FREE Shooting the Witness: Critical Drawing
Political Cartoon Gallery
32 Store Street
London WC1E 7BS
020 7580 1114 Tube: Goodge St
Friday 11th April 6pm—8pm
Free entry and refreshments but booking essential.
Twenty years after the Palestinian cartoonist Naji Al-Ali was shot dead in London, cartoonists Steve Bell, Kate Evans and Woodrow Phoenix debate the relative freedoms of drawing criticisms of politicians and politics around the world. Do try and get to this early evening event to see these stunning cartoons.
The debate is part of a commemoration of Al-Ali’s work at the Gallery showing until 19th April.

Shooting the Witness is an exhibition of sixty original drawings by the Palestinian cartoonist Naji Al-Ali, to commemorate the 20th anniversary of his assassination in London.
Naji Al-Ali was one of the most prominent cartoonists in the Arab world – during his lifetime, he drew around 15,000 cartoons, on average two a day.
Sarcastic, poignant and perhaps too bold, Al-Ali's cartoons were drawn from his experience as a refugee since childhood. Naji Al-Ali had no political affiliations and the absence of slogans and dogma in his work brought both success and criticism. His bold and illustrative cartoons, widely published in Arab newspapers over the past 20-30 years, revealed the tragic state of the Middle East. The artist combined art and political satire in work that remains as relevant today. His character Hanthala, a boy who never grows up, always remains with his back to the viewer, a witness of the occupation by Israel and the complicity of the west, as well as the absence of democracy, widespread corruption, and gross inequality in the Arab world. He was said to have antagonized virtually everyone in the Middle East, leading to his unsolved murder in 1987.
For the first time, Naji Al-Ali’s original cartoons are shown in London, at the Political Cartoon Gallery, in cooperation with the SOAS Palestine Society, the Nakba60 group, Cartoon County and the family of Naji Al-Ali. The show runs until 19th April.
The Political Cartoon Gallery, 32 Store Street, London, WC1E 7BS. Tel.: 0207 580 1114 Open Monday to Saturday 10am to 5.30pm