Amid carnage in Gaza, artists express solidarity #WithHandala campaign
WORLD
3 MIN READ
Amid carnage in Gaza, artists express solidarity #WithHandala campaignCartoonists in Italy and Japan are showing their support for Palestinians and calling for a ceasefire by drawing characters with their backs turned, as they symbolically stand with Handala.
A man walks near a mural painting of Handala in the village of al-Fara, in the occupied West Bank, following an Israeli raid on December 8, 2023 (AFP/Zain Jaafar).
January 25, 2024

As the bombing of Gaza continues, artists around the world have been expressing their solidarity by drawing their own versions of an iconic Palestinian cartoon.

Handala, a 10-year-old boy who is barefoot and dressed in tattered clothing, was created Palestinian cartoonist Naji al Ali as a reflection of his own childhood refugee experience and those of others displaced by the nakba.

In December, Japanese artist Mariko Matsushita, cartoonist Tokushige Kawakatsu and photographer Zohre Miha launched a #WithHandala campaign on X, urging cartoonists to draw characters with their backs turned, as they symbolically stand with Handala.

The trio said they were inspired by a November 2023 effort by Italian artist Francesca Ghermandi and independent publishing house Eris Edizioni calling on artists to do something similar while calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.

In a statement, the artists added, "The ruthlessness of Israel, the hypocritical United States, the self-serving Arab ruling class. Author Naji Al Ali borrowed the perspective of a boy named Handala and quietly and bitterly left Palestinian anger in the form of a single newspaper cartoon."

When Handala was first published in a Kuwaiti newspaper in 1969, he was drawn with his face showing. But in 1973, al-Ali began drawing him with his back turned to symbolise how the world turned its back on Palestinians.

The cartoonist once explained, "I drew him as a child who is not beautiful; his hair is like the hair of a hedgehog who uses his thorns as a weapon…His hands are clasped behind his back as a sign of rejection at a time when solutions are presented to us the American way."

He added that Handala will not grow up until the Israeli occupation ends.

Al-Ali was shot by an unknown assailant in London in 1987, and died from his wounds a month later at age 50 years old.

Now, as a new generation of artists rally around Handala amid growing global calls for a ceasefire in Gaza, their work serves as a reminder that Handala - and the Palestinian people - do not stand alone.

SOURCE:TRT World
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