Steve Bell, a cartoonist for the British Guardian newspaper, was fired after 40 years of employment due to a cartoon he published that was perceived as antisemitic.
In the painting, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is seen dissecting himself with a map of the Strip drawn on his stomach. The cartoon features a quote from Netanyahu: “Residents of Gaza, get out now”.
The caricature was seen as anti-Semitic by readers who claimed that the drawing reminds them of Shakespeare’s Shylock, who demands a pound of flesh instead of interest if a Gentile defaults on a loan.
Bell said that the decision “shocked him”, and added that the newspaper informed him that they would continue to pay him until the end of the contract in April 2024, but that he would stop publishing the cartoons immediately.
Bell rejected the claims that he took inspiration from the play and said that he was referring to a similar cartoon from the 1960s in which the US president at the time, Lyndon Johnson, was shown with a scar on his body from the Vietnam War.
“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,” Bell said. “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 Guardian declined to comment on the reasons behind not publishing the cartoon.
British cartoonist sacked for ‘antisemitic’ Netanyahu cartoon (israelnationalnews.com)