Remembering the "conscience" of Palestine by Alessandra Antonelli

Death arrived in the back for Naji al-Ali. Probably the most famous caricaturist in the Arab world, he was shot on July 22, 1987 in London and died one moth later, on August 29 after being in a coma.

Shot from behind, exactly like Handala, his most famed character, who was portayed in one of his last cartoons, struck by an arrow. Handala was so close to Naji al-Ali that the borders between the artist and the character often blurred, merging and creating what was defined as the "conscience" of Palestine.

Naji al-Ali was not merely a famous artist. He represented what Naghib Maufuz represents in literature, or Mahmoud Darwish in poetry. Ali's pencil could sum up in a few lines, the most acute sarcasm of Arabs and Palestinians for their way of dealing " or not dealing " with the political situation around them. But he was also able to narrate, in a single sketch, the intense desperation, resignation, as well as the hopes and dreams of the Palestinians living in refugee camps who were pushed into a corner of the world by the indifference of the international community and the Arab world.

In few simple lines he could depict the drama of a whole population and launch messages sometimes so sharp and rich in symbols that the eyes and the mind are forced to stare at the lines for a while and patiently follow them to reach the vignette's hidden meaning.

Naji al-Ali was born in 1938 in Shajara, a village in the Galilee. He was 12 -years-old when he was forced to flee his home and settle in 'Ain al-Helwa Refugee Camp in Lebanon, a recurrent symbol of suffering in his cartoons.

Ali's dream was to study art in Italy, but financial problems forced him to enroll in a university in Kuwait. The pages of a Kuwaiti magazine al-Talee'ah, published his first caricatures. After he began publishing his work in al-Siyase newspaper, his fame spread to Lebanon and Egypt. And with the fame grew the number of caricatures produced, since the satire and the sharpness of some of them would not be allowed publication.Working on the Lebanese al-Safir and the Kuwaiti al-Qabas, his fame spread all over the Arab world. After the Israeli invasion of Lebanon and his expulsion from Kuwait in 1985, Ali moved to London. As his caricatures took on a more dramatic tone and he became less careful of the danger of conveying certain messages, he also started to sense the end of his life as he used to say ," I know I will die soon " either by assassination or by suicide." Indeed he was killed, but the mystery of his murderer is still lingering.

Despite his death, the legend arose around him, strengthening his figure even more, and consecrating Handala and his vast work " most of which is still amazingly befitting.

Palestine Report, vol. 5, No. 12, 4 September 1998