for his criticism of repression and despotism. Paradoxically, strict censorship and widespread illiteracy in the Arab world helped Naji to achieve his remarkable success. His unrelenting cartoons exposed the brutality of the Israeli army and the hypocrisy of the PLO, earning him many powerful enemies.

Naji Salim al-Ali (1938–87) was a Palestinian cartoonist, noted for the political criticism in his work. He drew over 40,000 cartoons, which often reflected Palestinian and Arab public opinion and were sharply critical commentaries on Palestinian and Arab politics and political leaders. He is perhaps best known as creator of the character Handala, pictured in his cartoons as a young witness of the satirized policy or event depicted, and who has since become an icon of Palestinian defiance. Naji al-Ali was shot by unknown assailants outside the offices of “al-Qabas”, a Kuwaiti newspaper in London on July 22, 1987 and died 5 weeks later.

Joe Sacco lives in Portland, Oregon. He is the author of many acclaimed graphic novels, including Palestine, Safe Area Gorazde, But I Like It, Notes from a Defeatist, The Fixer, War’s End, and Footnotes in Gaza.