Sunday Times in Damage Control Over Offensive Cartoon
January 28, 2013 18:56 by Pesach Benson
The Sunday Times is catching a lot of flack for cartoonist Gerald Scarfe’s take on the Israeli elections. As HonestReporting explained yesterday, the imagery’s odious enough; publishing it on Holocaust Memorial Day was even more offensive.
The paper’s damage control didn’t start off on the right foot. A Sunday Times spokesman in contact with Algemeiner said:
“This is a typically robust cartoon by Gerald Scarfe,” said a spokesperson for The Sunday Times, adding, “The Sunday Times firmly believes that it is not anti-Semitic. It is aimed squarely at Mr Netanyahu and his policies, not at Israel, let alone at Jewish people.”
The spokesperson said that appearance of the offending cartoon on Holocaust Memorial Day which is commemorated Sunday was coincidental, “It appears today because Mr Netanyahu won the Israeli election last week,” said the statement . . .
“The Sunday Times condemns anti-Semitism,” The Sunday Times added, pointing to another article that was published by the paper which focused on Holocaust denial, saying, it is “clear in the excellent article in today’s Magazine which exposes the Holocaust-denying tours of concentration camps organised by David Irving.”
In that article, Will Storr tagged along with Irving as the Holocaust denier gave a guided a tour of the Majdanek concentration camp. It was well-thought out and written; an excellent angle for Holocaust Memorial Day reading.
But it didn’t assuage anybody’s anger for several reasons.
- Nobody characterized the Sunday Times as an anti-Semitic newspaper. People criticized the cartoon.
- The statement didn’t acknowledge the painful timing — even though it was inadvertent.
- Even if the Majdanek dispatch mitigated Scarfe’s painful cartoon, the vivid image of Palestinians being bricked up in a blood-stained wall spread way further on social media than any lesser-seen article in a paywalled magazine section could ever imagine.
Later on, Scarfe told the Jewish Chronicle he regretted the timing, not being aware that Sunday was also Holocaust Memorial Day.
The paper, realizing it had to do something sent out a statement also recognizing the nerve it touched. Martin Ivens, the acting editor of the Sunday Times sent an email to the media saying:
“The last thing I or anyone connected with the Sunday Times would countenance would be insulting the memory of the Shoah or invoking the blood libel. The paper has long written strongly in defence of Israel and its security concerns, as have I as a columnist. We are however reminded of the sensitivities in this area by the reaction to the cartoon and I will of course bear them very carefully in mind in future.”
That’s a very modest recognition of the cartoon’s offensiveness.
Meanwhile, The Guardian reports that the Board of Deputies of British Jews filed a complaint with the UK Press Complaints Commission. And Israel’s ambassador to Britain, Daniel Taub, also slammed the Times.
HonestReporting decided to fight the imagery with imagery. Share the Flickr link to let the Times know it crossed the line. And see the story behind the graphic above.
Is the chapter closed on this? Stay tuned . . .
g. ben-nathan
8:23 pm
Jan 28, 2013
If you support the existence of the Jewish state and you advertise in the Sunday Times, you should consider withholding this advertising forthwith.
The cartoon is more than a political barb or point of view.
It is Judaeophobic (deeply offensive to Jews).
It is offensive to the the democratically elected Prime Minister of the Jewish state.
It is equally a calumny on the hundreds of thousands of Jews in the Jewish state who elected Mr. Netanyahu.
The Editor of The Sunday Times should be made to resign – immediately.
Mr. Scarfe’s considerable talents should asap be re-located to a right-wing twilight zone where he will be well appreciated!
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Sylvie Schapira
11:52 am
Jan 29, 2013
I agree with everything you say. And with the other comments of disgust, shock and horror. But venting our anger out to each other to read does nothing to change the attitudes that are deeply set in the population’s mindset and collective unconscious – for Europeans and Arabs there is a very long history of hatred for the Jewish people. They didn’t like us because: we were too moral when they were still pagans. Then they didn’t like us because we refused to accept their gods. Then we kept on surviving, and we are still here to annoy them. They project onto us all their own self-disgust. But how can we change such deeply felt attitudes? That is what we need to do….Any realist suggestions?
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Lynette
9:22 pm
Jan 28, 2013
Let’s try something radically different. The Times is not interested in positive news about Israel -so let’s bombard them with it ! Find it at free weekly news at http://www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com and share
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Sylvie Schapira
11:44 am
Jan 29, 2013
Lynette, that really is a very practical idea. And a good one. We should certainly try it. If everyone who writes comments on this site were to send in two positive things about Israel – to different editors – I wonder whether any would get published? What would be interesting would be to send the positive pieces and then follow up with a letter asking why the Sunday Times would not publish them. I’m all for giving this a go – if it works we could do this with other anti-Israel/Jewish organizations, i.e. the BBC?
