Naji Al-Ali, Thirty Years On
The London Metropolitan Police have reopened their investigation into the unsolved murder of Palestinian cartoonist Naji Al-Ali.
I spoke to the New York Times about the iconic artist’s enduring legacy:
“He’s the only cartoonist whose work I’ve seen in Muslim Brotherhood newspapers and also in a famous communist bar in Beirut,” Mr. Guyer said. “He has this incredible crossover appeal because he was really an independent thinker and a staunch critic of all authority. Whoever you are, there is something in Naji al-Ali’s work for you.”
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I also wrote a post for Public Radio International about how Ali has influenced contemporary comic artists.
In death, Ali has inspired a new generation of bold political cartoonists across the Middle East who are carrying his legacy forward. Khalid Albaih, the Qatar-based cartoonist, cites Ali as a crucial inspiration, as do myriad illustrators in the Levant and North Africa — and of course in Palestine.
“My mother used the cartoons of Naji al-Ali to tell us what was happening in Palestine while we were living in Kuwait,” said Mohammad Sabaaneh, 38, a Ramallah-based political cartoonist who continues to see Ali as a reference. “It’s important to continue what he started.”
“Not all of the cartoonists at this time could criticize the Arab regimes,” said Sabaaneh of the late Ali. “He criticized all the Palestinian parties, all the Arab regimes, and he talked about the poor people, the people who want to go back to Palestine.” Unlike most cartoonists of the time, Ali was not affiliated with a particular political party or party newspaper. That’s why Sabaaneh says, “He represents all Palestinians.”
Keep reading—or listen to my comments on air— here.
Original drawings by Naji Al-Ali, 1978, courtesy of the British Library and the Al-Ali family.
