It was 5 pm on July 22, 1987. Cartoonist Naji al-Ali was walking towards the offices of the Arabic newspaper al-Qabas when a shot rang out. He had been shot once in the throat by a lone gunman, mortally wounding him. He died in a hospital five weeks later on August 29. At that time, he was the most famous cartoonist in the Arabic-speaking world. Posthumously, he was awarded the Golden Pen of Freedom by the International Federation of Newspaper Publishers. The killer has never been found, although the investigation was reopened in 2017.

You might not know al-Ali’s name. If you have attended a pro-Palestine demonstration, though, chances are you have seen his most famous creation: The spiky-haired, barefoot, refugee called Handala. He appears often on posters and protest signs. At Wayne State University’s pro-Palestine encampment, I saw him on one poster. He’s been a recurrent figure at other demonstrations in Dearborn, Detroit, and Hamtramck.  In reprinting A Child in Palestine: The Cartoons of Naji al-Ali, Verso books introduce Handala and the story behind him to a new audience.

Naji al-Ali was born near Galilee, but like hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, he was forced to flee during the Nakba. His family settled in a Lebanese refugee camp; later, he moved to the newly independent Kuwait in the 1960s. That decade, al-Ali began drawing cartoons and, in 1969, Handala was born. He was described by his creator as “not a fat, happy, relaxed or pampered child. He is barefooted like the refugee camp children…” Handala is a stand-in for all the children of the Nakba. 

al-Ali moved back to Lebanon in 1974, where he witnessed that country’s brutal civil war before returning to Kuwait. Due to how critical al-Ali was of Arab governments, he was forced from Kuwait, hence why he was in London at the time of his murder.

Joe Sacco, of Palestine and Footsteps in Gaza, and most recently the War on Gaza, contributes a text introduction to A Child in Palestine. Sacco recounts how when he began his project of comics journalism, he was worried that the Palestinians he spoke to in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip would not understand his work. He need not have worried. “Of course!” he was told. “We had our own cartoonist! Naji al-Ali!” Sacco admires al-Ali’s courage in aiming his barbs at more than just Israel. The corrupt Arab regimes that are complicit in Palestinian oppression and the insufficiency of the PLO also found their way into al-Ali’s sights. Sacco’s introduction provides some context as to changes in al-Ali’s work, such as why Handala was drawn as more active (shaking his fist, waving a flag, even throwing rocks) post-Israel’s invasion of Lebanon.

During his lifetime, al-Ali created around 40,000 cartoons. A Child in Palestine curates 100 of those, grouping them by five broad themes. Dr. Abdul Hadi Ayyad provides a brief introduction of a few pages for each theme: Palestine, Human Rights, US Dominance, Oil and Arab Collusion; The Peace Process, and Resistance. There are text captions that accompany each of al-Ali’s cartoons giving background information. Usually, these include the dates for each, but for some the date is unknown.

Some of the text explanations for al-Ali’s cartoons go overboard in their descriptiveness. While translation of Arabic text is helpful, a few go far beyond that. As an example, one cartoon showing a crucified Jesus kicking an Israeli soldier is captioned: “Christ, the symbol of endless suffering, strikes back against the Israeli occupier.” I’m sure that will be informative for the handful of English-language readers who don’t recognize Jesus on the cross as a symbol of suffering. Other captions are so literal they become redundant: “[Handala] is resolute in the face of a combined bombardment: Arab swords,  Arab oil, and Israeli munitions.” If readers could not see the images for themselves perhaps such an expansive caption would be necessary.  

In a review of an earlier printing of A Child in Palestine, novelist Michel Faber also expressed concerns with the captions, not due to their superfluousness but rather their politics. Faber says they make him “wince in suspicion,” due to their similarity to the “kind of rhetoric that one might expect to hear at an anti-Israel rally.” This desire for “balance” is on its face, absurd. To expect al-Ali and his admirers to sing the praises of a state that had expelled him in 1948, that had illegally occupied the West Bank, Gaza, and the Golan Heights in 1967, and supervised a massacre of Palestinian refugees in 1982, is simply too much. Naji al-Ali had his viewpoint; he was a strong critic of the state of Israel and it can’t be pretended that he believed in things he did not. 

“I have a class outlook,” al-Ali once explained. “What is important is drawing situations and realities, not drawing leaders.” Not all the cartoons in A Child in Palestine follow this rule, however. One cartoon shows President Ronald Reagan stealing a blanket covered with a map of the world from Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev. Another shows Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and there’s a trio starring the less-than-dearly departed Henry Kissinger. The rest of the book’s selections are more general, giving them a sadly timeless quality. This is particularly apparent in the cartoons reacting to the 1982 invasion of Lebanon. Sans dates, they could be depicting the current slaughter in Gaza. They remind me of the current work of Palestinian cartoonist Mohammad Sabaaneh, who was introduced to cartooning and the Palestinian struggle as a child through al-Ali’s work.

This book’s cartoons are not meant to make readers comfortable. American cartoonists often attempt to generate laughter.  al-Ali’s cartoons more often evoke sadness, disgust, and rage. They attack a range of targets; Israel being foremost. They also go after comprador Arab regimes such as those in Egypt and Jordan. They attack religious fundamentalism and the oppression of women. But it’s the criticism of Yasser Arafat’s PLO that may have actually gotten al-Ali killed. In the United States, the worst a cartoonist has to worry about (Art Young excepted) is angry letters. Naji al-Ali received one-hundred death threats over the course of his career. One phone call in June 1987 from an Arafat associate warned him “You must correct your attitude. Don’t say anything against the honest people, otherwise we will have business to sort you out.” A few months later he was dead, just before the start of the First Intifada.

The goal of a free Palestine may seem far away, yet A Child in Palestine still ends on a hopeful note. The final cartoon shows a hand, clenching a Palestinian flag in its fist, bursting through the rocky ground. Handala raises his hands in celebration. It’s that spirit of persistence and steadfastness protesters who carry Handala’s image are summoning. Verso has done a great service by bringing the life and work of Naji al-Ali to a wider audience.