Guardian Cartoonist Steve Bell ‘Sacked’ After Being Accused of ‘Anti-Semitic’ Netanyahu Drawing
PA Wire/URN:22995491
Guardian cartoonist Steve Bell revealed that his newspaper “effectively sacked” him after it refused to publish a work of his that it feared peddled in “anti-semitic tropes.”
Bell, a renowned figure and no stranger to controversy, worked for the newspaper for 42 years and said that the decision was “a bit of a shock.”
The image in question depicts Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wearing boxing gloves and conducting surgery on his own body, marked with an incision resembling the Gaza Strip. Accompanying this illustration is a caption that urged Gaza residents to evacuate, reminiscent of Israel’s instructions that residents move south in anticipation of an impending ground invasion.
Critics drew parallels between this imagery and Shylock, the contentious Jewish moneylender from playwright William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice, who collected on debts no matter how much it pained the debtor, insisting on his “pound of flesh.”
In an interview with Morning Star, Bell defended his portrayal of Netanyahu, asserting that in today’s climate, any depiction on this subject in the Guardian was bound to be misconstrued as employing “anti-Semitic tropes.”
He explained that the image is primarily a reference to a 1960s cartoon by David Levine featuring former U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson, that shows the president raising his shirt to show his gall bladder operation scar, which Levine drew in the shape of Vietnam.
Indeed, as Bell points out, he has signed off his own cartoon with “After David Levine.”
A Guardian spokesperson confirmed in a statement late Sunday that the newspaper had decided not to renew Bell’s contract: “The decision has been made not to renew Steve Bell’s contract. Steve Bell’s cartoons have been an important part of the Guardian over the past 40 years — we thank him and wish him all the best.”
The cartoonist’s history of controversy includes a 2020 drawing of now Labour leader Keir Starmer offering former leader Jeremy Corbyn’s severed head. The drawing was reminiscent of painter Caravaggio’s Salome with the Head of John the Baptist, paralleling a New Testament narrative where King Herod’s daughter Salome demands John the Baptist’s head and receives it.
Many condemned the cartoon for casting Corbyn as a martyr amid Corbyn’s suspension from Labour over his response to investigations of anti-Semitism within the party during his leadership.
