Naji Al Ali is known as the Palestinian Malcom X. He is still the most popular artist in the

Arab world. He was loved for his defense of the ordinary people, and for his despotism.

Naji was born in 1936 or 1937 in Al-Shajara village between Nazra and the Tiberias in

Galile. He left Palestine with his family in 1948 to live in exile in the south of Lebanon on

the Ein-Al-Helwe Palestinian refugee camp.

Naji?s talent was discovered by the late Palestinian author Gassan El-Kanafani.

?I started to use drawing as a form of political expression while in Lebanese jails. I was

detained by the Deuxi?me (the Lebanese intelligence service) as a result of the

measures the Bureau were undertaking to contain political activities in the Palestinian

camps during the sixties. I drew on the prison walls and, subsequently, Ghassan

Kanafani, a journalist and publisher of Al-Huria magazine, saw some of those drawings

and encouraged me to continue, and eventually published some of my cartoons,"

revealed Al Ali.



Naji el-Ali had no political affiliations and the absence of slogans and dogma in his work

brought both success and criticism. He was opposed to terrorism and the absence of

democracy and, not belonging to any political group, tried to be a true representative of

Arab public opinion.

His cartoons portrayed the bitter struggle and plight of the Palestinian people against Israeli

occupation and oppression. He also campaigned against the absence of democracy,

widespread corruption and gross inequality in the Arab world. He was said to have

antagonized virtually everyone in the Middle East; Arab, Jew, conservative and radical alike.

He was made famous by ?Hanthala? the symbol of the child in his drawings.

?Hanthala is not a fat, spoilt, comfortable child. He is bare-footed like the other bare foot

children from the refugee camps. Despite his looks, he has a pure heart with a

conscience that smells like musk and amber and I am ready to kill anyone who intends

to harm him. His hands are clasped behind his back as s sign of rejection during the

phase that this region is under going, with solutions offered by the USA and the system.?

The late artist had said.

In his caricature as I said he has expressed the situation in Palestine and what happens to

his people.

During his life time, he was said to have drawn around 40,000 drawings, some say however,

he drew 15,000, on average two cartoons a day.

Naji felt that with his cartoons he was able to speak for his people, the people of the camps.

His work made him much closer to the poor, and sick people of his country. Naji Al Ali

became for these people their true and their only representative.

He was shot in the head by a lone gunman on July 22, 1987, as he left the Al Qabas offices

in Ives Street, Chelsea, London. He was in a coma for five weeks and on a life support

machine in St Stephen's and Charing Cross Hospital in London. He died on August 30.