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How do you say the unspeakable? The refuge, in many places, at many times, has been the cartoon.
But in the Middle East, there has not been much of that tradition.
It is partly censorship. It is partly, also, the religious tradition: Islamic tradition has discouraged figurative depiction of human beings; in Judaism, pictures are used only sparingly.
Now, an exhibition which is currently touring the West Bank, aims to spread the word about the power of cartoons.
Lighting Lamps is sponsored by the British Council, and has just opened at the Duheishe refugee camp, close to Bethlehem.
It features cartoons from across the Middle East, as well as a smattering from the British cartoonist, Steve Bell.
There is a strip from the Palestinians, Amr Shomali and Basel Nasser (pictured above). Two men are talking.
Man A: “Are you Fatah or Hamas?”
Man B: “I’m Palestinian.”
A: “Habibi (matey)… don’t be clever. We’re all Palestinian. Who are you with in the civil war?”
B: “I’m against the civil war.”
A: “We’re all against it, but it happened…..so who are you with?”
B: “I’m against both.”
A: “Don’t drive me crazy. You have to choose between Fatah and Hamas.”
B: “Between Fatah and Hamas, I choose Canada.”
One of the contributors is Emad Hajjaj, from Jordan. Despite a thin history of figurative drawing, cartoons have, he says, become very popular in Arabic newspapers over the last 50 or 60 years. “It’s one of the few things that make you laugh about your problems.”
Freedom is, still, curtailed. Being a cartoonist is, says Mr Hajjaj, “unfortunately a very tough job in our region”.

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