Member-only story
Art of the Resistance
The ten-year-old boy who left home and never grew up
The story of Handala begins and ends when he leaves home.
He walks around barefoot in his worn-out clothes and shabby hair, knowing very well that the world rejects him. He is only ten years old.
He never shows his face; his back is turned away from the viewer, and his hands are clasped behind his back.
Handala won’t turn around and look at us until he can go home.
He just wants to go home.
He is bitter, bitter, bitter.
That’s what his name means, a very bitter fruit.
Since 1973, Handala has remained with his back turned against us in protest of the world’s complicity to injustice.
The world turned its backs on him, so he turns his back on the world in defiance.
He is still ten years old today and unable to grow up.
“He was the age I was when I had left Palestine and, in a sense, I am still that age today. The character of Handala was a sort of icon that protected my soul from falling whenever I felt sluggish or I was ignoring my duty. He was the arrow of the compass, pointing steadily towards Palestine. Not just Palestine in geographical terms, but Palestine in its…
