[News] Murder Case of Iconic Palestinian Political Cartoonist Re-Opened

[Anti-Imperialist News]

https://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Murder-Case-of-Iconic-Palestinian-Political-Cartoonist-Re-Opened-20170830-0042.html 



  Murder Case of Iconic Palestinian Political Cartoonist Re-Opened

August 30, 2017
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Handala, with his back to the viewer, dressed in ragged clothes and 
bare-footed, has over the years become a symbol for the Palestinian 
right to return.

The character's creator — Naji Salim Hussain al-Ali — was murdered in 
broad daylight 30 years ago. The suspects have yet to be found.

But three decades after the Palestinian cartoonist was killed, UK police 
have launched a new probe into his case, appealing for anyone who may 
have leads on who killed al-Ali.

"A lot can change in 30 years — allegiances shift and people who were 
not willing to speak at the time of the murder may now be prepared to 
come forward with crucial information," Commander Dean Haydon, head of 
Scotland Yard's Counter Terrorism Command (CTC) said in a police 
statement Tuesday.

On August 29, 1987, al-Ali, while walking in West London, was shot in 
the back of the neck. Witnesses at the time said he had been pursued by 
a man for around 40 seconds just moments before. Another person was also 
seen driving away from the scene.

Investigators have been searching for anyone who might have information 
on the identity of the two men.

Al-Ali’s family has also welcomed the reopening of the case. His son 
Osama said they were "encouraged" by it, and hope that it will lead to 
“some path towards resolution, so we know what happened”, according to 
Ma’an.

The cartoonist had grown up in the Ain al-Hilweh Palestinian refugee 
camp in Lebanon before moving to Kuwait. He had also worked alongside 
the Palestinian revolutionary and novelist Ghassan Kanafani 
<http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Ghassan-Kanafani-the-Palestinian-Revolutionary-Killed-by-Israeli-Intelligence-20170708-0022.html> 
who first published al-Ali's drawings in 1961.

As al-Ali’s cartoons often satirized both Israeli and Arab politics, 
many believe his murder was politically motivated.

"At the time police arrested several suspects with links to the PLO 
(Palestine Liberation Organization) and the Israeli intelligence service 
Mossad but with little in the way of hard evidence. No one has ever been 
charged with the murder," said Al Jazeera’s Paul Brennan from London.

"My brush is my only weapon, I use it to stand against the vicious 
forces of evil in our world," al-Ali had once said.

*WATCH: Silencing Palestine - Prison & Repression*

-- 
Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 
863.9977 www.freedomarchives.org
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://freedomarchives.org/pipermail/news_freedomarchives.org/attachments/20170831/8a516459/attachment.htm>