Catalogue of the exhibition held at The Political Cartoon Gallery 6 March - 19 April 2008.

Naji Al-Ali was one of the most prominent cartoonists in the Arab world. Sarcastic, poignant and perhaps too bold, Al-Ali’s cartoons were drawn from his experience as a Palestinian refugee since childhood and clearly reflected his political stance. Yet Naji Al-Ali had no political affiliations. The absence of slogans and dogma in his work, widely published over 30-40 years, brought both success and criticism. Art and political satire combined in his bold, illustrative cartoons to reveal the tragic state of the Middle East, and his work sadly still ring true today.

His cartoons portrayed the bitter struggle and plight of the Palestinian people against Israeli oppression, but he also campaigned against the absence of democracy, widespread corruption, and gross inequality in the Arab world. During his lifetime, working for a variety of publications, he must have drawn around 15,000 cartoons, an average of two a day. He was said to have antagonized virtually everyone in the Middle East. Naji Al-Ali draws a critique of all sides in the conflict, and of the world’s complicity in the prolonged occupation of the historic Palestinian homeland.