Naji Salim al-Ali

Naji al-Ali ناجي العلي
Born	c. 1938 Al-Shajara, Palestine
Died	29 August 1987 London, United Kingdom
Occupation	cartoonist
Nationality	Palestinian
Period	1938-1987

Naji Salim al-Ali (Arabic: ناجي سليم العلي‎‎ Nājī Salīm al-‘Alī ; born c. 1938 – 29 August 1987) was a Palestinian cartoonist, noted for the political criticism of the Arab regimes and Israel in his works.

He drew over 40,000 cartoons, which often reflected Palestinian and Arab public opinion and were sharply critical commentaries on Palestinian and Arab politics and political leaders. 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. On 22 July 1987, while outside the London offices of al-Qabas, a Kuwaiti newspaper for which he drew political caricatures, al-Ali was shot in the face and mortally wounded. Naji al-Ali died five weeks later in Charing Cross Hospital.

Naji al-Ali was born in 1938 or thereabouts in the northern Palestinian village of Al-Shajara, located between Tiberias and Nazareth, which is currently moshav Ilaniya. He was exiled in the south of Lebanon with his family after the 1948 Palestinian exodus (the Nakba), and lived in Ain al-Hilweh refugee camp near Sidon, where he attended the Union of Christian Churches school. After gaining his Certificat he worked in the orchards of Sidon, then moved to Tripoli where he attended the White Friars' vocational school for two years.

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