Guardian sacks cartoonist Bell in antisemitism row - BBC News

Comments

• HipPriest@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  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.

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  • 13esq@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Crtitising the government of Israel’s foreign policy = antisemitism in 2023

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• OrlandoDoom@feddit.uk ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  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, etho-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.

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  • Uranium_Green@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    pressgazette.co.uk/…/guardian-steve-bell-cartoon-… this article goes into it a bit more, tbh I’m struggling to see it as well

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    • Aqarius@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Honestly what I get from here is “repeat it long enough it will start sounding true”

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  • killeronthecorner@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    My understanding is that the cartoon is based on a cartoon of Lyndon B Johnson from decades ago. However, the cartoon uses the common metaphor of taking a “pound of flesh” from something to make it’s point.

    That metaphor is attributed the character Shylock from Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice. Shylock is considered by many to be an offensive stereotype of a Jewish person that is sort of “tolerated” when used in a historical context, but not otherwise. i.e. if you call a Jewish person “Shylock”, expect rightly to be called a racist.

    Take the character and Netanyahu, smush them together and bam: antisemitism claims.

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    • Emperor@feddit.uk ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      The cartoon applied to LBJ isn’t offensive because, afaik, he isn’t Jewish. But take the character and Netanyahu, smush them together and bam: antisemitism claims.

      Also Johnson isn’t operating on himself - he’s just lifting his shirt to show the scar.

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• TQuid@beehaw.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Sounds like a crock of shit to me.

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• JoBo@feddit.uk ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

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

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  • Emperor@feddit.uk ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    And the Lyndon B Johnson cartoon referenced.

    I can see the issue as it’s not Johnson operating on himself.

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  • mannycalavera@feddit.uk ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    This alone doesn’t seem bad. I can only assume the guardian had a growing file on him and this image tipped them over the edge.

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• AllNewTypeFace@leminal.space ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

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

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• jtb@feddit.uk ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Perhaps he can get a job at the Daily Mail.

  dailymail.co.uk/…/cartoonist-steve-bell-refuses-a…

  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.

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  • Hyggyldy@sffa.community ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Fucking lol. Say more things, I’ve still got popcorn left.

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    • jtb@feddit.uk ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Take it to a witch-burning.

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  • mannycalavera@feddit.uk ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Ooof. Very brave of you to say this. RIP your inbox.

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    • jtb@feddit.uk ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      That’s how far democracy has gone down the drain, that even criticising cancel culture is ‘brave’.

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• snacks@feddit.uk ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  they suspended martin rowson for the same, i suspect this was the last straw. Rowson only recently came back

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• autotldr@lemmings.world [bot] ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  This is the best summary I could come up with:

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  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”.

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

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