The Furor Over Cartoonist Gerald Scarfe’s Depiction of Netanyahu Continues

By ⋅ January 29, 2013 ⋅ Post a comment

British newspaper The Sunday Times has pulled a controversial cartoon of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu amid charges of antisemitism.

The paper’s owner, Rupert Murdoch, has apologized for it.

And one of the only ways you can see the cartoon at this point is doing a Google search.

The image that’s causing such a furor is by English cartoonist and illustrator Gerald Scarfe.

It shows Netanyahu building a wall, but the mortar is blood and squeezed between some of the bricks are Palestinians.

The caption reads: “Will cementing the peace continue?”

Tuesday on the BBC, Stephen Pollard of the Jewish Chronicle, called the cartoon “disgusting” and “some of the worst kind of antisemitic blood libels.” Pollard added, “Whether there is a right to publish the cartoon is a different issue, I think it was a misjudgement and News International have handled it absolutely right by apologizing.”

British cartoonist Steve Bell challenged Pollard in the exchange on the BBC, saying “The problem with the State of Israel and the Zionist Lobby is that they never acknowledge the crime of ethnic cleansing upon which the State was founded.”

He also accused Pollard of undermining the real meaning of antisemitism by throwing around the term “blood libel,” the perverse myth that Jews secretly use human blood in their religious rituals.

That the cartoon was published on Holocaust Memorial Day has further angered many Jews and non-Jews.

On Tuesday, the senior editorial team of The Sunday Times met with Jewish leaders in London to apologize for the cartoon but they defended themselves against the charge of antisemitism.

Cartoonist and illustrator Gerald Scarfe has not commented publicly but reportedly had no intention of having the cartoon published on Holocaust Memorial Day.

Scarfe’s career with The Sunday Times goes back to the 1960s and he often depicts blood in his cartoons. He is also a well-known illustrator.

His most famous artwork is featured on Pink Floyd‘s 1979 album, The Wall, and in the film of the same name.

Scarfe is also known for his love of red.

Bright red in all forms — including blood — is splashed across his website and featured, for example, in a recent cartoon of Syrian leader Bashar Assad, who was pictured as a green, wraith-like creature drinking greedily from an oversized cup labeled “Children’s Blood.”

Discussion

5 comments for “The Furor Over Cartoonist Gerald Scarfe’s Depiction of Netanyahu Continues”

  • Lord Moyne

    BIRTH CONTROL FOR ETHIOPIAN JEWISH IMIGRANTS
    The mild by comparison, Gerald Scarfe cartoon depicting Netanyahu building a wall is only offensive to Zionist supporters of the occupation of the land of Palestine, and was used to illustrate the article; “Will cementing the peace continue?”, a reference both to the stalled peace process and Israel’s separation barrier, fences and concrete walls which Israel portrays as a defense against suicide bombers but which indigenous Palestinians say is a land grab under the guise of security.
    A quick glance will tell that most European Jews do not even look remotely Semitic. The term “anti-semitism” is an archaic misnomer, Zionists will cling for dear life to the term anti-Semitic, because they think it supports the myth that they are Semites trying to return to their homeland.
    The arab peoples are Semites, therefore the best expression in plain English should be Anti-Jewish, something that the Scarfe cartoon is plainly not.
    I suspect the real reason for the complaint by the Zionist lobby is to bury the extremely serious fact that many Ethiopian Jewish immigrants to Israel, have for years been given the birth control drug Depo-Provera without their consent. Benjamin Netanyahu whose ancestors hail from Poland, is responsible for the health portfolio, warned that immigrants from Africa “threaten our existence as a Jewish and democratic state”.
    Therefore a suitable subject for a Scarfe cartoon could depict the psychotic Benjamin Netanyahu grasping a syringe of Depo-Provera dripping with the blood of a freshly sterilised Ethiopians, now that would be a biting political comment.
    Perhaps only then the UN Human Rights organisation will take Israel seriously and drag Netanyahu to a UN Human Rights tribunal and treat israel for what it really is…

  • Luc0065

    Can someone explain me why this cartoon is seen as anti Semitic? So if criticizing someone’s policies is seen as attacking his religion and because of that censorship has to be applied, then freedom of speech days are counted.

    • http://profile.yahoo.com/PBZSKSESOKHHRA5E4ANKSXN4EA chrisco

       Well it has become clear recently that criticism of Israel means you are anti-Israel. And if you are anti-Israel, you are anti-Semitic. That is Eliot Abrams’ formulation and certainly a key talking point for the Lobby. They want to make all criticism of Israel off limits by equating it with racial hate.

      P.S. The World is an excellent program, but not so much when it comes to Israel/Palestine. It is like all the others on this front.

  • pammy1964

    don’t see how it can be seen as anti-semitic, after all what most people forget is that the Palestinians are also a semitic race.  It’s about time people woke up to how the Palestinians are being treated in their own land.

  • http://twitter.com/blahsum James Francis

    This cartoon is clearly not anti-semitic. Consequently I’m even less sympathetic with Israelis than before. Note that I don’t say ‘Jews’. Jewish people are found across the world and do not all follow the narrow line of thinking established by the Israeli far-right. This cartoon is clearly anti-Israel. That is a very different matter. If I were Jewish, I’d be worried that political powers are usurping a culture’s history to score points and slap down critics.