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Naji Al Ali is known as
the Palestinian Malcom X. He is still the most popular artist in
the
Arab world. He was loved
for his defense of the ordinary people, and for his despotism.
Naji was born in 1936 or
1937 in Al-Shajara village between Nazra and the Tiberias in
Galile. He left
Palestine with his family in 1948 to live in exile in the south of
Lebanon on
the Ein-Al-Helwe
Palestinian refugee camp.
Naji’s talent was
discovered by the late Palestinian author Gassan El-Kanafani.
“I started to use
drawing as a form of political expression while in Lebanese jails. I
was
detained by the Deuxiéme
(the Lebanese intelligence service) as a result of the
measures the Bureau
were undertaking to contain political activities in the Palestinian
camps during the
sixties. I drew on the prison walls and, subsequently, Ghassan
Kanafani, a journalist
and publisher of Al-Huria magazine, saw some of those drawings
and encouraged me to
continue, and eventually published some of my cartoons,"
revealed Al Ali.
Naji el-Ali had no
political affiliations and the absence of slogans and dogma in his
work
brought both success and
criticism. He was opposed to terrorism and the absence of
democracy and, not
belonging to any political group, tried to be a true representative
of
Arab public opinion.
His cartoons portrayed
the bitter struggle and plight of the Palestinian people against
Israeli
occupation and
oppression. He also campaigned against the absence of democracy,
widespread corruption
and gross inequality in the Arab world. He was said to have
antagonized virtually
everyone in the Middle East; Arab, Jew, conservative and radical
alike.
He was made famous by
“Hanthala” the symbol of the child in his drawings.
“Hanthala is not a fat,
spoilt, comfortable child. He is bare-footed like the other bare
foot
children from the
refugee camps. Despite his looks, he has a pure heart with a
conscience that smells
like musk and amber and I am ready to kill anyone who intends
to harm him. His hands
are clasped behind his back as s sign of rejection during the
phase that this region
is under going, with solutions offered by the USA and the system.”
The late artist had
said.
In his caricature
as I said he has expressed the situation in Palestine and what
happens to
his people.
During his
life time, he was said to have drawn around 40,000 drawings, some
say however,
he drew 15,000, on
average two cartoons a day.
Naji felt
that with his cartoons he was able to speak for his people, the
people of the camps.
His work
made him much closer to the poor, and sick people of his country.
Naji Al Ali
became for
these people their true and their only representative.
He
was shot in the head by
a lone gunman on July 22, 1987, as he left the Al Qabas offices
in Ives Street, Chelsea,
London. He was in a coma for five weeks and on a life support
machine in St
Stephen's and Charing Cross Hospital in London. He died on August
30.
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