Palestine.
قصص مصورة
Palestine
1969
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Palestinian comics grew out of political cartooning, above all the work of Naji al-Ali, whose barefoot refugee boy Handala first appeared in a Kuwaiti newspaper in 1969 and became a national symbol.
Exiled cartoonists such as al-Ali and Baha Boukhari worked for the Arab press in Damascus, Kuwait and Beirut until the 1990s, when Boukhari, Khalil Abu Arafeh and Omaya Joha brought cartooning into the Palestinian papers. Since 2015 graphic novels by Leila Abdelrazaq, Marguerite Dabaie and Mohammad Sabaaneh, and comics drawn inside Gaza during the war, have carried the tradition into book form.
13
9
1969
2020s
Artists from Palestine in the archive.
Comics from Palestine in the archive.
Handala, the earliest comic from Palestine in the archive.
The decade when the most new comics from Palestine began.
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Palestine in 4 chapters
A short history you can leaf through. Click a page, use the arrow keys, or press Turn the page to read on.
Palestine.
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4 chapters
Chapter 1
1961
to 1987
Naji al-Ali and Handala
1961
to 1987
Chapter 01
Naji al-Ali and Handala
Ghassan Kanafani printed Naji al-Ali's first published drawings in the magazine Al-Hurriya in September 1961. Al-Ali introduced Handala in the Kuwaiti daily Al-Siyasa on 13 July 1969 and drew more than 40,000 cartoons for papers in Kuwait, Beirut and London before he was shot in London in July 1987.
1962
to 1994
Chapter 02
Cartoonists in exile
Baha Boukhari, born in Jerusalem and raised in Syria, began in 1962 with a comics serial in the Damascus daily Al-Ayyam. He then drew for Kuwaiti papers from 1964 to 1988, including his feature Abu Arab, and wrote and drew the Kuwaiti children's magazine Saad from 1970 to 1980.
1994
to 2014
Chapter 03
Cartoons in the Palestinian press
After the Oslo Accords Boukhari returned to work for Al-Quds and then Al-Ayyam, Khalil Abu Arafeh drew for Al-Quds from 1994, and Omaya Joha joined Al-Quds in 1999 as the first woman cartoonist in the Arab world on a daily political paper. Mohammad Sabaaneh became the cartoonist of Al-Hayat al-Jadida.
2015
to today
Chapter 04
Graphic novels and the Gaza war
Leila Abdelrazaq's Baddawi (2015), Sabaaneh's White and Black (2017), Marguerite Dabaie's The Hookah Girl and Other True Stories (2018) and Sabaaneh's prison memoir Power Born of Dreams (2021) brought Palestinian comics into book form. During the war in Gaza, Mahasen al-Khatib posted cartoons until she was killed in October 2024, and Safaa Odah's Safaa and the Tent won a special award at the Lakes International Comic Art Festival in 2025.
The comics to know
- Handalaحنظلة1969 · comic stripNaji al-Ali. Refugee boy who first appeared in Al-Siyasa on 13 July 1969 and has turned his back to the viewer since 1973; a symbol of Palestinian identity.
- Baddawi2015 · graphic novelLeila Abdelrazaq. Debut graphic novel about her father's life as a Palestinian refugee; shortlisted for the Palestine Book Awards.
- White and Black: Political Cartoons from Palestine2017 · graphic novelMohammad Sabaaneh. Collection of 180 cartoons published by Just World Books.
- The Hookah Girl and Other True Stories2018 · graphic novelMarguerite Dabaie. Memoir in comics form about growing up Palestinian in the United States.
- Power Born of Dreams: My Story Is Palestine2021 · graphic novelMohammad Sabaaneh. Graphic memoir of his five months in an Israeli prison; 2022 Palestine Book Award.
- Safaa and the Tent2025 · graphic novelSafaa Odah. Comics drawn from October 2023 to December 2024 while displaced in Gaza; special award from the Lakes International Comic Art Festival.
The people to know
- Naji al-Aliناجي العلي1937 to 1987Creator of Handala; drew more than 40,000 cartoons; shot in London in 1987.
- Baha Boukhariبهاء الدين بخاري1944 to 2015Jerusalem-born cartoonist who worked in Syria, Kuwait and Tunisia before returning to Palestine in 1994.
- Omaya JohaGaza cartoonist; first woman in the Arab world to draw for a daily political newspaper.
- Mohammad Sabaanehمحمد سباعنةBorn 1979Cartoonist of Al-Hayat al-Jadida and author of White and Black and Power Born of Dreams.
- Khalil Abu Arafehخليل أبو عرفةBorn 1957Jerusalem architect and cartoonist, published in Al-Quds since 1994.
- Leila AbdelrazaqBorn 1992Chicago-based Palestinian author of the graphic novel Baddawi.
- Mahasen al-Khatibمحاسن الخطيب1993 to 2024Gaza web cartoonist killed in 2024; given a posthumous special mention at Lucca Comics and Games.