Handala. A little boy with a big message

(Handala on the wall in Dheisheh Refugee Camp in Bethlehem)

Handala is a ten-year old refugee. He does not show his face to anybody, but only lets people see him from his back. With his hands firmly clasped together on his back he refuses to accept the solution the outside worlds suggest to the solve the conflict in his country. He does not believe in these solutions. He will not face people again, and he will not grow up, until he can return to the homeland he was forced to fled so many years ago.

In 1969, the Palestinian cartoonist Naji Salim al-Ali drew Handala for the first time. Ever since he has been a symbol of resistance towards the occupation, and representing the longing for a free country he has become of a part of the Palestinian identity.
I first heard about him in 2008, when I visited Dheisheh Refugee Camp near Betlehem, one of the many refugee camps that were established from the war that followed the officiel enunciation of the state of Israel.

In the camp is a house for common activities and gatherings. The walls in the never ending stair case leading you up through the narrow, tall building were full of drawings and poems made by the refugees living in Dheisheh.One of these drawings depicted Handala.

The story about Handala is important, but it is so hard to tell. In 1987 Naji Salim al-Ali was assasinated and Handala lost his chance to show his face again, to show his eyes, his identity. The destiny of this little figure is painfully symbolic to the destiny of the Palestinian refugees whose only hope and dream is to return to the home they left when they fled the war. A home that probably no longer exists. It is the story about clinging to hope in a hopeless situation.