The Promise Of Handala… Yes We Will Return

 

“We will return, that is not a threat ,not a wish ,a hope ,or a dream ,but a PROMISE ” ,these are the strong and passionate words of ,Remi Kanazi ,a Palestinian poet ,his words roaring with the energy of resistance , like the Palestinians always says, ” these walls will fall” ,indeed ,the wall of oppression and illegal occupation never stand much longer , from Berlin to Palestine, they’re destined to fall.

Whilst drawing “Handala” , the powerful image of resistance was created in 1969 by a Palestinian political cartoonist Naji al-Ali ,who was born in 1937 in al-Shajara, a small Palestinian village in the Galilee. In May, 1948, Ali’s village was destroyed by zionist forces, and its 893 residents were exiled.A huge number of semetic Palestinians were murdered with impunity and those who survived were forced into exile .Naji al-Ali was only 10 year old, and saw himself in Handala, a child with tattered clothes, no shoes and messy hairs ,with his hands behind his back ,patiently waiting to go home .Sadly ,Naji al-Ali was shot on August 22, 1987 outside the London office of al-Qabas, the Kuwaiti newspaper that he worked for. But Like Palestinians so beautifully says “Resistance is existence ” , the resistance never stopped, it’s a promise that every generation of Palestinians will fulfill, it’s part of their blood , the love of their land ,their history and culture, Naji never returned to his homeland ,but he’s still alive and living in Handala, this image is not only keeping his message alive but the promise of every single Palestinian living in diaspora .

A reminder to the illegal occupiers, you can take Palestinians out of Palestine, But you can never take Palestine out of Palestinians. A Palestinian singer Muhammad Aseef Carriers this message absolutely perfectly “عهدي على ديني ,على أرضي تلاقيني ,أنا لأهلي أنا أفديهم ,أنا دمي فلسطيني فلسطيني فلسطيني ” , which translates as, “Keeping my oath, following my religion,You will find me on my land,I belong to my people, I sacrifice my soul for them, My blood is Palestinian, Palestinian”… Anyone who thinks , the Palestinians will ever give up, they’re living in a delusion ,like a mentally unstable patient, who refuses the medicine of truth..

I can feel this image , can see those walls crumbling down , the semetic owners of the land walking back to their villages,towards their homes , to their land.Some might say those illegal occupiers are armed and loaded, they’re backed by powerful satanic forces who are funding and promoting them , but they forget , injustice has never won ,truth and justice eventually arrives to those who have promised to never give up.