TR: "Gaza residents, get out now"
The Guardian has reportedly refused to publish this cartoon by its cartoonist Steve Bell featuring Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, on the grounds that the piece perpetuated an anti-Semitic trope.
In the scene, a boxing-gloved Netanyahu proceeds to remove the map of the Gaza Strip from his belly with a scalpel.
The image is inspired by a famous 1966 cartoon by David Levine (1926-2009) about Lyndon B. Johnson, 36th president of the United States, in connection with Vietnam.
Update 16/10/2023.
According to EFE news agency, quoting someone from The Guardian, the cartoonist has been sacked. A Guardian spokesman said today that "the decision has been taken not to renew Steve Bell's contract" and added that his cartoons "have been an important part of the Guardian over the last 40 years, we thank him and wish him well".
The cartoonist has published the cartoon on his website, adding:
It is now almost impossible to draw this subject for The Guardian without being falsely accused of using "anti-Semitic tropes".
In the details of the image posted on his blog, this description can be read in the tags:
On his Twitter account he gives further explanation to some questions on the matter.
For clarification. I filed this vignette at around 11am, possibly the first time I've ever posted it so early. Four hours later, on a train to Liverpool, I received an ominous phone call from the office with a strangely cryptic "pound of flesh" message...(1)
Sorry, I don't understand, I replied, and received this even more mysterious reply: "Jewish bloke; pound of flesh; anti-Semitic trope". Clearly it was obvious, anyone could see it....(2)
Cartoon interpretations
The Guardian is supposed to relate the scene Bell recreates to the character of the moneylender Shylock, from Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice, who is considered one of the most popular Jewish stereotypes in English literature for pointing out his greedy nature. Although the passage from Shakespeare's play has no bearing on what I understand the cartoonist is trying to express.
Explaining the significance of the cartoon, Bell told The Jewish Chronicle:
"The cartoon is specifically about Benjamin Netanyahu’s disastrous policy failure which has led directly to the hideous recent atrocities around Gaza, and about his proposed response that he had announced, using his actual words addressing the citizens of Gaza".
"The Guardian has every right not to publish my cartoon if it so chooses, but it should not do so using entirely contrived and false reasons.
"All that does is inhibit discussion of a dreadful but important subject."
The cartoonist has been at loggerheads for years with the newspaper he has worked for since 1981 over this anti-Semitism joker issue. It is not the first time that Steve Bell has had problems when he has drawn Netanyahu, nor is it the first time that The Guardian has rejected his work on the grounds that it contained "anti-Semitic" messages, as was the case in 2018.
In 2019, the Guardian cartoonist sent a blunt email to the paper after one of his strips was rejected.
Even in 2020, there was a rumour, believed by some to be true, that the paper was going to sack Bell in early 2021 because of disagreements with his choices, which did not happen.
Humour in trouble, a collection of cases (III)
Cases of cartoonists who have had problems of some importance because of their cartoons or satirical illustrations. There are also some stories of other people who, without being cartoonists, have had problems for sharing them.
