"i hope death is like being carried to your bedroom when you were a child & fell asleep on the couch during a family party. i hope you can hear the laughter from the next room"
39 years ago today, Palestinian artist Naji Al-Ali was assassinated by Mossad in London.
Naji was born in 1938 in the Palestinian village of Al-Shajara, between Tiberias and Nazareth and one of the more than 531 towns and villages destroyed by jews during the Nakba.
At the age of 10, he was expelled from his homeland to Lebanon in 1948.
Naji used to say that little Handala—his most famous cartoon— was a symbol of the Palestinian people and, more personally, of his stolen childhood and aborted youth.
“They tell little children to turn their backs, but I don’t turn. The boy is the age I was when I left Palestine, and he will not grow up until I return.”
“Handala was born ten years old, and he will always remain ten years old. At that age, I left my homeland. When he returns, Handala will still be ten, and only then will he begin to grow older. The laws of nature do not apply to him. He is an exception because the loss of one’s homeland is an exception. Things will become normal again when the homeland returns.” - Naji Al-Ali
Rest in power hero.