Guardian fires cartoonist over Netanyahu cartoon panned as antisemitic

The Guardian newspaper has fired longtime editorial cartoonist Steve Bell after refusing to run a caricature of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that critics said drew on antisemitic imagery.

“The decision has been made not to renew Steve Bell’s contract,” the Guardian said.

“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,” publisher Guardian News and Media said in a statement sent to The Associated Press on Thursday.

Bell has contributed to The Guardian since 1983. Several of his hundreds of cartoons over the years have been accused of including anti-Jewish stereotypes.

The latest cartoon, posted by Bell on social media, shows Netanyahu holding a scalpel and preparing to cut a Gaza-shaped incision in his abdomen, with the caption “Residents of Gaza, get out now.”

It appears to be a reference to the military’s call for Gazans to flee to the south of the enclave in the lead-up to a ground invasion aimed at eliminating the Hamas terror group — a response to a brutal onslaught by Hamas terrorists that killed over 1,400 people in southern Israel on October 7.

Bell said he had been accused of evoking the “pound of flesh” demanded by the Jewish character Shylock in Shakespeare’s play “The Merchant of Venice.”

He told the industry newspaper the Press Gazette that “The Merchant of Venice” had “nothing to do with the cartoon.”

It is labeled “after David Levine” and recalls a Vietnam War-era cartoon depicting then-US president Lyndon B. Johnson pointing at a Vietnam-shaped scar. Levine, an American illustrator, drew inspiration from a photo of Johnson showing reporters his scar from gallbladder surgery.

Just to explain. I filed this cartoon around 11am, possibly my earliest ever. Four hours later, on a train to Liverpool I received an ominous phone call from the desk with the strangely cryptic message "pound of flesh"… pic.twitter.com/kSfmfzlmhy

— Steve Bell (@BellBelltoons) October 9, 2023

“I don’t promote harmful antisemitic stereotypes… Never have I done such a thing, I would not dream of doing such a thing,” the Press Gazette quoted him as saying.

Britain has a long tradition of cartoons showing politicians in exaggerated and grotesque form. Bell has created some of the most indelible caricatures of recent British leaders, portraying former British prime minister John Major wearing underpants over his trousers, Tony Blair with a demonic oversized eye, and David Cameron with a condom over his head.

War erupted after Hamas’s October 7 massacre, which saw at least 1,500 terrorists burst across the border into Israel from the Gaza Strip by land, air and sea, killing some 1,400 people and seizing over 200 hostages of all ages under the cover of a deluge of thousands of rockets fired at Israeli towns and cities. The vast majority of those killed as gunmen seized border communities were civilians — men, women, children and the elderly. Entire families were executed in their homes, and over 260 were slaughtered at an outdoor festival, many amid horrific acts of brutality by the terrorists, in what US President Joe Biden has highlighted as “the worst massacre of the Jewish people since the Holocaust.”

Israel has vowed to eradicate Hamas, and says it is targeting all areas of Gaza where Hamas operates, while seeking to minimize harm to civilians.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.