Handala by Naji Al-Ali
FREE PALESTINE
Your weekly exploration of art and its mediums. The stories we tell and the ways we tell them.
A collection of things I’ve seen. This week’s story is a figure that I first saw when my sister and mom returned from Palestine in 2010. Handala is a symbol of resistance and steadfastness for the Palestinian people in their fight for a free Palestine.
Naji Al-Ali was a Palestinian cartoonist born in 1937 in the village of Ash Shajara, one of the 480 villages that were destroyed in Nakba. According to Aljazeera, Zionist armed groups expelled 440,000 Palestines from 220 villages (these numbers vary between soirces) from December 1947 - mid May 1948. Today, May 15, is a day of commemoration of their national tragedy of losing their homeland. For Zionists, it is celebrated as their independence day. Nakba (literally meaning “disaster”, “catastrophe”, or “cataclysm”) is the known as the Palestinian exodus from their homeland.
Handala was born ten years old and he will always be ten years old. This is because Naji was ten years old at the time of Nakba when he was forced to leave his homeland. Only when Handala is able to return to his home will he be able to continue growing up. Naji describes Handala as a not particularly beautiful child.
“…his hair is like the hair of a hedgehog who uses his thorns as a weapon. Handala is not a fat, happy, relaxed, or pampered child. He is barefooted like the refugee camp children, and he is an icon that protects me from making mistakes. Even though he is rough, he smells of amber. His hands are clasped behind his back as a sign of rejection at a time when solutions are presented to us the American way."
Handala is a bitter fruit, something that you cannot stand. A journalist and write, Elias Nasrallah says, “when you have a bitter life and you cannot stand it, you are strong. It is a symbol of strength.”
Handala has his back turned to the viewer looking onto the tragedy of daily Palestinian life that Naji depicted in all of his cartoons. Handala is looking to Palestine, the home which he wants to return to. In 1987, Naji was assassinated in London and his killer has never been apprehended.
Naji will not be able to ever return to Palestine. But the figure of Handala lives on in hopes of a free Palestine.
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