.jpg?20250221')
When I write, I always consider the facts in front of me. Are these facts the same as those in front of my readers?
I write with a firm belief that change will happen one day and words will draw the features of the future.
Today we see Handala, a cartoon of a refugee child, created by the late Palestinian cartoonist Naji Al Ali in the 1970s and a symbol of Palestinian defiance, coming back to life. His battered image steps out of the debris of buildings and hospitals, emphasising that his blood will remain the artery that keeps Palestine alive.
Handala, a cartoon of a refugee child
The facts making hard reading:
- Fact The number of children reported killed in Gaza in just three weeks has surpassed the annual number of children killed across the world’s conflict zones since 2019, Save the Children said.
- Fact Since October 7, more than 3,257 children have been reported killed, including at least 3,195 in Gaza, 33 in the West Bank, and 29 in Israel, according to the Ministries of Health in Gaza and Israel respectively.
- Fact Children make up more than 40 per cent of the people killed in Gaza, and more than a third of all fatalities across the occupied Palestinian territory and Israel. With a further 1,000 children reported missing in Gaza assumed buried under the rubble, the death toll is likely much higher.
During these difficult days, I say to the Israelis: ‘You should know that you are not the sons of this land, and that your historical arguments apply to the Jews of Palestine only, not the Jews coming from other countries’.
Israel is killing the Arab children of Palestine.
I wonder, should we maintain the Abraham Accords? Aren’t we Arabs?
How can we accept that Israel keeps killing the children of our people across the length and breadth of occupied Palestine?
These are the questions I put to those responsible for these actions in Israel now.
You claim that you wish to establish peace and normalise ties with Arab countries which are geographically distant from Palestine.
Yet, we can see you are acting as the enemy of your neighbours who are Arabs.
How could we accept this arrogance and racism?
How can we trust you anymore?
How can we establish a mutual dialogue while our ears are filled with the cries of the Palestinian child who is asked what he will be when he grows up and replies, with strong and uncompromising words, saying: “I am a Palestinian, and I was born to be killed before I grow up because Israel will kill me.”
How can we convince this innocent child that there is a safe future waiting for him?
Those who have led Israel for more than 75 years have instilled hatred and racism in their children against the Palestinians. They have blindly filled their hearts with loathing and animosity.
Are you proud of destroying Gaza?
Isn’t this a form of terrorism, supported by a war criminal who seeks to save his neck and preserve his position by continuing a war at the expense of the bloodshed of innocents?
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu knows that his political future is untenable following the events of October 7. He must also acknowledge that killing more Palestinians is not a victory but comes from a desire for personal revenge. He should realise that the Palestinian resilience will put an end to his rule and that each drop of pure Palestinian blood spilled will prove his military and political failure.
Peace can only be established after eliminating the seeds of hatred and animosity. They can only be eradicated after establishing justice and equality between Palestinians and Israelis, and after granting the Palestinian people their legitimate rights over the territories taken away from them.
It is time now to change the face of the struggle and remove the mental block that creates vicious circles which result in the lives of innocent people being lost all for the sake of personal gain and power.
I say these words while I can feel the frenzy and rage of Netanyahu who claims that peace between Israel and the Arab states has been obstructed by forces beyond his control.
The truth is that he is not a man of peace and that his hands are stained with the blood of the innocent and guiltless.
Throughout his career, he has tried along with his party, to manipulate the democratic process in order to hinder the progress of regional peace.
Israel should understand that its desperate attempts to transform the cause into a religious struggle will end up with a greater tragedy for the Israelis themselves.
Arabs have no animosity towards Jews but only against Zionism which misappropriated their land by force.
The current situation cannot allow for any mincing of words. What we see now is a repeated scenario of the 1948 catastrophe under false pretenses. The brutal attacks against Gaza will be the last nail in the coffin of the illegal Zionist regime.
When I look at Gaza over the past few weeks and the bloody scenes which continue to break our hearts each day, I can clearly see in them many signs which deserve our further consideration. It is Netanyahu who tries to appear as the strong man while, in fact, he is trembling with fear. His repeated quotes of victory are in fact a sign of bitter defeat, despite Tel Aviv’s never-ending attempt, backed by Washington and other European capitals, to promote the Israeli position as a success.
Despite Israel’s claim to be more advanced than neighbouring countries in the technology and military fields, they have suffered a terrible defeat at the hands of the poorly-armed resistance.
