Naji al-Ali's life was seamlessly interwoven with the trials of exiled Palestinians. Due to ýinvasion, censorship and threats he lived in exile most of his life, much of the time ýbetween Beirut and Kuwait. The last two years of his life he spent in London.ý
Though the exact date of his birth would appear uncertain, he was born in 1936 or 1937 ýin Al-Shajara village between Nazra and Tiberias in Galile. He left Palestine with his ýfamily in 1948 to live in-exile in the south of Lebanon on the Ein-Al-Helwe Palestinian ýcamp.
In the late 1950's the late Palestinian writer Ghassan Kanafani discovered Naji's talent in ýdrawing while on a visit to this camp. ý
ý"I started to use drawing as a form of political expression while in Lebanese jails. I was ýdetained by the Deuxime Bureau (the Lebanese intelligence service) as a result of the ýmeasures the Bureau were undertaking to contain political activities in the Palestinian ýcamps during the sixties. I drew on the prison walls and subsequently Ghassan Kanafani, ýa journalist and publisher of al-Huria magazine (assassinated in Beirut in 1971) saw some ýof those drawings and encouraged me to continue, and eventually published some of my ýcartoons." At the time of his death in 1987 he was living with his wife and five children ýin south London. In 1992 an International Cartoon Exhibition was held in the Kufa ýGallery in London in commemoration of Naji al-Ali and his work. ý
Work, interests and philosophy
In the early 1960's he joined an Art Institute in Lebanon but discontinued his studies to ýwork in Kuwait on Al-Tali'a Kuwaiti Magazine. ý
ý"Later I fled to Kuwait. The margin of freedom and democracy that exists in Kuwait ýenabled me to grow. There my cartoons concentrated on the dangers surrounding us as ýpeople." ý
In the early 1970's he returned to Beirut from Kuwait and was on the Editorial Board of ýthe prominent Lebanese newspaper Al-Safir: ý
ý"Working for al-Safir newspaper in Beirut in 1971 was the best part of my life, and the ýmost productive. There, surrounded by the violence of many an army, and finally by the ýIsraeli invasion, I stood facing it all with my pen every day. I never felt fear, failure or ýdespair, and I didn't surrender. I faced armies with cartoons and drawings of flowers, ýhope and bullets. Yes, hope is essential, always. My work in Beirut made me once again ýcloser to the refugees in the camps, the poor, and the harassed." ý. During this period he also contributed drawings to Al-Khalij newspaper. ý
The Israelis invaded Lebanon in 1982. Fearing Phalangist threats on his life Naji al-Ali ýreturned to Kuwait in 1983 and worked in Al-Qabas (meaning 'The Light' in English) ýnewspaper - the largest independent daily newspaper in the Middle East. ý
In 1984 he began to publish his work in Al-Khalij. ý
In October 1985 he was expelled from Kuwait by pressure from Saudi Arabia but ýcontinued to work for the same the Kuwaiti newspaper, Al-Qabas, in London and ýcontinued to contribute his work to Al-Khalij. ý
His work was published daily in Cairo, Beirut, Kuwait, Tunis, Abu Dhabi, London and ýParis in publications ranging from far Right to far Left. He is thought to have been the ýhighest paid cartoonist in the Arab world. ý
Naji al-Ali had no political affiliations and the absence of slogans and dogma in his work ýbrought both success and criticism. He was opposed to terrorism and the absence of ýdemocracy and, not belonging to any political group, tried to be a true representative of ýArab public opinion. ý
ý"As soon as I was aware of what was going on, all the havoc in our region, I felt I had to ýdo something, to contribute somehow. First I tried politics, to join a party, I marched in ýdemonstrations, but that was not really me. The sharp cries I felt within me needed a ýdifferent medium to express what I was going through. It was some time in the fifties that ýI started drawing on the walls of our camp. During that period, the refugees had begun to ýdevelop some political awareness as a reaction to what had been taking place in the ýregion: a revolution in Egypt, a war of independence in Algeria, things were brewing all ýaround the Arab world. My job I felt was to speak up for those people, my people who ýare in the camps, in Egypt, in Algeria, the simple Arabs all over the region who have very ýfew outlets to express their points of view. I felt my job was to incite them. For the ýfunction of a political cartoonist, as I see it, is to provide a new vision. He is a ýmissionary, in a sense, because it is just a little bit harder to censor a cartoon than an ýarticle." ý
Few regimes or political groups in the region escaped his satirical drawings. He ýcondemned the absence of human rights in the region, the Gulf War, Palestinian excesses ýand religious fanaticism. He was said to have antagonised virtually everyone in the ýMiddle East; Arab, Jew, conservative and radical alike. ý
He believed his period of work in Beirut was the best part of his career and that his ýperiods of exile in Kuwait and the UK restricted his creativeness in ways he could not ýunderstand and counter. He missed the inspiration of the reality of the refugee camps in ýsouthern Lebanon. ý
Naji al-Ali's philosophy can perhaps be best encapsulated in his explanation aboutý Hanzala, the little boy who appears as a spectator in each of his cartoons: ý
ý"This child, as you can see is neither beautiful, spoilt, nor even well-fed. He is barefoot ýlike many children in refugee camps. He is actually ugly and no woman would wish to ýhave a child like him. However, those who came to know 'Hanzala', as I discovered later ýadopted him and later adopted him because he is affectionate, honest, outspoken, and a ýbum. He is an icon that stands to watch me from slipping. And his hands behind his back ýare a symbol of rejection of all the present negative tides in our region." ý
Hanzala is now the official logo of the Commission for Freedom and Justice Through ýHumour, a recently created arm of WATCH and an affiliate of UNESCO. ý
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