The ways in which the characters of Srulik, left, and Handala epitomize the historical and cultural narrative of the Israelis and Palestinians, respectively, imbue these cartoons with an impact stronger than words. <\/i>(photo by Gil Zohar)<\/i><\/p>\n
Driving east from Jerusalem on the winding Jordanian-built road that once led down from the Mount of Olives to the Dead Sea, one passes through a series of picturesque Arab suburbs and soon comes to a dead end in front of the grotesque West Bank barrier.<\/p>\n
Called Geder ha-Hafrada<\/i> (separation fence) in Hebrew and jidar al-fasl al-\u2019unsuri<\/i> (apartheid wall) in Arabic, the insurmountable (if still incomplete) eight-metre-high concrete barrier has no doubt contributed to a reduction in terrorism and car theft. However, my objection to it is more existential: like some of those in West Berlin who spray-painted their protest for freedom on the Bundesrepublik side of die Mauer even as armed GDR guards used deadly force to prevent anyone from approaching the wall\u2019s eastern side, I believe all walls must fall.<\/p>\n
It is a metaphor that has repeated itself from Joshua\u2019s encircling of Jericho, to the Berlin Wall and its remaining East Side Gallery, to Garth Hewitt\u2019s ballad \u201cThey\u2019ve Canceled Christmas in Bethlehem,\u201d about the stranglehold the wall has placed on both day-to-day life and religious pilgrimage in the place where Jesus, \u201cthe Prince of Peace,\u201d was born 2,000-plus years ago.<\/p>\n
The world today is caught between two conflicting ideologies: some democratic countries joining in unions with open borders, joint legal systems and a common currency, of which the European Union \u2013 notwithstanding its problems \u2013 is a great success. Then, there are other countries \u2013 many repressive and undemocratic \u2013 defending their borders with minefields and walls. Like John Lennon, I prefer the first vision \u2013 of a growing global union without barriers. Imagine that.<\/p>\n
Thus, armed with the tools of the graffiti artist \u2013 an X-ACTO knife, cardboard stencil and spray paint \u2013 I recently made my way to Abu Dis with my friend Hajj Ibrahim Abu el-Hawa, my daughter Bareket and fellow artist Eva Feld to make our mark. Reasoning that a picture is worth a thousand words, we chose a symbolic image whose meaning is unequivocal.<\/p>\n
The image we created depicts Handala raising hands with Srulik (see picture). The two iconic cartoon characters are respectively well known by Palestinians and Israelis \u2013 yet, each is equally unknown by the other. It is a symmetry of ignorance of the other\u2019s narrative that will have to be overcome before true peace can be achieved.<\/p>\n
Allow me to explain the mirror meanings of the twin caricatures.<\/p>\n
Handala \u2013 an omnipresent image on T-shirts and key chains in the aswaq<\/i> (plural of suq<\/i>, market) of Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza Strip \u2013 was created by Naji al-\u2019Ali in 1969. A 10-year-old child driven in 1948 from his Galilee village of ash-Shajara (14 kilometres from Tiberias) to the \u2018Ain al-Hilweh refugee camp in Lebanon, al-\u2019Ali went on to become the leading political cartoonist in the Arab world.<\/p>\n
Before being assassinated in London in 1987, he produced more than 40,000 bitingly sarcastic cartoons lampooning Arab leaders and lamenting the stateless status of his people. His autobiographical image of Handala \u2013 a barefoot, faceless, refugee youth \u2013 remains a potent symbol of the struggle of the Palestinian people for justice and self-determination.<\/p>\n
Al-\u2019Ali wrote: \u201cHandala is my signature. I gave birth to this child in the [Persian] Gulf. He was born 10 years old, and he will always be 10. At that age, I left my homeland and, when he returns, Handala will still be 10, and then he will start growing up. The laws of nature do not apply to him. He is unique. Things will become normal again when the homeland returns.\u201d<\/p>\n
Impish Srulik \u2013 a diminutive of Yisrael<\/i> (Israel) \u2013 carries an equally rich symbolism in depicting nascent Israel and, in particular, its native-born Sabras. The illustrated character was first drawn in 1956 by the cartoonist Kariel Gardosh, better known by his nom de plume, Dosh. The Hungarian-born Holocaust survivor drew Srulik for decades in the pages of the daily Maariv<\/i>, until his death in 2000.<\/p>\n
Dosh generally depicted Srulik as a young man wearing a kova tembel<\/i> hat, \u201cbiblical sandals\u201d and khaki shorts. He drew him as a pioneering Zionist and lover of the land of Israel, a dedicated farmer who in time of need dons an Israel Defence Forces uniform and goes out to defend the state of Israel, equipped with an Uzi machine gun. In contrast to the antisemitic stereotype of the weak or cunning Jew, which appeared in the Nazi weekly Der St\u00fcrmer<\/i> and other European and Arab newspapers and journals, Dosh\u2019s Srulik was a proud, strong and sympathetic Jewish character.<\/p>\n
Shalom Rosenfeld, editor of Maariv <\/i>from 1974 to 1980, wrote: \u201cSrulik became not only a mark of recognition of [Dosh\u2019s] amazing daily cartoons, but an entity standing on its own, as a symbol of the land of Israel \u2013 beautiful, lively, innocent … and having a little chutzpah and, naturally, also of the new Jew.\u201d<\/p>\n
Introducing Srulik to Palestinians and Handala to Israelis is not a bad way to begin to redress each side\u2019s ignorance of the other\u2019s narrative. The ways in which they epitomize the historical and cultural narrative of their own people imbue these cartoons with an impact stronger than words.<\/p>\n
When a peace treaty is ultimately implemented between Israel and Palestine (as I\u2019m sure it must), perhaps the image of Handala and Srulik holding hands could be adopted as a neutral symbol of coexistence and nonviolence. Their creators, Naji al-\u2019Ali and Kariel Gardosh, both knew firsthand of persecution and exile, and the iconic figures they bequeathed us share the hope of living in freedom and peace. When peace finally arrives, new and emotionally satisfying images and symbols will need to be created to bridge the chasm between Jews and Arabs in our broken Promised Land.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Gil Zohar<\/b> is a writer and tour guide in Jerusalem.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The ways in which the characters of Srulik, left, and Handala epitomize the historical and cultural narrative of the Israelis and Palestinians, respectively, imbue these cartoons with an impact stronger than words. (photo by Gil Zohar) Driving east from Jerusalem on the winding Jordanian-built road that once led down from the Mount of Olives to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44634,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[4682,23349,4242,1673,23350,23351,2721,23348],"class_list":["post-44632","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-op-ed","tag-cartoons","tag-handala","tag-history","tag-israeli-palestinian-conflict","tag-kariel-gardosh","tag-naji-al-ali","tag-peace","tag-srulik"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44632","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44632"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44632\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}