Cairo - The Union of Arab Journalists held an exhibition of Arab cartoonists in the eighties of the last century, and the Palestinian Naji Al-Ali (1937-1987) won the first prize, coinciding with the fifth week of the Israeli war on Gaza.
Al-Ali presented the Union of Arab Journalists with a white plaque at the end of which he wrote the words "painting painted in white ink."
"This was not a joke, but a recommendation from Naji al-Ali advising all painters, including his fans and friends, to paint about his bloody wound and his permanent cause, Palestine," said Kamel Zuhairi, head of the Egyptian Journalists Syndicate.
In implementation of the will of the martyr of caricature and a victory for his cause, the Fine Arts Lovers Association in Cairo organized a caricature exhibition "Gaza in our hearts" in cooperation with the "Egyptian Caricature Association" since the early days of the war, in solidarity with the people of Gaza and in support of the Palestinian cause, with the participation of 50 cartoonists from Egypt and around the world, who presented works depicting the crimes of genocide committed by Israel, and siding with the right of Palestinians to resist their occupier.
The feather is a weapon
Caricature – as described by its creators – weapon of the vulnerable to ridicule the tyrants and occupiers and arrogant in the land, and a means of condemnation without mercy or pity, has come paintings exhibition as if screaming and groaning, drawing the occupier and mocking him and turning him into a laughing stock avenged by the oppressed people, as if the joke does to the occupier what the missiles do.
Each drawing is as if it fights and fights, laughs and cries, turns into a flower on the grave of a martyr, then turns into a gun in the chests of the invaders, screams, groans and grabs tyrants, exposes the oppressors, and crushes the tyrants, as the cartoonists say.
Many of the paintings were not painted by the artist with ink, as much as he dipped them in his artery and blood, so there comes an image that pulsates and bleeds and sheds tears, and there are paintings that you sometimes see whispering, and others often roar, paintings that speak when people are unable to speak, and laugh when the eyes of the downtrodden are filled with tears, these sarcastic laughs that defy defeats, calamities and calamities, look like a ray of dawn in the darkness of tyranny, and a badge of hope in the world of despair and despair.
Caricature of Egyptian artist Khaled Salah (Al Jazeera)
With the outbreak of the first war on the seventh of last October, the idea of the exhibition began, as he says - for Al Jazeera Net - critic and plastic Dr. Tariq Abdel Aziz, a member of the Board of Directors of the Art Lovers Association and Rapporteur of the Exhibitions Committee, "Within 5 days, we received paintings from all over the world, and for the large number of paintings, we identified one painting for each artist in the exhibition, which was widely accepted by those interested and the public because of the paintings that express what is in the chests of people of anxiety, anger and sadness over destruction, killing and humanitarian acts of extermination carried out by the Israeli enemy against civilians from Gaza."
Caricature of Egyptian Artist Ahmed Kaoud (Al Jazeera)
He adds, "The success of the exhibition is due to the caricature painting of condensation, thrift and brevity, which obviates the need to read an article on a full page, and the caricature has a strong impact like a bullet aimed at hitting the target directly, and because the caricature expresses the concerns of society strongly, and records the defeats and victories of the homeland, and reading the development of the art of caricature is the best expression of the history of any society, and a means of war because of its very strong acceptance in public opinion."
Caricature of Egyptian Artist Amr Selim (Al Jazeera)
The artist Hassan Farouk, Director General of the Egyptian Caricature Association and a member of the International Federation of Cartoonists, and one of the artists interested in the Palestinian cause, participates in the exhibition with the painting "The Wounded Doll" of a child in the form of a teddy bear who was injured in the Israeli aggression, crying while injured and sharing her child's pain and wounds.
Caricature of Bahraini artist Ali Khalil (Al Jazeera)
"Different arts are always used to influence people within major events, but caricature has an influential role in major events, because of its direct impact on public opinion with its ease of spread and eloquent expressions, and a single drawing may be more eloquent than dozens of articles," Farouk said.
Double standards
Chairman of the Egyptian Caricature Association Mustafa El-Sheikh participates in a painting expressing the intense Western hostility to Arabs and Palestine through his painting depicting a Palestinian child inside a fruit juicer operated by the US president, and we see Netanyahu eagerly waiting to drink bloody juice.
Cartoon of Egyptian artist Khader Hassan showing Netanyahu drinking blood (Al Jazeera)
"This is the West, which is always biased against the rights of the Palestinian people, cannot bear that the cartoonist in the Guardian newspaper paints Netanyahu wearing boxing gloves, and demands that the people of Gaza leave, causing the painter to be dismissed from the newspaper, while they want Muslims to accept cartoons offensive to the Messenger of God, peace be upon him, and to burn the Holy Quran under the pretext of freedom of opinion. "This crisis has exposed the ugly face of the West and exposed the freedom of expression they always boast about."
Artist Hadeer Yahya, a member of the Egyptian Association of Cartoonists, said, "Most of my paintings are about Palestine, and the exhibition chose a painting of a Palestinian girl wearing a Palestinian keffiyeh and drawing on the wall a map of free Palestine, and Israeli missiles falling on it like rain and behind it appears the Dome of the Rock."
Caricature of Ghada Mustafa (Al Jazeera)
"We want truth and peace to prevail in the world, away from political hypocrisy and double standards, and to treat Gaza as the West treats Ukraine. The world media portrays the defenders of their country as heroes, while elsewhere the defenders of their land are portrayed as terrorists. Brazilian cartoonist Carlos Latov illustrated this case by drawing two bombs on television, one with the Ukrainian flag and referred to as heroes, and the other carrying the Palestinian flag and referred to as "terrorists".
Caricature of Palestinian artist Safaa Odeh (Al Jazeera)
A large number of international and Arab artists will participate in the exhibition, including: Osama Nazzal and Safaa Odeh from Palestine, Rashid Rahmouni from Tunisia, Amin Al-Habbara from Saudi Arabia, Amjad Rasmi and Nasser Al-Jaafari from Jordan, Ali Khalil from Bahrain, Angel Polygan from Cuba, Dimitris Georgiopalis from Greece, Goran Selicanine from Serbia.
Caricature of Serbian artist Goran Selicanine (Al Jazeera)
From Egypt, artists Ibrahim Al-Braidy, Ahmed Geisa, Ahmed Samir Farid, Ahmed Alawi, Ahmed Qaoud, Ahmed Mustafa, Mustafa Al-Sheikh, Hadeer Yahya, Osama Abu Sabba, Amna Saad, Iman Al-Sayed, Tamer Youssef, Jumaa Farhat, George Bahgory, Hassan Farouk, Khaled Salah, Khader Hassan, Desouki Baghdadi participate.