Why we keep printing Handala

Handala is not a mascot and never was. Naji al-Ali drew him barefoot, hands behind his back, facing away — and said he would only turn around when Palestine is free.

That refusal is the whole point. It is why we print him plainly, at the scale he was drawn, without softening the lines or turning him into a decorative badge.

Wearing him in Amman, in Berlin, in a Gulf mall, is a small, daily insistence: the story is not finished, and neither are we.

Read more about the symbols on our heritage page — Handala, the keffiyeh, and tatreez, explained in Arabic.