A veteran political cartoonist for the Guardian newspaper has been fired by the British publication over an “anti-Semitic” cartoon of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to reports.
Last Monday, Steve Bell, who has worked for the paper for 40 years, posted a cartoon depicting the outline of the Gaza Strip showing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wearing boxing gloves and preparing to cut him off with a scalpel.
The illustration was captioned: “People of Gaza, leave now.”
Mr. Bell’s editors immediately called to express concern that the problematic image reminded him of the controversial Shakespearean character Shylock. Shylock is a Jewish moneylender in The Merchant of Venice who demands “a pound of flesh” as collateral for a loan.
A baffled Ms Bell said the call was “mysterious” and she couldn’t see the connection to one of literature’s most notorious anti-Semitic tropes.
Bell said the Netanyahu caricature is an homage to a famous painting about the Vietnam War.
“The image itself was inspired by the late great David Levine’s caricature of President Lyndon Johnson (LBJ) showing off his surgical scars, which Levine drew in the shape of a map of Vietnam. .” Bell told the BBC..
Bell claimed that the key part of the image was that Netanyahu was “wearing boxing gloves.” Lucifer.
But his claims failed to sway his longtime employer, who fired him after 42 years.
His contract remains until April 2024.
“The decision has been taken not to renew Steve Bell’s contract. Steve Bell’s cartoons have been an important part of the Guardian for the past 40 years. We are grateful to him and will continue to We wish him the best of luck,” a spokesperson for the British newspaper told the Post.
The Post has reached out to Bell for comment.
Bell eventually posted the cartoon to his own X account, causing further backlash.
“Steve Bell is interested in casting Israel as Shylock,” one user wrote. share “He calls this incomprehensible. I call him an inhuman anti-Semitic blood-slandering beast.”
another I have written: “By the way, this seems to be a play on the “pound of flesh” of anti-Semitism. The whole situation is a tragedy and we really need voices and artists calling for peace instead of promoting more hatred. ”
“Hell. Did you really publish this? There are no words to describe how offensive, inappropriate, and ill-timed this is,” another user said.
