'Independent' cartoonist wins award for Sharon cartoon

THE AWARD-WINNING CARTOON

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'Independent' cartoonist wins award
27 November 2003

The Independent's cartoonist Dave Brown has won the Political Cartoon of the Year award for a controversial depiction of Ariel Sharon apparently eating a Palestinian baby a day before the Israeli elections.

In the cartoon, published on 27 January, Sharon says "What's wrong? You never seen a politician kissing babies before?" as a loudspeaker from a helicopter gunship chants "Vote Sharon, Vote Sharon" overhead. The cartoon was based on Goya's Saturn Devouring His Children and was penned after a pre-election raid by Israeli missiles on Gaza City. The prize was presented after a vote by the members of the Political Cartoon Society and national newspaper cartoonists. It was presented by the former cabinet minister Clare Short on Tuesday night at the headquarters of The Economist in London.

The Press Complaints Commission found in March that the cartoon did not breach its code after it received dozens of complaints.

Brown, 45, started his career on The Sunday Times in 1989, working for many national publications before joining The Independent in 1996.

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Comments

Hide the following 7 comments

cartoon

27.11.2003 13:48

(A)

Blah blah anti-semitism blah

27.11.2003 15:25

Blah blah blah...clear resurgence of anti-semitism...blah blah blah...clearly represents blind hatred of all Jews...blah blah blah...legitimate right to self-defence...blah blah blah...evil filthy diseased Arabs want to destroy Israel...blah blah blah...only democracy in Middle East...blah blah blah...everyone apparently hates Jews for never clearly specified reasons...blah blah blah...remember the Holocaust...blah blah blah... all subsequent acts by Israel totally excusable...blah blah blah...Islamofascists...blah blah blah...ISM are all terrorists...blah blah blah...the IDF has never shot a child ever...blah blah blah...Tom Hurndall was actually Osama bin Laden...blah blah blah...security fence is a sensible solution...blah blah blah...Sharon is only final solution to the Arab problem...blah blah blah...

[AND ON AND ON UNTIL THE NEXT METEOR STRIKE]

Useful Likudnik Idiot

Professor

30.11.2003 06:04

The cartoon uses the anti-semitic blood libel, in which Jews were accused from the Middle Ages of killing Christian children and drinking their blood. This libel was used to incite pogroms against Jews and the killing of Jewish men, women and children in ghettos throughout Europe. As a human rights advocate and lawyer, I did not join the initial criticism of the cartoon and this was on the grounds that all political comment and charicatures are legitimate as free speech. Hence, although this particular cartoon bordered on incitement to racial hatred rather than legitimate political comment, I hesitated to call for its supression in the interests of free speech.

However, the conferment of an award is another matter. The conferment of this award on a viscious anti-semitic charicature is a base and damaging act. It constitutes flagrant prejudice and hostility to the Jewish population. The award contributes to the revival of the new antisemitism - which is already claiming victims in Europe (in the bombing of synagogues and Jewish schools).

It is not clear to this writer whether the conferment of the award was the result of malice or ignorance on the part of the judges. Perhaps if this is the level of their judgment, I should also add in explanation to them (with contempt for their independent ability to assess racist prejudice)that the blood libel was not founded on any religious, legendary or historical practice amongst the Jews and that the only murder, which actually took place, was by the Christians who propagated the libel.

Frances Raday

Wrong!

30.11.2003 12:00

It is SOOOO not a racist cartoon and it is SOOOOO nothing to do with the irrelevant racist "blood-libel" bollocks.

It is blatantly a piece of political satire that caricatures on political individual and lampoons the politician's traditional practice of "baby-kissing."

You could call it an "incitement" to anti-Sharon behaviour, but racial hatred to ALL Jews? Do me a favour!

Regardless of whether you are a "professor of law" or not, you are clearly one of the morons about who conflates the government of Israel with the "Jewish people" (whoever they are) and thinks that all criticism or dissent of this murderous regime is "anti-semitic."

Shame on you and to everyone else: This just goes to show that our "academic elite" can be just as wildly wrong about stuff as anyone else.

Pathetic. I suggest you re-read the initial (satirical) comment.

LETS HAVE A "WAR ON DICKHEADS"!

Common Sense

self-criticism

10.01.2004 16:44

I always enjoyed speaking to the common sense. It is most of the time quiet silly. But in this case its vicious.

Would you do the same statements, if the head of an african government would be characterized in the same way by a cartoon in a british newspaper? Say, President Kibaki from Kenya, would be drawn in a cartoon waering a loincloth made out of banana leafs, with overdimensional red lips in his face and so on. You would, very correctly, state that this would be a racist cartoon and not a tolerable political statement whatsoever. You would clearly see, that in this cartoon were racist views that were in use during the period of colonialism throughout Europe.

But when you see a cartoon with Sharon, where anti-Semitistic views are published that were in use in the middle-ages, where throughout Europe and especially in the later Germany and France the Jews were blamed for killing children and drinking their blood, than you cannot see anything else than a political statement.

This shows indeed, that you are aware of racism but are not aware of anti-Semitism. I suppose you are a left-wing, therefore the fact that you ignore anti-Semitism is not only cheerless but alarming.

The Left should fight against racism and anti-Semitism. And the left should start with itself, because you cannot fight the enemy in the world, if you yourself are the enemy. As long as the Left ignores either racism or anti-Semitism, it is blind and dangerous.

If you want to achieve communism at any time, make sure that what you think is freedom is not rather a massgrave.

And hey, celf-criticism is nothing you should have angst for.

Roger Celic

Above Commenst

15.02.2004 16:05

I'm struck that the speakers above who spoke against the cartoon used their names while those who supported it (and attacked its critics) didn't have the guts to sign their real names. And what's with the comment about the "'Jewish people' (whoever they are)"? That comment alone is anti-Semitic.

Martin Kimel
Homepage: http://users.starpower.net/mk26

Der....

08.08.2005 20:36

re: And what's with the comment about the "'Jewish people' (whoever they are)"? That comment alone is anti-Semitic.

He was criticising morons who wilfully misinterpret attacks on Jewish individuals as attacks against all Jewish people. The quotes are there to identify the words as words used by those words and not himself. The meaning of "(whoever they are)" is an allusion to the fact that such a wide diverse group of people contains so many conflicting opinions + viewpoints that anyone who claims to represent the Jewish people or group together all Jewish people as one is deeply deluded.

And your comments about people not leaving name/contacts deatils is trivial, noone wants to receive 100's of emails from angry people too stupid to understand simple points(see above) do they?

Marty is a moron

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