In this special evening, commemorating the 35th anniversary of the assassination of Naji Al Ali, Rethink Rebuild Society invites you to a special evening to remember and learn more about a unique man who's never forgotten.
We will be joined on Zoom by Syrian cartoonist Saad Hajo who will take us through a journey of Naji's work and the impact it had on people and politics in the Arab world and in the world as a whole.
Monday 29th August, 7:00-8:30pm
This event is in Arabic with English translation
You may join us through the following Zoom link:
Or you may watch the evening on our facebook page:
Naji Salim Hussain al-Ali
Naji (1938-1987) was a Palestinian cartoonist, noted for the political criticism of the Arab regimes and Israel in his works. He has been described as the greatest Palestinian cartoonist and probably the best-known cartoonist in the Arab world.
He is best known as the 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. 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. 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 neck and mortally wounded. Naji al-Ali died five weeks later in Charing Cross Hospital.
Saad Hajo:
Born in Damascus in 1968, Saad Hajo is an independent Syrian and Swedish cartoonist who graduated from the School of Fine Arts in Damascus in 1989.
Hajo publishes in the newspaper Folkbladet in Norrköping, Sweden and in Courrier International in Paris.
In the past he worked daily for twenty years with the Beirut-based newspaper As-Safir, one of the most renowned Arabic newspapers, as well as with several other Arabic newspapers such as An-Nahar in Beirut, the weekly newspaper Al Ahram Al Arabi in Cairo, Al-Quds Al-Arabi in London, and Sada Al Sham in Syria.
Saad Hajo has held many exhibitions around the world, including ‘Born Dictator’ in Sweden in 2010. He has been a jury member for various caricature competitions and was the winner of the 2015 EWK-prize in Sweden.
