The Long Struggle to Get Safaa Odah to Safety
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Palestinian cartoonist Safaa Odah is now living in Angoulême France after nearly two years of trying to leave war-torn Gaza. Her safe arrival in Paris on Aug. 28 marks the end of a dark and dangerous chapter where her cartooning provided a light of hope to the world. Her journey to Paris has been long and complicated.
Odah has been cartooning since 2009. As both a woman and a cartoonist she’s a rarity in Gaza. Her work shies away from the usual political cartoons about the daily news. Instead she focused on social issues. In a 2018 interview with The Telegraph she said, “everyone is doing politics, no one is caring about society. I always try to include this human touch in my drawings.”
Jordanian cartoonist Emad Hajjaj recalls noticing her work and becoming a fan around 2016. Later, he’d reach out and establish communication that fostered a friendship. He also started to publish her work in the Alaraby Aljadeed (new Arabian) where he is also published. “Saffa is very different from other cartoonists from Gaza who are more political,” Hajjaj says. “Her work is about loving and losing, about children being afraid of bombs. It’s very human.”
After Israel retaliated against Hamas and began waging genocide on Palestinians in 2023, Odah and her family had to flee their home in Rafah. They would move multiple times before she would settle in the Khan Yunis refugee camp. To Cartooning for Peace, she described her living conditions as “not suitable for life.” Those in the camp experienced water pollution and scarcity of electricity, cleanliness, food, and medical services. The heat is suffocating.
Hajjaj would reach out to Odah when he could given the deteriorated communication in Gaza. When he could speak with her, he recalls hearing fear in her voice, and in one voicemail he heard tanks firing in the background.
“I did my best to calm her and not look at the dark side. I encouraged her to draw about her fears, find the humanity,” he recalls his counsel to her. “There have been many cartoonists in this situation who have been able to take use the moment to speak out about their experience.”
Odah continued to create cartoons and post them on Instagram and Facebook with her distinct black line with blue shadowing and began to tell the story of the suffering and misery around her. Hajjaj says Odah has always been a professional and never missed a deadline. Even when there was a shortage of paper in Gaza, she drew her cartoon on the side of her tent, took a photo with her mobile, and sent it. On time. When he received the photo, Hajjaj says he “was very shocked and really sad. I instantly understood what had happened. She didn’t want to miss a deadline. She did her best with her mobile. All I could tell her was ‘thank you’ and ‘keep it up.'”
In a scene of misery, [Safaa] gave hope. It’s a sign to the world, that this people who have been under siege for 20 years… to have a cartoonist this wonderful and special. She’s an example of how wonderful the Palestinians are as a people.
Emad Hajjaj
A collection of her cartoons was published in March of 2025. The book was a joint project between The Lakes International Comic Art Festival (LICAF) and Palestinian cartoonist Mohammad Sabaaneh. Sales of Safaa and the Tent went to help sustain Odah. The book has sold out.
The first promising opportunity to leave Gaza surfaced in March 2025 when Odah was identified as a candidate for the French PAUSE Program. The program works to provide a safe place for artists and scientists living in risk to be hosted at a French educational institution, research establishment, or cultural institution to continue their work. Odah became one of about 50 Palestinians who were offered a year-long residency. The Cité de la bande dessinée et de l’image (The International City of Comics and Image) and the École européenne supérieure de l’image (European School of Image) agreed to host her in Angoulême.
But the hope was short-lived. Before Odah could be evacuated, the PAUSE program was suspended after accusations surfaced of a Palestinian program recipient, already hosted in France, had made anti-Semitic remarks online. The French government suspended evacuations pending a new check to assure existing and future recipients were not “Hamas propagandists.”
Odah received a request from the French Consulate in Jerusalem asking her to disclose her social media accounts. “We are working on preparations for a potential evacuation from the Gaza Strip—a plan still in the very early stages,” the message read. “Could you please provide us with the social media accounts you regularly use?” According to La Tribune, Odah’s response to receiving the message was “I’m afraid to let myself be happy.”
What is remarkable about her cartooning that in the face of unforgiving, death, starvation, disease, conditions in camp, which she endured, there is no rancor in her work. There’s none of the blame game that can be weaponized against her. You won’t find it. It’s not there.
Terry Anderson, Executive Director, Cartoonists Rights
In October, LICAF presented Odah their first ever LICAF Special Award. The award was not only for her cartooning work but also “her efforts to encourage and support young Gazans through running comic workshops, in defiance of the daily danger resulting from the ongoing conflict in her country.” Despite limited resources Odah organized a “Little Painter” workshop for refugee camp children to provide “space for comic creation, drawing, entertainment and distraction from their daily troubles.”
Two months after the freeze on the PAUSE program was lifted, evacuation efforts closed again. This time due to the closure of the Rafah crossing point. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had ordered the closure to apply pressure on Hamas to return Israeli living and deceased hostages. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said without the re-opening of the crossing point, “it seems impossible for us to carry out these evacuations. It would be inappropriate to give these successful candidates hope that we can welcome them to France when, in reality, their path is blocked.”
In May, the Freedom Cartoonists Foundation announced that Odah was a recipient of the Kofi Annan Courage in Cartooning Award. Still stuck in Gaza she was was invited to send a video message accepting the prize remotely. Hajjij recalls the conversation with Odah about how to do the video. He says “She asked me for advice on how to do the video. I suggested that she let the audience be there with her. That’s what she did. She did the interview in her tent.”
By July pressure on the French government by Palestinians and groups such as Cartooning for Peace, Cartoonist Rights, Freedom Cartoonists had grown. Evacuation plans began. On August 24 Odah left Gaza arriving in Paris on the 28th.
Now in Angoulême, Odah begins her one year residency with access to all the resources of the famed world’s capital of cartooning. Hajjij confirms that she will continue to contribute to Alaraby Aljadeed, and in the near future Patrick Chappette, President of the Freedom Cartoonists Foundation, hopes to “welcoming Safaa in person and finally placing her [Courage in Cartooning] trophy in her hands.” He says he’s already spoken to the city of Geneva and they would like to invite her at the end of November.
“I have spoken with her,” Hajjij says. “She’s very happy. She’s in a wonderful place and everything is good for her right now. I’m very happy that she’s made it out and she’s doing what she’s wanted to do—to create without being afraid.”
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