You might have seen Handala before. The cartoon drawing of a young boy standing barefoot, hands clasped behind his back, has for decades been an iconic symbol of Palestinian resistance.
The character was created in 1969 by the Palestinian political cartoonist Naji Al-Ali, who died 39 years ago. To commemorate his work and others, a group of Toronto activists organized a panel titled “Drawn to Resistance: Comics for a Free Palestine,” which took place at The Beguiling Books & Arts on Aug. 27.
Hosted by Build the Boycott (BTB) — a Toronto-based activist group working to increase Canadian participation in the boycott of Israeli products and products produced by other companies complicit in Israel’s occupation of Palestine — the panel created a space to reflect on Al-Ali’s legacy and the political power of comics, according to organizer Justine Abigail Yu. It was also a space to share how storytellers and artists are using their talents for political change.
One of the speakers on the panel was Basheer, an organizer with the Toronto chapter of the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM), which co-sponsored the event alongside Living Hyphen.
Following the panel, The Grind asked Basheer how artists can push back against the censorship of their art. He urged them to remain focused on their values and to educate themselves.
“Read, read, read,” he says. “You need to be the most informed person in the room if your art is actually going to move the needle. You as an artist are not only the sound of your generation right now, but you’re also carrying a tradition that has existed since the beginning of humanity. Don’t forget your place in all of this, and stay educated. If you have blind spots, it is going to show in your art.”
The panel also created an opportunity for local activists to share the art projects that they’ve been working on. This included the distribution of a comic anthology created by the students of Project Hope: a Nablus-based education centre for Palestinian children.
BTB also showcased a new playing card they designed that is modelled after Magic: The Gathering. The card highlights different boycott targets, as determined by the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS).
Launched more than 20 years ago, BDS is a global, grassroots campaign that identifies financial pressure targets linked to the Israeli occupation, including companies, products and cultural institutions. The campaign also demands that universities, banks, religious institutions and other organizations divest from the Israeli state and any companies that sustain it.
“[BTB’s campaigns] have been a really wonderful way to have one-on-one conversations with people about Palestine, and about BDS, which not a lot of people know about,” Yu says. “It feels like such a big problem. Sometimes people get bogged down in the politics of it and don’t actually know what they can do as individual people to get involved. This is a really great way to take action.”
The panelists also discussed the great Palestinian painter Sliman Mansour, who passed away at the age of 79 just days before the event took place. Mansour was a legendary figure of art and cultural production in the Palestinian national liberation movement, who used real stories of Palestinian life, struggle and resistance in his paintings. When asked what artists here in Canada can learn from his career, Basheer replies: “Everything.”
“His ability to stand against everyone to depict the truth, his ability to showcase beauty in the face of the cruellest regime … It’s the unflinchingness that I really want to harp on, but please look into his career and see how much this man has literally amputated from his body to be the name that he is today.”
