Frankly Speaking...: An interview with Ba'ha Bukhari

Ba'ha Bukhari, cartoonist for the daily newspaper al-Quds was Naji al-Ali's long-life friend. Palestine Report's Alessandra Antonelli met him amid the paints, colors and brushes in his studio where he shared some of his comments and memories of the artist with the Palestine Report.

PR:Mr. Bakhari, you and Naji al-Ali were friends for long time, weren't you?

Bukhari: Our friendship lasted more than 25 five years. We met in Kuwait in 1964 and we maintained our friendship until 1985 when Naji was deported for having supported a sort of small revolution in Mecca.

PR:Why did he support it?

Bukhari:Because it was against the Saudi regime and Naji was against any regime.

PR:He died only two years later?

Bukhari:Yes, and many believed that the PLO assassinated him.

PR:Why would there be such a suspicion?

Bukhari:Because Naji was particularly hard when it came to the PLO. He used to view the whole Arab world through a peep-hole called Palestine while I looked at Palestine, through the Arab world. Any matter happening between the Gulf and Morocco for Naji passed through a Palestinian filter. And he was vehemently critical of the PLO.

PR:What was so special in Naji Ali's art ?

Bukhari:Therichness of his creativity was extraordinary. It is very hard to maintain a subject every day, year after year. But he did. He was able to create more than one subject about Palestine on a daily basis.

PR:At the beginning Naj al-Ali's caricatures were sharply sarcastic whereas towards the end of his life they grew dramatic. Which feeling do you think would prevail in his sketches if he were still alive today?

Bukhari:Honestly, some times I have wish that I were in his place. Fortunately, God took him before the Gulf War and the current situation. I cannot imagine what he could have felt if Kuwait, the country where he spent so much of his life, where he worked for al-Qabas, would expel him in the way it did with other Palestinians, simply because they were Palestinian. Since that time I try to forget that I am an Arab. Thinking of the way he evaluated the Arab countries back then, it is easy to imagine the anger and disappointment he would have felt.

PR:The writer Ghassan Kanafani, the poet Mohadeen Bseiso, the arist Naji al-Ali -- all have been killed for their art.

Bukhari:The Palestinians, as a population, have always been an Israeli target. But the Israelis know how to select and eliminate exceptional people. Their assassinations have stopped the spreading of "dangerous "thoughts and seriously hurt a whole population.

PR:As far as I know, Naji al-Ali is the only caricaturist in history to have been assassinated. What was so powerful and dangerous in his vignettes?

Bukhari:His messages were incredibly clear.

PR: What is your favorite Naji al-Ali caricature?

Bukhari: In all of the books which collect his work, I have never found the one I love the most. It was a caricature he drew during the Lebanese civil war. It depicts a crowd of women in black mourning dresses and one, single woman dressed normally.

PR: Why has Handala, his most famous character, never shown his face?

Bukhari: Handala is Naji himself. He represents Naji, the boy, when he fled to Lebanon. He doesn't show his face because like Naji, he turns his back on the entire Arab world and the few times he did show it, it was an ugly face " ugly just like the Palestinian situation he was representing.

PR: On the 11th anniversary of his death, you organized exhibitions in his honor. How did the Palestinians, especially the younger generation, respond to the event?

Bukhari: Overall, people responded positively. I was surprised, however, at the media's attitude. Almost no press covered the event, and not much space in the media was dedicated to the anniversary of his death.

PR: Handala represents the conscience of Palestine. If Naji al-Ali were alive today, do you think he would still portray it so ugly?

Bukhari: Yes.

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