United Kingdom

The description of the comic didn't sound anti-semetic, unless there's some anti semetic trope that I'm unaware of. Being against the state of Israel, apartheid, ethno-states and genetic cleansing of Palestinians isn't anti-semetic. Self surgery with boxing gloves actually seems rather apt imagery.

There's no mention of past anti-semetism in the article either as far as I can see, something about Tories which I don't quite understand the reference, nose rings? Is that a trope I don't understand?

Help me out here.

I mean I always found his cartoons annoyingly unfunny but I don't think there's anti-Semitism in this one. The general state of newspaper political cartoons actually being funny is pretty pathetic, they're still about as good as The Day Today's physical cartoonist Brandt.

But back on topic I it certainly looks like there's no grounds for anti-Semitism for this one.

Sounds like a crock of shit to me.

The Daily Mail has helpfully republished the cartoon to report on the story. Link to image, not the paper

He could always sue The Guardian for libel; that’s the traditional way of clearing one’s name in England.

Perhaps he can get a job at the Daily Mail.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12636545/cartoonist-steve-bell-refuses-apologist-anti-Semitic-Netanyahu-sketch.html

The Guardian was started by Unitarians who are supposed to be open to ideas, but now it fully embraces cancel culture and censorship, like any orthodoxy.

This is the best summary I could come up with:

Long-serving Guardian cartoonist Steve Bell has been sacked by the newspaper in a row over a drawing he created of Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu.

Bell said the cartoon was spiked after a phone call from the paper suggested it may reference Shakespeare's Shylock's "pound of flesh" line.

Moneylender Shylock, from Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice, is considered to be one of the most notorious Jewish stereotypes in English literature due to his greedy nature.

Bell told the BBC that the interpretation by the Guardian "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 issue has arisen during a time of heightened tension following the Hamas attacks on Israel earlier this month and the subsequent retaliatory strikes on Gaza.

In the same year, senior Conservative MP Sajid Javid tweeted that Bell's cartoon - depicting former Home Secretary Priti Patel and ex-Prime Minister Boris Johnson as bulls with rings through their noses - was "incredibly offensive".

The original article contains 475 words, the summary contains 186 words. Saved 61%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!