Palestine Lives! · Scavenger Hunt
Handala
He bears witness. He refuses erasure. Art becomes an act of resistance.
Original sticker design by Alyssa Polito
About this Motif
Handala is a drawing of a Palestinian child refugee with his back turned to the viewer, his arms crossed behind him, his feet bare, and his clothes tattered. Created by the political cartoonist Naji al-Ali in 1969, two years after the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, Handala represents the artist’s own exile at age 10 during the 1948 Nakba. Naji al-Ali’s Handala is an extremely popular symbol for insurgency, resilience, and Palestinian struggle.
Handala’s name comes from the Arabic word “handal,” a plant native to the Levant which grows bitter fruit, grows back when cut, and has deep roots.
Handala didn’t always have his back turned. In response to the 1973 Arab-Israeli War, Naji al-Ali drew Handala with his back turned against the world, representing Palestinian rejection of foreign nations’ imposed solutions.
Despite the unsolved murder of Naji al-Ali in 1987, Handala remains an enduring emblem of Palestinian struggle and identity. Until today Handala is seen on walls, used as icons for movements, mascots, and more.
“He is silent, but he is observing, and it is clear to the reader that he is knowing, he knows what’s going on. He knows there is hypocrisy”
– Joe Sacco, the author and illustrator of the non-fiction graphic journal, Palestine (1993).