Famous Arab cartoonist is dead

A famous Arab cartoonist who had worked for the semi official Arabic language newspaper Alittihad for nearly 35 years has died, the paper said on Monday.

Hamed Najeeb, an Egyptian, died in his home country two years after he left the Abu Dhabi-based daily, the paper said, without specifying the cause of his death.

“He was a distinguished artist on the Arab level…he created the notion that the image and the idea should be one…in his view, the cartoonist should have his own attitude and opinion instead of carrying out the opinions and views of the others,” the paper added, without mentioning Najeeb’s age.

Friends in Abu Dhabi said Najeeb died at around 72 and that most of his work over the past four decades was characterized by political and social criticism.

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