Renowned British every day The Guardian has sacked Steve Bell, its political cartoonist of over 40 years, in a row over alleged antisemitism.
The well-known cartoonist criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in his latest art work, media reviews mentioned Monday.
The cartoon displaying Netanyahu making ready to function on himself with a top level view of Gaza seen on his abdomen was rejected for allegedly evoking the anti-Semitic “pound of flesh” trope.
Bell mentioned that the cartoon was rejected after he obtained an “ominous phone call” from The Guardian with the message “pound of flesh,” in reference to the Jewish character Shylock in Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice.
“I’m sorry, I don’t understand,” Bell mentioned to the cellphone name, after which “received this even more mysterious reply: ‘Jewish bloke; pound of flesh; antisemitic trope’,” he revealed on X.
Far from being antisemitic, Bell mentioned, the cartoon was impressed by a 1966 David Levine cartoon of U.S. President Lyndon Johnson, who was famed for lifting his shirt to indicate off a scar from his gall bladder surgical procedure.
Speaking to the BBC, Bell mentioned it “made no sense to me, as there is no reference to that play in my cartoon, which shows Netanyahu, poised to perform a surgical operation on himself while wearing boxing gloves, the catastrophic consequences of which are yet to be seen.”
“The image itself was inspired by the late, great David Levine’s cartoon of President Lyndon Johnson (LBJ) showing off his operation scar, which Levine draws in the shape of a map of Vietnam,” Bell added.
The undeclared U.S. struggle within the Southeast Asian nation had proved one in every of Johnson’s most intractable points and one via which he did himself nice hurt, much like the Gaza battle for Netanyahu, as Bell argued.
A Guardian News and Media spokesperson mentioned of the sudden sacking: “The decision has been made not to renew Steve Bell’s contract. Steve Bell’s cartoons have been an important part of the Guardian over the past 40 years – we thank him and wish him all the best.”
Source: www.dailysabah.com