A Child in Palestine: The Cartoons of Naji al-Ali

A Child in Palestine: The Cartoons of Naji al-Ali

Naji al-Ali grew up in the Palestinian refugee camp of Ain al-Hilweh in the south Lebanese city of Sidon, where his gift for drawing was discovered by the Palestinian poet Ghassan Kanafani in the late 1950s. Early the following decade he left for Kuwait, embarking on a thirty-year career that would see his cartoons published daily in newspapers from Cairo to Beirut, London to Paris.

Resolutely independent and unaligned to any political party, Naji al-Ali strove to speak to and for the ordinary Arab people; the pointed satire of his stark, symbolic cartoons brought him widespread renown. Through his most celebrated creation, the witness-child Handala, al-Ali criticized the brutality of Israeli occupation, the venality and corruption of the regimes in the region, and the suffering of the Palestinian people, earning him many powerful enemies and the soubriquet â€œthe Palestinian Malcolm X.â€

For the first time in book form, A Child in Palestine presents the work of one of the Arab worldâ€™s greatest cartoonists, revered throughout the region for his outspokenness, honesty and humanity.

â€œThat was when the character Handala was born. The young, barefoot Handala was a symbol of my childhood. He was the age I was when I had left Palestine and, in a sense, I am still that age today and I feel that I can recall and sense every bush, every stone, every house and every tree I passed when I was a child in Palestine. The character of Handala was a sort of icon that protected my soul from falling whenever I felt sluggish or I was ignoring my duty. That child was like a splash of fresh water on my forehead, bringing me to attention and keeping me from error and loss. He was the arrow of the compass, pointing steadily towards Palestine. Not just Palestine in geographical terms, but Palestine in its humanitarian senseâ€”the symbol of a just cause, whether it is located in Egypt, Vietnam or South Africa.â€â€”Naji al-Ali, in conversation with Radwa Ashour
Country USA
Brand Verso
Manufacturer Verso Books
Binding Paperback
ItemPartNumber 9781844673650
Color White
ReleaseDate 2009-06-23
UnitCount 1
EANs 9781844673650

Country	USA
Brand	Verso
Manufacturer	Verso Books
Binding	Paperback
ItemPartNumber	9781844673650
Color	White
ReleaseDate	2009-06-23
UnitCount	1
EANs	9781844673650

A Child in Palestine: The Cartoons of Naji al-Ali

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