The Creative Art of Cartooning

So after writing a little bit about Samih and his tragic loss, I thought I would include some of what the Arab press and mainly, the cartoonists in these Arabic newspapers, are thinking with regards to the current situation in Gaza and in Palestine, specifically now that Hamas has essentially won control over the whole of the Gaza strip. And it’s fascinating to see what these cartoonists have come up with. They certainly are a creative group of individuals. The cartoons are in Arabic and I’ve tried my best to translate what the captions say. I also wanted to express some of my own thoughts as to what these cartoonists are trying to convey through their drawings. I only hope that when guns fail, cartoons will move the Palestinian people to realize that killing each other has no purpose except to further alienate anyone from them and their hopes and desires of peace in the Middle East. Enjoy!


Source: Al-Hayat Al-Jadida (Palestinian Authority), June 18, 2007 (many thanks)

Cartoon No. 1: In this dreadful drawing, the masked Hamas fighter is saying: “The government is illegitimate,” while the other caption, written above the severed head of a woman can mean one of two things. It can mean “Legitimate slaughtering” or “Slaughtering in the manner of Sharii3 [Islamic Law]” the last of the two interpretations pointing directly at Hamas and its desire to establish a state founded upon Sharii3 or Islamic Law in Gaza


Source: Al-Ayyam (Palestinian Authority), June 21, 2007 (many thanks)

Cartoon No. 2: In this picture, a member of Hamas is talking to his fellow Palestinian, dead and in the grave, saying: “Come on, wake up Infidel! Let’s talk!” From what I understand in this cartoon, the dead Palestinian is a member of Fatah, Hamas’ rival in the government and in this ongoing ideological clash in the Palestine. In the eyes of Hamas, Fatah and its members are the ones that have destroyed Palestine and its hopes for freedom and justice, because they [Fatah] are the ones that have sold out to the West and its corrupting and blasphemous culture. In other words, the members of Fatah are indeed Muslims, but they are Muslims who have gone astray and have fallen from the right path. Therefore, it’s okay to address them Infidels


Source: Al-Dustour (Jordan), June 21, 2007 (many thanks)

Cartoon No. 3: This cartoons reads at the top: “The light at the end of the Palestinian Tunnel” and here we see a masked militant (presumably a member of Hamas) pushing an innocent Palestinian man (a personification of the entire Palestinian population) to his death


Source: Al-Ittihad (UAE), June 16, 2007 (many thanks)

Cartoon No. 4: This cartoon comes from the Gulf and here the TV reporter announces: “The statement that reached us asserts that the Palestinians will strive to liberate Palestine from the Palestinian occupation!” How else can you explain such a brutal and bloody civil war that has claimed so many innocent Palestinian lives? And what are the fruits of such death and destruction?


Source: Al-Mustaqbal (Lebanon), June 19, 2007 (many thanks)

Cartoon No. 5: This cartoon shows the two fronts of the occupied Palestinian lands, the West Bank on the right and the Gaza strip on the left. The surgeon, on the right, is hoping to fix and to heal the West Bank whose circumstances and governmental situation have been labeled as an “Emergency Government,” while on the left, we have an individual, a member of Hamas, actually taking his knife to stab and butcher into Gaza and above him is the label “Government of Calamities,” which can also be translated as “Government of Disasters”


Source: Al-Quds Al-Arabi (Jerusalem), June 16, 2007 (many thanks)

Cartoon No. 6: This cartoon depicts a Palestinian man waving the Palestinian flag and a member of Hamas, whose flag is green, stealing the green corner of the Palestinian flag for himself. He and his party are the ones who have “high-jacked” or stolen the Palestinian cause and have destroyed the hopes and dreams of a people united under one flag and one purpose


Source: Al-Yawm (Saudi Arabia), June 17, 2007 (many thanks)

Cartoon No. 7: This cartoon is labeled as: “The Weapon of the Resistance” and if you look carefully, you’ll notice that the bullets are in backwards. The Palestinians and particularly, Hamas, have really shot themselves in the foot


Source: Al-Ghad (Jordan), June 17, 2007 (many thanks)


Source: Teshreen (Syria), June 25, 2007 (many thanks)

Cartoon No. 8 and Cartoon No 9: These cartoons are highlighting the current conspiracy theories that the United States and Israel are the culprits behind the current situation in Gaza and it could be true, it could not be . . . I don’t know. The caption on Cartoon No. 8 reads: “The American Recipe for Creative Chaos” while Cartoon No. 9 depicts both “Gaza” and the “the West Bank” being cooked in the pot by the United States and Israel. Former Al-Hayat (the daily Lebanese Arabic newspaper) editor Jihad Al-Khazen described the theory best when he wrote: “When the Bush administration pressured President Mahmoud Abbas into holding elections in the PA, they both knew that Hamas would win, not thanks to any achievements [of its own] but due to the corruption within Fatah. Hamas [indeed] won, but it is designated in the U.S. and Europe as a terrorist organization, and thus the Bush administration achieved its aim. It boycotted the Palestinians, laid siege to their government, and starved [them], using Hamas’ [designation as] a terrorist organization as an excuse. Just as Fatah could not believe that it had lost its power, Hamas cannot believe that it had come into power, and both factions have thus played into the hands of the Palestinians’ enemies in the U.S. and Israel. How can the Hamas and Fatah leaders ignore the fact that it was Bush’s government, and the Sharon and Olmert governments, that pushed [Hamas and Fatah] to this situation, and that the [internal] Palestinian fighting is [actually] an Israeli aspiration?”