MODERN BLOOD LIBEL IN SUNDAY TIMES CARTOON

MODERN BLOOD LIBEL IN SUNDAY TIMES CARTOON

The Zionist Federation was horrified to see the Gerald Scarfe cartoon drawn in yesterday's Sunday Times. The cartoon invoked a modern blood libel against the Jewish people.

It depicted the Israeli Prime Minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, as an evil Quasimodo hunchback figure building a wall over Palestinian bodies with cement made of blood. This cartoon in its use of blood invokes the blood libels of the Middle Ages, where the Jews were accused of drinking the blood of Christian children. This modern day version is just as antisemitic and has no place in any publication let alone the Sunday Times. Moreover, the use of antisemitic imagery to attack Israel for defending itself represents demonisation of Israel simply for being a Jewish state.

It is even more offensive, as it was printed on Holocaust Memorial Day, where we commemorate the mass murder of the Jews during World War 2. We call on the Sunday Times and Gerald Scarfe to apologise for the offence caused by this despicable cartoon.

Paul Charney, Chairman of The Zionist Federation said, “To print this vile cartoon on Holocaust Memorial Day, where we remember the mass slaughter of Jews caused by antisemitism is completely unacceptable. This is yet another example of extreme critics of Israel revealing their antisemitic tendencies.”

The Zionist Federation and all its members will always speak out against those who criticise Israel in antisemitic ways.