Guardian cartoonist Steve Bell axed over ’antisemitic’ drawing
▻https://nypost.com/2023/10/16/guardian-cartoonist-steve-bell-axed-over-antisemitic-drawing
A veteran political cartoonist for the Guardian was axed by the UK publication over an “antisemitic” caricature of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to reports.
Steve Bell, who has worked at the paper for four decades, submitted the cartoon last Monday in which Netanyahu’s torso bears an outline of the Gaza Strip that he prepares to cut away with a scalpel while wearing boxing gloves.
The illustration was captioned “Residents of Gaza, get out now.”
His editors immediately called to voice concerns that the troublesome image harkened to the controversial Shakespeare character Shylock, the Jewish moneylender in “The Merchant of Venice” who demands a “pound of flesh” as security on a loan, Bell told the BBC.
A befuddled Bell said the call was “cryptic” and didn’t get the connection to one of the most notorious antisemitic tropes in literature.