British newspaper The Guardian has fired one of its top cartoonists, Steve Bell, after refusing to publish a cartoon of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that it said was based on anti-Semitic imagery.
“The decision has been made not to renew Steve Bell’s contract,” the newspaper said in a statement published this Thursday.
“Steve Bell’s cartoons have been an important part of The Guardian for the past 40 years – we thank him and wish him well,” Guardian News and Media said, as quoted by the Associated Press news agency.
Bell has been a contributor to The Guardian since 1983, and over the years several hundred of his drawings have been accused of anti-Jewish stereotypes.
The latest cartoon posted by Bell on social media shows Netanyahu holding a scalpel and preparing to make a Gaza-shaped cut on his stomach, with the caption “People of Gazan, leave now.”
The cartoon is called “After David Levin” and is reminiscent of the cartoonist’s Vietnam War drawing of US President Lyndon B. Johnson pointing to a scar shaped like Vietnam.
American illustrator Levine was inspired by a photograph of Johnson, which showed journalists a scar on his body resulting from gall bladder surgery.
Bell said he was accused of replicating “a pound of flesh” (an English expression meaning great demand) of the Jewish character Shylock (a moneylender who was considered an outcast in Venice because he was a Jew) in Shakespeare’s play The Merchant of Venice. ., but rejected any connection.
“I do not promote violent anti-Semitic stereotypes. I have never done this, and it would never occur to me to do such a thing,” he said.
There is a long tradition in Britain of “cartoons” in which politicians are shown in an exaggerated and grotesque manner.
Bell created some of the most famous caricatures of recent British leaders, depicting former Prime Minister John Major with his underwear over his trousers, Tony Blair with a huge demon eye and David Cameron with a condom on his head.