The shocking defeat comes in the form of public opinion, which has resulted in global sympathy with the Palestinian cause.
Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators filled the streets of London, Brussels, Paris and other European cities and in the heart of New York itself with even people of Jewish origin chanting one slogan: ‘Palestine is Free’. This slogan has generated sympathy on a global scale supporting the cause.
This is a new and major breakthrough and one which has never taken place throughout the long military occupation of the Palestinian territories over the past 75 years.
The outcome of the Palestinian resistance is fully understood by every intelligent person. Whoever would have thought that one day the Jewish people of America who, with all their wealth and financial power - having always been described as supporters of Israel - are now showing sympathy with Palestinians and condemning Israel for the crimes it has committed against an innocent people.
The stance adopted by the citizens of the West is contradictory with that of their leaders. Despite this, we have seen European countries voting in the United Nations General Assembly for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
The Western media has been forced to change course too, maybe not fully, but at least after listening to the calls of its people that fill the globe denouncing such double standards.
In the heart of the United Nations, we have seen a brave and courageous stance from its Secretary General António Guterres. Despite condemning the Hamas attack against Israel, he said that it could not be seen in a vacuum but followed decades of occupation. Guterres also accused Israel of clear violations of humanitarian law in the Gaza Strip.
His statement shocked the Israelis and led them to call for his resignation.
The halls of the United Nations have also witnessed another slap on the face of the Israelis when the auditorium was filled with applause upon the conclusion of the speech by the Palestinian Representative of the United Nations, Minister Riyad Mansour, during an urgent session. Israeli Representative Gilad Erdan’s speech was met with complete silence during the session and provides more evidence of a further failure of the Israeli claims in front of the global community.
Washington has rushed to support Israel’s brutality as stated by the US President, Joe Biden. This has been done not for the defence of its puppet but to support an unbalanced man who is looking for an illusionary victory which could make his party victorious in the next US elections.
Frankly speaking, we should look at the picture away from outside influences.
Hamas has confirmed that Iran has been its prime supporter in terms of armaments and yet the Palestinians, headed by Hamas, must fully realise that Tehran was and still is guided by its own interests, even at the expense of the bloodshed of innocent guiltless people. Iran’s desire in expanding the circles of conflict is nothing but an attempt to alleviate pressure on Tehran, and to cover their economic failure internally.
The end of this conflict cannot be achieved by the statements of the Iranian Foreign Minister through which he seeks to show alliance with the Resistance to improve the dubious image of Tehran. The statements of the Iranian Representative of the United Nations Amir Saeid Irvani exposed the Iranian position when he said: “If Israel does not attack Tehran and its interests, Iran will not interfere in the conflict in Gaza.”
This has pushed the Hamas Representative in Lebanon, Ahmed Abdulhadi, to say in a Newsweek interview that: “We have co-ordinated with Hezbollah and with Iran before, during and after this battle at highest levels, but we have obviously been cheated by treason and false promises from Iran. Yes, an obvious treason and false promises. Do you want more evidence?”
The Palestinians must see the facts clearly, and instead of expressing their anger against Arab countries, they must fully realise that Arabs were, and still have been, the front line of defence and have offered the utmost support to their brothers in Palestine throughout the years of the conflict.
If we call for changing the faces of the Israeli figures involved in the brutal crimes against the Palestinians, we should also emphasise that the sons of Palestine must unify ranks and discard all disagreements.
They must unify their voice in defence of their rights so that we can make a new dream for the Palestinian child ... of living a life with a promising future instead of playing the role of martyr.
Handala by Naji Al Ali
Palestinian cartoonist Naji Al Ali’s most famous work was Handala, a young refugee boy always appearing with his back turned and his hands clasped.
The child in his drawing is barefoot, like most children in refugee camps, and his hands behind his back are a symbol of rejection and protest against the world’s complicity in the occupation of Palestine.
In the cartoonist’s vision, Handala was a 10-year-old boy - the same age Al Ali was when he was expelled from Palestine - and will forever remain 10 years old, never growing up until he is able to return to his original homeland.
Al Ali never returned and Handala remained a symbol of Palestinian defiance.
The cartoonist’s perseverance and resistance led him to receive various death threats.
He was shot in the neck and mortally wounded in 1987 while outside the London offices of a Kuwaiti newspaper and died five weeks later in hospital.
The gunman was never identified.
&uuid=(email))