In today’s communique on anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic sentiment on college campuses, we brought this editorial cartoon from Friday’s University of Florida campus paper to our subscribers’ attention:
Florida’s Jewish Student Union apparently protested to the paper over the weekend. This is the cartoon waiting for them this morning:
The cartoonist had the audacity to compare himself to an Auschwitz survivor, and the Jewish Student Union (“JSU” on the tape) to suppressors of free speech.
One of the precious rights of the free world today is freedom of expression. But when the paper of a large public university (48,000 students) is used to spread hatred and lies, a concerned public must respond and demand the record be set straight. That’s democracy.
A journalism lesson for the young editorial cartoonist: Nobody ever challenged your legal right to express your opinion. But when you resuscitated the canard that the Jewish people killed Jesus, and paralleled pro-Israel activism with with Nazism, you used your position of influence to spread dangerous lies. Don’t cower behind the First Ammendment — go to the library, study Jewish history, and submit a public apology.
Comments to: [email protected]
UPDATE: The paper’s opinions editor and editor-in-chief have posted responses.
