From the Liveblog of
Thursday, October 26, 2017
UC Berkeley student editors apologize for anti-Dershowitz cartoon
The editors of the University of California, Berkeley, student newspaper apologize for “the pain and anger” caused by a cartoon that critics say contains anti-Semitic imagery.
The editor’s note is added to the cartoon on Wednesday, a week after it appeared in The Daily Californian. The cartoon remains on the newspaper’s website.
The note reads, in part: “The artist’s intent was to argue that the contents of civil liberties lawyer and professor emeritus at Harvard Law School Alan Dershowitz’s recent lecture at UC Berkeley were hypocritical. We regret that the artistic rendering distracted from the discussion the artist was trying to start.”
The cartoon, published a week ago, depicts a grinning Dershowitz with his head poking through a cardboard cutout bearing an Israeli flag and the silhouettes of happy children. The sign reads “The Liberal Case for Israel,” which was the topic of the Harvard Law School professor’s recent speech on the campus.
Behind the sign, Dershowitz’s foot crushes a man with a Palestinian flag and his hand cradles an Israeli soldier shooting an unarmed man soaking in a puddle of blood. In the online version, only the Palestinian flag, the soldier and the blood are in color.
UC Berkeley Chancellor Carol Christ, in a letter to the editor calling the cartoon “offensive, appalling and deeply disappointing,” writes that “its anti-Semitic imagery connects directly to the centuries-old ‘blood libel’ that falsely accused Jews of engaging in ritual murder.”
Dershowitz spoke at the university on Oct. 11.
“The criticism we have received reaffirms for us a need for a more critical editing eye, and a stronger understanding of the violent history and contemporary manifestations of anti-Semitism,” writes Karim Doumar, the editor in chief. “We appreciate those who have reached out offering to help us better our understanding of these issues. We will be taking them up on the offer.”
— JTA
