Discover Top Posts Tagged with #hanthala

Handala poster in Burin, Nablus, Palestine. Photographed by Saleh Najjar, 2007

Naji al-Ali

I don’t feel like I can have a discussion about personal artistic influences without mentioning Naji al-Ali’s work.

Al-Ali is the most influential Palestinian cartoonist, full stop. Politics are easier to digest in comic form, and al-Ali was especially masterful at tackling Middle Eastern politics and the frustration that Palestinians collectively felt daily due to the never-ending occupation. He was so influential that, even though he died in the mid-1980s, you can still purchase necklaces of his iconic spiky-haired character Hanthala. His work is still regularly talked about and aspired to.

Looking at the work now, I’m sorry to say that many of his comics are still relevant today, even though 30+ years have passed since their creation. The Middle East is a place that sees a lot of strife and negative “action,” but for multiple reasons I won’t get into here, problems don’t resolve and instead simply migrate; the overall ailments remain after all these years.

Al-Ali was critical of Israel—he was exiled from his hometown in 1948 and lived under occupation, that’s not terribly surprising. But he didn’t let Arab or Western governments off the hook, either, and really fought for the Palestinian refugees—and poorer Arabs more broadly—who he felt were too often used as bargaining chips in the world. His visual representation of a government official is literally a sluglike, naked man.

His work comprises the first comics I ever “read,” through reprints in a newsletter for Palestinian Americans. I was probably 4 or 5. No, I didn’t understand them, and yes, I found them terrifying. But also intriguing. They sparked something in me.

If you’re interested in learning more about al-Ali and his work, Verso Books released a compilation a few years ago that I found to be a great primer and also useful in its interpretations of each comic.

By the way, I apologize for my somewhat crummy photos in this post, which were all taken from this book (but check out the subtitles!).

-Marguerite Dabaie

#curatordabaie #Naji al-Ali #Palestinian comics #Hanthala #political comics

Hanthala

Hanthala is the iconic character of Naji al-Ali’s political cartoons. He is a destitute, Palestinian refugee boy about eleven years of age. He is often depicted as having his back turned to the viewer, standing upright with his hand held together in his back, and staring pensively into the same scene the audience sees.

Hanthala embodies and unflinching and innocent viewpoint that befits him as a helpless child.

But Hanthala also stands for a form of persistent existence as a form of resistance. He stands to stand in and observe all the atrocities at the front-line, symbolizing an adamant insistence for Palestinians to write their own history.

Hanthala’s blunt gaze towards the harsh honesty of the world’s cruelty, and his repetitive existence as a powerless voyeur-participant of all these scenes, make him an appealing figure for many Palestinians.

Hanthala never ages. If he did, the Palestinian refugee predicament would be normalized.

#Hanthala #NajiAlAli

This child, as you can see is neither beautiful, spoiled, nor even well-fed. He is barefoot like many children in refugee camps. Those who came to know ‘Hanthala,’ as I discovered later, adopted him because he is affectionate, honest, outspoken, and a bum. He is an icon that stands to watch me from slipping. And his hands behind his back are a symbol of rejection of all the present negative tides in our region.

Naji al-Ali on his iconic cartoon character, Hanthala

#NajiAlAli #Hanthala

Naji Salim al-Ali and Handala.

Naji Salim al-Ali was a Palestinian cartoonist, noted for the political criticism of the Arab regimes and Israel in his works. He drew over 40,000 cartoon. He is perhaps best known as creator of the character Handala, pictured in his cartoons as a young witness of the satirized policy or event depicted and who has since become an icon of Palestinian defiance.

Handala, also known as Handhala (Arabic: حنظلة‎) is the most famous of Naji al-Ali's characters. He is depicted as a ten-year old boy, and appeared for the first time in Al-Siyasa in Kuwait in 1969. The figure turned his back to the viewer from the year 1973, and clasped his hands behind his back. The artist explained that the ten-year old represented his age when forced to leave Palestine and would not grow up until he could return to his homeland; his turned back and clasped hands symbolised the character's rejection of "outside solutions". Handala wears ragged clothes and is barefoot, symbolising his allegiance to the poor. In later cartoons, he is actively participating in the action depicted not merely observing it.

Handala became the signature of Naji al-Ali's cartoons and remains an iconic symbol of Palestinian identity and defiance. Handala has also been used as the web mascot of the Iranian green movement. The artist remarked that "this being that I have invented will certainly not cease to exist after me, and perhaps it is no exaggeration to say that I will live on with him after my death."

After seeing this image of a little boy, hands behind his bag and ragged clothing, I wanted to know what it was. I later found out it was Handala. I saw it attached to the words Palestine, Palestinian, Filisteen, Keffiyeh, etc. and I wanted to know more. This is what I gathered from Wikipedia. Although not always the best source for information (considering it could be edited by anyone), it got down to the point :]

#palestine #palestinian #handala #hanthala #handhala #filisteen #filistini #falasteen