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David Goshen
10:02 pm
Jan 28, 2013
It is very fortunate fot the Sundy Times that the cartoon was not directed against Muslims
as instead of a debate the prenises of the Sunday Times would by now have been a smoldering
ruin and many lives would have already been lost with untold number of injured including the police
trying to keep order!
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Rachel K
12:56 am
Jan 29, 2013
Not really an apology for the cartoon – just the timing.
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Stephen
11:34 pm
Jan 29, 2013
Gerald Scarfe should be applauded for his courage in telling the truth.
I am only amazed that it got past the Zionist apologist regime which
regularly supresses accurate reporting with it’s bullying tactics.
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Sylvie Schapira
12:05 am
Jan 31, 2013
When you make such a blatantly prejudiced statement where do you get your evidence from that the pro-Zionists regularly suppress any criticism? I think your prejudice is so strong that you throw out wild accusations without any evidence whatsoever. Can you name just one instance where any criticism has been ‘suppressed’? As for your ‘accurate’ reporting…this is a joke! You have no way of knowing whether it is accurate. And as for your comment about Gerald Scarfe – even he has admitted that he crossed over the line and has apologized. It doesn’t take courage to be racist/antisemitic, it takes bigotry, ignorance, malicious obsessive hatred or the need for some sort of pathological excitement
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Stephen
4:07 pm
Jan 31, 2013
Sylvie Schapira
With regard to my blatantly prejudiced statement, I refer you to a book titled
‘More bad news from Israel’ by Greg Philo and Mike Berry, which is a serious
and impartial study by Glasgow University Media Group.
Let me know when you have read it ?
Gerald Scarfe apologised for any offence caused, not the cartoons content.
The reason I applaud his courage is that all his work is signed.
unlike most bloggers.
If you were inferring that my defense of the cartoon was Anti-semitic, I take great
exception to that charge.
Two years ago I was honoured and humbled to be involved in a project remembering and
honouring ‘Kinder Transport’ so my conscience is clear.
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Sylvie Schapira
9:24 pm
Jan 31, 2013
I have to give up! You have proved the point I made, by protesting that you really are a ‘good person’ who is humble and honoured to have been involved in a Kindertransport project, you sound like so many anti-semites who protest that they can’t hate Jews because ‘some of their best friends are Jews’. We hear so many say this that we have grown tired of such nonsense. It would do you more good to admit your hatred instead of suggesting that you must be an O.K. person to have been involved in such a project. Perhaps you wear two faces? One you want the world to see, and the other one that writes idiotic nonsense on this site. Oh, I want to add ‘idiot’ to the list of anti-semites.
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Sheila Kaplan
2:22 am
Jan 29, 2013
While The Sunday Times acknowledged that they offended Jews with thoeir Nazi-era “cartoon” , they still claim they are correct in their assessment of the Israeli-Arab sutuation. To say that they are not anti-Semitic is incorrect. Any publisher or editor who would allow this type of commentary to be published exhibits anti-Semitism.
You let them off too lightly. I am very disappointed in you
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Cartoon coverage
7:09 am
Jan 29, 2013
Over-writing the actual cartoon prevented us from seeing it properly. Bad idea.
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Marvin L
7:34 am
Jan 29, 2013
Britain’s antisemitic history dates back to the horrifying massacre of the Jews of York in 1190
“On the night of Friday 16 March 1190 some
150 Jews and Jewesses of York having sought
protection in the Royal Castle on this site
from a mob incited by Richard Malebisse
and others chose to die at each other’s
hands rather than renounce their faith.
No change in attitude over the centuries………
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Distribute this graphic freely:
9:59 am
Jan 29, 2013
[...] Sunday Times in Damage Control Over Offensive Cartoon, Pesach Benson, BackSpin blog from HonestReporting, 28 January 2013 [...]
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Rupert Murdoch entschuldigt sich für “groteske und beleidigende Karikatur” « Medien BackSpin
5:51 pm
Jan 29, 2013
[...] Sunday Times übt sich weiterhin in Schadensbegrenzung. Rupert Murdoch, Besitzer des Blattes, twitterte eine Entschuldigung wegen Gerald Scarfes Karikatur [...]
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G. Ben-Nathan
6:45 pm
Jan 29, 2013
AMENDMENT detail – NOT for PRINTING
You very kindly printed my comments on the Sunday Times cartoon.
In submitting to you, I gave you my website. I’m afraid, I inadvertently inserted an extra full-stop between the g and ben-nathan……
Could you kindly amend the entry as above.
Thank You
Geoffrey Ben-Nathan
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keaneo
8:15 pm
Jan 29, 2013
Just reporting a typo. You left out the prefix “DIS” in your header.
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Stephen
11:50 pm
Jan 29, 2013
I have just submitted a comment,which was posted briefly and then deleted.
A prime example of pro zionist censorship.
Perhaps you should remove the word ‘Honest’ from your title.
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